Valerie L. (vallipow) reviewed on 6/24/2009 + 40 more book reviews

Shalom Auslander's view of God is wickedly funny and irreverent, especially because he is intimately familiar with American Jews and with Orthodox Judaism. These are the people who populate most of these stories. Other tales in this collection feature Him (as a character), angels, the Peanuts® gang of characters, chimpanzees, and hamsters. All the stories are about belief in a higher power, and how that belief affects relationships and behavior choices. My feeling is that if you, like me, are Jewish and are able to laugh at our traditions and our tapestry of dos and don'ts, and if you are willing to think about them and look at them through Auslander's lens, you'll laugh out loud at these stories. If you are not Jewish some of the stories, but not all of them, will mystify you. However, if your belief in God, regardless of your religious affiliation, does not permit you to imagine Him sitting in a New York ad agency poring over focus group results and TV commercial pitches about how to convince 18-35 year old consumers that He is "cool", or who smites a psychiatrist who convinces a modern-day Noah that God is a stalker who should ignore His voices to build an Ark, then you won't appreciate Auslander's work.

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