Electric God (edition 2002)

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0743211189, Hardcover)

From the author of Pay It Forward comes a novel that is both a compelling drama and a deeply moving love story, a contemporary reinterpretation of the Book of Job.

Hayden Reese once believed he could have it all. He had a wife he loved completely, a daughter he adored, and a new child -- a son, they were told -- on the way. And then little by little, his life came undone.

But this destruction mirrored a much older trag-edy. Hayden's life had begun to come apart years before, when his little brother died in an act of bravado -- caused by his insistence on playing the role of the cocky, confident son their father wanted -- an accident Hayden felt he should have been there to prevent.

Years later, when Hayden loses his son at childbirth, his ancient rage against the unfairness of life overwhelms him. Eventually this rage robs him of everything else he has loved in this life -- his marriage, his family, his home.

As Electric God begins, Hayden Reese is a middle-aged man unsuccessfully trying to bury his past. He is newly released from jail, living a marginal life in a remote California town. He has just buried his dog, Jenny -- the thing he loved most in the world. Now he finds that he is also losing the woman with whom he has formed the closest thing to a relationship that he has known for years. It seems that God will never be done with Hayden.

Hayden refuses to give up, however, and after years of struggling, he experiences a moment of insight that enables him to understand why he has been tested so harshly by a seemingly unfeeling deity.

Electric God is beautifully written and carefully constructed, a fascinating and completely involving novel of hope and forgiveness. It is both challenging in its depiction of one man's fall from grace and uplifting in its hero's ultimate refusal to accomplish anything less than triumph by a genuine reinvention of spirit.