God: Stories [Paperback]

C. Michael Curtis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998

Here are thirty dazzling short stories by eminent writers of widely varying persuasions dealing with the question of faith--both its presence and its absence. The stories range from the comic to the passionate, from the skeptical to the mystical. Some make their way into the perplexities of belief, some explore the hazy perimeter of unconditional love and forgiveness, and others examine the paradoxes of discipleship. All engage issues of deep and universal appeal. Gathered by an esteemed editor of The Atlantic Monthly, the stories in God: Stories offer insight and pleasure not only to the faithful but also to spiritual seekers--and to those who simply love fine stories.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The blunt minimalism of C. Michael Curtis's title is more or less correct. That is, the 30 stories he has assembled in God are all explorations of religious faith. But given the cast of contributors--which includes James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Louise Erdrich, Alice Munro, and Eudora Welty--no reader should expect a celebration of spiritual orthodoxy. Indeed, these stories seldom take faith as a given. Half the time their authors seem to echo St. Augustine's famous plea: "Help me in my unbelief." And even the believers sometimes settle for the consolation prize of empty (if comforting) ritual.

The oldest story in the collection, James Joyce's "Grace," manages single-handedly to embody most of these contradictions. And why not? Here's an author, after all, who noisily severed all his ties to the Catholic Church--only to find its distinctive, Jesuitical fingerprints on almost every word he wrote. "Grace," then, is mainly a satirical take on the sheer unlikeliness of grace itself. Yet the last scene, in which the hard-drinking vulgarian Mr. Kernan has finally been lured to a church retreat, has more than a grain of awe mixed in among the ridicule. "There's a nice Catholic for you!" declares the reprobate's wife--and defies you to figure out precisely who the joke is on.

Joyce's heirs, in this sense, are fellow-contributors J.F. Powers and Tobias Wolff. The former--one of the most criminally undersung figures in American letters--is represented by the gently comical "Zeal." (Note that he and Joyce could have swapped titles without batting an eyelid.) But there are some true believers in the house, too. The southern gothic hilarity of Flannery O'Connor's "Parker's Back" should deceive nobody: this is a deadly serious excursion into the intricacies of faith, complete with a restaging of St. Paul's conversion (a balky tractor fills in for the horse). And even so worldly an author as John Updike takes his religion straight, with hardly a dash of secular bitters. In "Made in Heaven," in fact, our raciest theological mind comes up with the following delicate formulation, prompted by a glance at the night sky:

How little, little to the point of nothingness, he was under those stars!... And yet, it was he who was witnessing the stars. They knew nothing of themselves, so in this dimension he was greater than they. As far as he could reason, religion begins with this strangeness, this standstill; faith tips the balance in favor of the pinpoint.

Faith is seldom so literally heaven-sent. But in this fine anthology, it makes for many fine and several miraculous works of fiction. --James Marcus --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A senior editor at the Atlantic Monthly and a seasoned anthologizer of fiction, Curtis has chosen 25 stories that directly and indirectly tackle the complex nature of faith and unbelief. Eminent authors?John Updike, Tobias Wolff, Philip Roth, Eudora Welty, Bobbie Ann Mason, James Joyce and Louise Erdrich among them?respond in manifold ways to the range of meanings captured by the word "God." The stories are alternately disturbing, humorous, mystical and pragmatic. Some of the characters, raised in religious conformity, buck against institutional hypocrisy (as in Joe Ashby Porter's "Roof Work"); others, like Brad in Updike's "Made in Heaven," "assumed that religion was already as dead as Marx and Mencken had claimed" but are attracted to believers. Cynthia Ozick's eponymous Rosa experiences both the shame of victimhood and the grace of redemptive kindness. The clergymen who inevitably populate this collection show themselves to be by turns unorthodox, humble, supercilious, corruptible. The unsettling residue left by these stories' many paradoxes invites the reader to intellectual, moral and metaphysical inquiry.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1ST edition (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395929717
• ISBN-13: 978-0395929711
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,301,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After more than a year I'm still enjoying this, May 19, 2000

By 

Sharon - See all my reviews

This review is from: God: Stories (Paperback)

My parish book group chose this for our gatherings and we are still reaping the benefits of this wonderful collection. We read one story per month and then come together for discussion. The stories touch our lives and are the foundation of fruitful and rich dialogue. As a mother of small children with limited time to myself, I particularly appreciate the opportunity to enjoy such wonderful gems of literature in small bites.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to believe, June 17, 2007

By 

L. Tate "What Book Today" (The American South) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God: Stories (Paperback)

I know most of you out there are screaming, "But I want to read novels! The kind you can't put down, like Shopaholic in Manhattan and The DaVinci Code!" Well, chill it. Short stories are going to come back if I have to stand in Times Square with a sandwich board and a bullhorn. Would that upstage the Naked Cowboy?

This volume includes such illustrious names as Flannery O'Conner (here with one of her funniest), Alice Munro (good here, even though she sometimes bores me into a coma), and Andre Dubus (for all of you lazy types, he's the guy that wrote the story that In the Bedroom is adapted from). John Updike joins me in singing the praises of WASP sensibility with one of his consistently excellent stories, "Made in Heaven." Philip Roth shows up to add a little variety in "Defender of the Faith," an early story about a Jewish boy in Brooklyn. Everyone will like Louise Erdrich's offering, "Satan: Hijacker of a Planet," and not just because of the title. If you're feeling overwhelmed, I'd skip the works included by James Baldwin and J. F. Powers, which only weigh this book down.

But along with these big names in the genre are John Hersey, who contributes what I consider to be one of my new favorites, "God's Typhoon." It takes place at a summer resort for expats living in China and centers around an evangelical English preacher, Dr. Wyman. In just those twelve pages, you've got inclement weather, boyhood pranks, a lush and exotic setting, and possible divine vengeance. Tell me that you got that out of the latest James Patterson and I'll buy you a midpriced lunch.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High Pleasure And Deep Rewards, November 18, 2006

By 

Zoe Keithley (Sacramento, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God: Stories (Paperback)

God:Stories falls in the richest tradition of real literature--absorbing, entertaining, and never stuffy. Michael Curtis, with an exquisite eye and sensibility for excellent writing and for writing that touches our humanity in ways we can ponder and use, has brought together a truly valuable collection,a keeper for personal pleasure and enrichment as well as for use with serious writing students. He has started us on a habit with God:Stories and Faith:Stories we hope he and his publisher will continue to feed.