"In the lyrical novel Circling Toward Nightfall Jeremiah Coombs, its narrator, may be the only man on earth who has two fathers. After being told by Billy Coombs, his father, that he had no mother, Jeremiah's paternal grandmother discloses that her name was Bernadette who died in childbirth even though Jeremiah vividly recalls her in his early life. A neighbor, "Ichabod" Ernest Tyner, begins to play an increasing role in his life. Ichabod reveals that Bernadette was a Sisters of Conscience nun who gave birth to the boy on the banks of the Ohio River and then drowned herself. When how he was conceived is revealed, a patricidal urge propels Jeremiah to seek vengeance. It is at this juncture that the novel's truth shows itself. With characters that flow in and out of it, the novel is an enigma"--
