The Reluctant God
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One afternoon in February, Michael Movius, a thirty-six year old neurotic who had suffered a mild nervous breakdown and was recuperating at a small hospital in upstate New York, transported Edward Ortega, an unloved attendant at the hospital, from the physical world to an unused recess of his mind. It was so sudden and unexpected that neither Movius nor Ortega had an inkling of what had happened to them for hours afterwards. Movius had been slouching in the dayroom, reading a nonviolent comic in a state of extreme but possibly therapeutic boredom, when Ortega, taking a short cut to the staff bathroom, crashed through in his usual bumptious manner and tripped over Movius' legs. "Dammit, Movius, why are you always in the way?" he said, without stopping. Movius wondered dully whether he could report Ortega to the doctors for swearing, or whether Ortega could report him for tripping, but said and felt nothing. An instant later, however, before Ortega had passed through the portal of the room, Movius felt a tremendous surge of anger accompanied by a ferocious headache, as if some large, meaty object were literally squeezed through his eyes into his brain. It lasted no more than two seconds, but enough for him to cry out in pain and summon the attendant on duty to his aid. As Movius was being led back to his room, no one immediately noticed that Ortega had completely vanished!
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About the Book
“One afternoon in February, Michael Movius, a thirty-six year old neurotic who had suffered a mild nervous breakdown and was recuperating at a small hospital in upstate New York, transported Edward Ortega, an unloved attendant at the hospital, from the physical world to an unused recess of his mind.”
Thus begins a strange and unusual book in a genre all its own, the story of an ordinary man who must assume the mantle of a god. To accommodate the people he brings into his mind from the real world, he must create a world within his imagination, make the sun rise and set, make rain nourish the land, create an environment that can feed and house the inhabitants of his mind, even lay down laws of conduct and morality.
But events in the real world constantly impinge on the world within. And the people in Movius’ mind, a microcosm of a normal community, influence the world without. Movius switches back and forth between man and god, incompetence and omnipotence, pettiness and profundity.
Despite its epic scope and philosophical underpinnings, exploring the farthest reaches of the imagination, "The Reluctant God" is an entertaining and eminently readable story of real people trying to cope with an unreal world.
About the Author
James Lawson has written 11 novels, including ˆThe Fanaticˆ and ˆThe Copley Chronicles,ˆnumerous screenplays, including ˆThe Hare,ˆseveral plays, the award-winning TV documentary, ˆFrederick Law Olmstedˆ and the original trailer for the movie, ˆStar Wars.ˆ He lives in New York City with his wife, Karharine, a biopsychologist and Associate Professor of Pediatrics. They have two children, Victoria, a Ph.D. candidate in forensic psychology, and Nicholas, a medical student.