Arthur Zinn, an author of high-end spiritual texts, has fallen in love with a librarian married to a newfound close friend. When an environmental disaster threatens her life, Arthur’s frantic prayers lead to a mystifying event that challenges his assumptions about the nature of the universe and the divine.
This slim novel is ostensibly about a schlubby writer sleeping with his friend’s wife, but profound, ancient questions animate the book, and justify its oversize title. And these questions, which grow more urgent with every season of fire and floods, have haunted me since I finished reading it.
Fascinating — and so unsettling ... Much of the early section of God and Sex lacks enough of either. It focuses instead on the tedious process of writing ... But I’m so glad I hung on. It eventually becomes clear that this deliberate introduction to Arthur and his well-ordered process has all been set down for the express purpose of shattering that carefully constructed world ... In Raymond’s thoughtful handling, this makes for a fascinating, rare examination of a rational mind confronting the limits of rationality.
Raymond’s clarity allows philosophical questions about faith, love, and our place in the world to crystallize around specific moments, which give the reader bouys to grasp as the existential crises swirl within his text ... Mind-blowing.
