Ahmad, 18, was born to an Irish-American mother and an Egyptian father, and is devoted to Allah and the sacred words of the Qu'ran, as revealed to him by the local imam. With his father long since disappeared, Ahmad craves spiritual nurture and views the self-indulgent society around him in New Jersey with contempt. Neither the well-intentioned Jewish guidance counselor at the high school, nor a seductive classmate is able to succeed in deflecting...

Clarence Wilmot, a Presbyterian minister in New Jersey in 1910, experiences a suddon loss of faith, setting the scene for four succeeding generations of family members who wrestle with God.

Retells the myth of Chiron, wisest of the centaurs who gives up immortality for Prometheus, in a modern setting where Chiron is a high-school science teacher, George Caldwell, and Prometheus is his fifteen-year-old son, Peter.

His son's return and reminders of a former romance threaten "Rabbit" Harry Angstrom's comfortable new prosperity.

Seek My Face draws on the story of Lee Miller and Jackson Pollock, the model for Hope's first husband. These are the best parts of a slow, sumptuous, and intricately detailed novel that lacks any significant action except in retrospect. Hope's second husband is depicted as an amalgam of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and Wayne Thiebaud--a useful survey of the period, but not compelling characterization.

Roger Lambert, a divinity school professor, is visited by a young computer hacker who believes that scientific evidence of God's existence is irresistibly accumulating.