Send My Roots Rain

About the Book

Isaac Martin is pastor of a church in a small midwest town which is on the verge of a building campaign. Isaac’s faltering faith and shaky commitment to the project bring him into conflict with the leaders of the church board including Priscilla Lamberton, president of the local bank, for whom he feels an attraction he has attempted to suppress.

Isaac’s daughter, Ginger, arrives home from college for the summer following an unhappy love affair. His wife Isabel, feels somewhat alienated from her daughter. She thinks she may be pregnant and is looking forward to having a child who can be closer to her than her husband and daughter.

Priscilla, who is aware of an attraction to Isaac, is in the midst of an ongoing affair with another member of the board, Jim Plansky, whose wife Jane is church organist and whose overweight daughter Kate is a source of raw frustration to her father.

Priscilla’s son, Harry, from whom she feels alienated because of his insecurity and chronic unhappiness, dreams of Ginger. But it is the drifter, Russ, son of  Corey Goodman, president of the board, toward whom Ginger is drawn for a potential summer affair.

Benji, the retarded and disabled son of Madge Collins, church janitor, arouses mixed reactions from the parishioners alternating between sympathy and repulsion. Benji is killed when he falls down the basement stairs during a Sunday service due to the negligence of Corey’s wife, Grace.

The characters in the story respond to the tragedy in ways that reflect their personal agonies as the board moves toward a decision on building the new church and retaining its pastor.

About the Author

Doris Bingham was raised in Nebraska. She was section editor at the Globe-Times, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for fourteen years and was co-owner of the Dunlap Reporter in Iowa. She works today at the News-Times in York, Nebraska. She is author of a paperback original published in 1981 called "Lovers and Liars."