The New Republic

THE CASTLE IN THE FOREST By Norman Mailer (Random House, 477 pp., $27.95) READ MORE >>

The Creator “lifted His hand, and from it burst a fountain-spray of fire, a million stupendous suns, which clove the blackness . . . as they pierced the far frontiers of Space, until at last they were but as diamond nailheads sparkling under the domed vast roof of the universe.” The three archangels – Michael, Gabriel, and Satan – were impressed and thoughtful, according to Mark Twain in Letters from the Earth. Then the Creator made animals. The three archangels “were perplexed. Deeply perplexed – and the Creator noticed it, and said, ‘Ask, I will answer.’ READ MORE >>