"Nothing goes according to plan or as the reader might expect in the quixotic adventures of self-appointed apostle Howard Lamb and his foul-mouthed sidekick Bobby Ray. Man of Pain takes us on a roller coaster of absurdity, tragedy, and spiritual insight--a journey that veers from the hilariously funny, through the wildly satirical, to the poignant and searing existential question as to what God might be asking of us in our confused and confusing times." --George Pattison, author of Kierkegaard and the Crisis of Faith "It is rare for a writer to capture in equal measure the absurdity and the promise of the gospel. Chris Barnett does precisely this in Man of Pain wherein he shows us the uneasy tensions between despair and hope, abstraction and practice, knowledge and foolishness. All will benefit from the reminder that the windmills at which we tilt may hold less for us than we imagined. No less, however, will we be reminded of a hope against hope which endures even in great difficulty." --Clark Elliston, associate professor of religion and philosophy, Schreiner University.