On God: An Uncommon Conversation

Norman Mailer speaks intimately about the nature of God, His power and creativity, and the three way relationship between God, the devil, and man. Anyone who's read Norman Mailer's work - from "The Naked and the Dead" to "The Castle in the Forest" - knows throughout his career he's been grappling with questions of good and evil. That lifetime search for truth has led Mailer to his largest subject yet, God. In "God: An Uncommon Conversation", Mailer speaks intimately about the nature of God, His power and creativity, and the three way relationship between God, the devil and man. Mailer's theological world view is surprisingly centrist: he abhors the false piety of fundamentalism while at the same time rejects the bleakness of atheism. His God is not limited to the God of Christianity, Judaism, or any other organized religion. Rather, he views God as an artist, a divine creator, a superior being in constant struggle to create a better version of humanity. Here, Mailer speaks with astonishing intimacy and wisdom. "On God: An Uncommon Conversation" is written as a series of ten Platonic dialogs - the wise man speaking to his disciple about his philosophy.
Yet you don't need to be familiar with Plato to understand the appeal of this form: by its very nature it's highly conversational, accessible and humane. For the reader, it feels like sitting down one-on-one with Norman Mailer to discuss the large existential questions that we all struggle to understand.