Ninety-nine stories of God / by Joy Williams.

Seldom occupying more than a couple of pages, Williams' stories are headed by a number, one to 99, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist has a one-of-a-kind gift for capturing both the absurdity and the darkness of everyday life. In Ninety-Nine Stories of God, she takes on one of mankind's most confounding preoccupations: the Supreme Being. This series of short, fictional vignettes explores our day-to-day interactions with an ever-elusive and arbitrary God. It's the Book of Common Prayer as seen through a looking glass--a powerfully vivid collection of seemingly random life moments. The figures that haunt these stories range from Kafka (talking to a fish) to the Aztecs, Tolstoy to Abraham and Sarah, O.J. Simpson to a pack of wolves. Most of Williams' characters, however, are like the rest of us: anonymous strivers and bumblers who brush up against God in the least expected places or go searching for him when he's standing right there. The Lord shows up at a hot-dog-eating contest, a demolition derby, a formal gala, and a drugstore, where he's in line to get a shingles vaccination. At turns comic and yearning, lyric and aphoristic, Ninety-Nine Stories of God serves as a pure distillation of one of our great artists.

Postcard -- Noche -- Aubade -- Cavity -- Nevertheless -- See that you remember -- Not his best -- Hedgehog -- Clean -- Wet -- Arrangement -- No -- Moms -- Cozy -- Story -- If picked or uprooted these beautiful flowers will disappear -- Dresser -- This is not a maze -- Perhaps a kind of cake? -- This time -- Coat -- Some difference -- And you are-- -- Nid duw ond dim (without God there is nothing) -- Veracity -- Satisfaction -- A good reason -- Abandon all hope -- Ignorance -- Satan's leathery wing -- Society -- Shaken -- Irreducible -- Tragedy has obligations -- Just a rumor -- Dearest -- The brain -- Actually -- Buried in Colorado all alone -- Señor Xólotl -- Jail -- Pretty much the same, then -- Her eyes were set rather close together, which gave her an urgent air -- The individualist -- Numbers -- Preference -- Get out as early as you can -- Participation -- Naked mind -- Buick LeSabre -- Significance -- Doll house -- Peggy -- Divine -- Neglect -- Giraffe -- Dew -- Sartre to Camus -- Looking good -- Party -- Museum -- Essential enough -- Apropos of nothing -- I pity the fool -- Dull -- Rebirth -- Forgiveness -- ) ( -- Inoculum -- Driveshaft -- Fog -- Whale -- A little prayer -- Walk-in -- Transition -- Whatever is happening? -- Elephants never forget God -- The fourth wife -- Example -- Opportunity -- Businesswoman -- Polyurethane -- Crazy Injuns -- Winter -- Early practice -- Infidelity -- Plot -- A flawed opinion -- Phew -- Compline -- This is the way that night passes -- Distinction -- Fathers and sons -- If you feel you must -- Sibling -- Plenary -- Bread -- A new arrangement -- The darkling thrush.