God and Sex: A Novel

by Jon Raymond

From the award-winning author of Denial comes a novel about a New Age writer whose life is irrevocably changed when a devastating climate disaster forces him to confront his belief in the existence of God.

What if God spoke to you? Would you hear Him? Would you obey His command?

Arthur Zinn, an author of high-end spiritual texts, has fallen in love with a librarian married to a newfound close friend. When an environmental disaster threatens her life, Arthur’s frantic prayers lead to a mystifying event that challenges his assumptions about the nature of the universe and the divine. In God and Sex, Oregon Book Award winner and acclaimed screenwriter Jon Raymond masterfully entwines themes of ecology, mortality, art, faith, and the tangled complexities of carnal love.

Genres: Fiction, Religion, American, Book Club, Novels, Contemporary, Spirituality

256 pages, Hardcover

Published August 5, 2025

About the author

Jonathan Raymond is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for writing the novels The Half-Life and Rain Dragon, and for writing the short stories and screenplays for the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy (both directed by Kelly Reichardt). He also wrote the screenplays for Meek's Cutoff and Night Moves, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his writing on the HBO miniseries, Mildred Pierce.

Raymond grew up in Lake Grove, Oregon, attended Lake Oswego High School and graduated from Swarthmore College. He received his MFA from New School University in New York.

Reviews

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

When politicians talk about divine intervention, God help us. Only a Being of infinite forbearance could endure the implications of negligence lodged against Him.

This month, as Texas parents were still looking for the bodies of their children, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said, “I’m extremely grateful for God’s hand in that whole situation because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved.”

That blinkered accounting is shocking but not unusual. We’ve heard repeatedly that God nudged an assassin’s bullet away from Donald Trump’s head in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Why He didn’t offer that same protection to firefighter Corey Comperatore is left unmentioned.

Don’t press too hard on the sloppy logic of public praise for His preferential protection. God, we’re left to assume, is either a capricious gangster or a distracted lifeguard.

Miracles are a tough challenge for modern theology — the happy twin to the problem of evil. As the subject of political bromides, angel-touched TV shows and life-after-death bestsellers, divine intervention hovers outside the world of rational thought and scientific investigation. Miracles are even less likely to break through into the realm of literary fiction.

That’s what makes Jon Raymond’s new novel, “God and Sex,” so fascinating — and so unsettling. Without a hint of religious posturing or angelic wing-flapping, Raymond asks, Could you really stand to have your prayers answered?

The story takes place in laid-back Ashland, Oregon. Raymond — the author of several novels, including “The Half-Life,” and the screenwriter for HBO’s “Mildred Pierce” — is in no hurry to get it going. The narrator, Arthur, describes himself as “a minor writer of spiritual texts.” His books are those quasi-academic, Emersonian titles that thoughtful people exchange on holidays. Arthur drills down on single subjects — such as “light” — and offers up neatly packaged discoveries, profiles and reflections ranging from scientific to mythopoetic....

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...

[Peter Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

"His maturity was galling. He was so capacious, so deep. Was he telling me the truth? I wondered. I wasn't sure. This might be yet another punishment he'd devised. He was roasting me in the fire of his kindness, branding me with his red-hot poker of forgiveness."

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because of its title of course... And actually had a great time with it. We have a sympathetic writer who moves back to his mom's place in Oregon after his latest flop caused him a depression. Once there he decides to write a book about trees and gets in touch with the kindest biology professor Phil and his wife Sarah...with whom he falls in love and starts an affair...

I didn't think the ideas were particularly thought-provoking - as the title might have suggested. I probably would have preferred for the characters of Phil and Sarah to be deepened further, but that's OK, it was all very entertaining.

[trevor haggard · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 predictable and underwhelming. the writing was really good which kept me reading, even though i wanted to give up. the god aspect of it was very surface level and definitely just gave straight male spiritual anxiety vibes. would’ve loved if he got a bit deeper with this one and spent more time on the aftermath post-climax instead of the super long buildup, which felt unessecary and boring…

[Lee Collier · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who grew up religious, this book hit probably the right cord for me. A look at choice and coincidence and where we assign ownership of outcome. This delves into providence and whether we ourselves actually have a choice in God's plan.
But what is this book about, this book with such a strange title? Well, it is about both sex and God. There are some spicy scenes that kind of grossed me out. I think this author really failed at writing these moments in the book, case in point the below quote (hidden because it is just gross):

"I pushed my cock into her pussy gently a few times"

But if you can get past this truly bad moment (or 2) there is actually a good book here. A book about love, lust, and betrayal. A book about loss and yearning. A book that explores the themes I shared at the start of this review in a really dynamic way. It has an unsettling way of exploring our control and the secrets we keep and for me, despite the gripes, was a well crafted short novel that hit home.

[belton :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

sick title!

read the full review here!!!

as the new york times says, "god and sex" is two of the biggest small words in the dictionary, and it's a great task for an author to write about two of the most difficult and vast themes in literature.

and he did a great job!!

the first half of this book mainly focuses on the "sex" part, while the second half of the book discusses the "god" part, and i thought that it was all lovely. It was beautifully written, and even though the book is only like 240 pages, its content is so large that i really don't think I'll be able to sum it up adequately in this review.

Along with god and sex, Raymond also discusses what it's like to be a writer, how being an author means you're essentially a thief, stealing ideas and stories from other people. He spends almost 80% of the book talking about and describing nature. The scenes of nature in this book are grandiose and epic, and even the wildfire is one of the most sublime things I have ever read. The descriptions of the wildfire are terrifyingly beautiful, as the gothics would probably describe the sublime to be.

but is god real? does it matter if he's real? god is only as real as you wish him to be. god is only real if you're looking out for him.

the narrator mentions the story of Abraham and how he's willing to murder his child just because god said so. to the eyes of the believer, Abraham is faithful, loyal, and the ideal religious guy. but to the eyes of everyone else, he's a psychopath who probably needs to be put in a mental hospital for trying to kill his own child. who is to say one interpretation is right? are you even a true believer if you've never actually questioned your faith? isn't believing in god also ultimately a selfish act, to believe that your actions and desires and beliefs and deals with god can actually change the lives of those around you and your environment? isn't believing that a simple prayer could change your life (and others' lives) ultimately conceited?

all that is to say, i loved the discussions of religion in this book. because the narrator wasn't religious to begin with, his ideas about miracles and all that jazz are really interesting, and I loved how he tried to reason with religion without it being to preachy. it was wonderful.

and the sex part was good too, I guess LOL. i love a good story about adultery, but that's just me.

anyway, solid story! if you want to read about religion from a rational point of view, i highly recommend this one. ok bye!!!!

[Penelope Jacks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull

Pretentious and overwritten, there is little in this book to enjoy and less to admire. The story is banal, the characters flimsy, and the spiritualism shallow. The narrator sounds like an over wrought sophomore.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains much promise. Reminded me in passing of another novel about a less-than-fervent reaction by an adulterer to possible divine intervention, set down the same Pacific Coast back in the 1980s, Brian Moore's Cold Heaven. I thought Jon Raymond's screenplays for Mildred Pierce and Meek's Crossing were great; I haven't seen Night Moves. He uses his native Oregonian settings well in print and in film.

However, as First Cow to me (as directed by frequent collaborator Kelly Reichardt) indulged in "Co-Exist" hipster sentiment and very anachronistic Upper Left Coast sensibilities, so Sarah in this novel has a dig at her husband's cozy, campus-bound, snobby sinecure. Whereas our rambling narrator of Sex + God can't shake skepticism endemic in coddled college towns in the Heartland and bicoastal segregation into smug enclaves at odds ("Trust the Science") with inland "rednecks" of surprisingly diverse complexions and ethnicities. (Even if both Americas can't get going without gallons of coffee.) Wisdom needed to be divulged in this investigation of our mindsets but Raymond’s attempt at evenhanded satire or social commentary lacks depth or nuance.

Raymond lofts feeble potshots (compare Spokane native Jess Walker: see my reviews, especially of his recent So Far Gone) at the red-state big-truck denizens, but his earnest alter ego (at least in crucial scenes) is not convincing as a writer somehow able to eke out a living without much to show beyond little-read studies. Arthur’s “Tree Book” project hints of inspiration, if often a pat synthesis of secondary sources, early in the narrative, but I wearied of the novel’s uneven pace. I happened to wait for a flight today, on a few hours' layover diving into this arguably nevertheless thoughtful summer pick for eggheads. Yet it’s glaring how pedestrian Arthur’s style remains; this may reflect Raymond’s depiction of a mid-level but marginal, muddled professional failing to rise to a provocative set and setting at Mount Hood. Or it may betray its storyteller’s blinkered vision of mystery of deities amid doubt.

Fittingly, bogged down by its scribe grappling with shuffling among shopworn scenarios, eager Arthur quotes Rumi, Aquinas, and Meister Eckhart while seducing the cute wife of Phil, his doddering mentor; messy couplings carry the rush of passion by a fortyish, cagy, balding, dumpy, nattering guy. He engages intermittently in insight amidst too clunky a quotidian plod-plot. A lumbering gait fills smoky, forested pages. Feeble minds trying to figure out the cosmic meaning of questions baffling the smartest.

A semi-climactic and “act of God” (?) reveal keeps enough uncertainty to spark a credible what-if? But Raymond, if he may be aiming at another cinematic adaptation, fumbles the aftermath. In a power pivot reminiscent of The Salesman, by Joseph O'Connor, or even bits of any tall tale, tables get overturned.

A brisk, casual, offstage way Raymond recounts the tragedy of key figures may possess sudden and shocking verisimilitude, but his twist left me rolling my eyes, as I would if viewing this as arthouse movie.

Nevertheless, potentially rich themes--Northwest culture clash; Western wildfires; the publishing "moment" we're in for sylvan saunters; the difficulty many if not most in his audience will share with belief in a personal God of caprice, detachment, and irony; the challenge of sussing out love long term from sexual attraction; the folly of having an affair while talking one's self, and two selves, into rationalizing affection as biological, a baby-making imperative.

So I'd recommend it with reservations. Raymond lacks the chops to cut this chattering tale-teller to efficient size. This could have worked if 40% its length, a strong editor, and a disciplined creator. Perhaps Raymond's ties to cinema generated a clever pitch he's prepping for in print. Yet the conceit doesn't sustain momentum. It's tangled up into self-conscious prose too chatty to match its epic topics.

It's amply pitched at our current WTF moment, but in Arthur's clumsy hands, Sex + God doesn't deliver the knockout punch in its wobbly stance. It may be accurate (I learned of it at Powell's Books at Portland's airport) as to its constituents, but the overeager, self-righteous, New Age-tangled narrator runs after an ethereal concept which can't do justice to the two big ideas of his grandiose title. Author and protagonist pant, bested by these raw primal drives.

[Nick Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raymond captures life so beautifully in his writing. And as always the characters and dialogue take center stage. The three main characters share the spotlight equally. I always enjoy a character who is wholly good, no matter the scenario and Phil continued to be felt, even when he wasn’t being mentioned. I did feel like having Arthur explain his shock and grief in the book sometimes felt underwhelming— and that’s not how information gets revealed in Raymond’s books, but I digress

Plot wise it was satisfying. I enjoyed learning about the trees, nature and just living in the PNW. My favorite passage is when Arthur calls his mom and we get some of the best characters interactions as well as the first mention of “god” in the context. Great storytelling as always and excited for the next one, be it on the screen or the page.

[Chris Reath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book of the year.

[Karen Axnick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not an enthusiastic fan of this book. I was intrigued by the description, and I tend to gravitate toward novels that explore spirituality. I guess the tip -off on this one should have been sex in the title and term carnal knowledge in the promotional blurb. The intimate scenes were too graphic for my taste and seemed devoid of morality based on the protagonist’s books that reflect spirituality with science.

Arthur Zinn is a forty-something author who has had a mildly successful career. After his last book on Light failed to achieve any recognition, he retreats to his mother’s home in Ashland, Oregon to regroup and plan his next writing project. As Arthur contemplates writing a unique perspective on trees, he meets Phil, a college professor with a focus on ecology. Through his deepening friendship with Phil, Arthur becomes acquainted with Phil’s wife, Sarah, with whom he begins a lust fueled affair.

The pace of the novel is slow with detailed explanations of trees – both from a natural and symbolic viewpoint. The pace picks up with a description of a monstrous wildfire on Mount Hood which leads to an event that calls into question Arthur’s beliefs about God and spirituality. His dilemma is understandable, but it left me wondering how far he would go to rationalize his behavior in the betrayal of his friend. This is a flawed protagonist that does not engender much goodwill.

My appreciation to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

.

[Hannah Faragalla · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, thoughtful and extremely well written! One I’m glad I purchased

[Nipuni]

The only thing a librarian does is shelve

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nuanced book. As the title says about God and sex, but also about relationships and the stories we tell ourselves.

[Alex Desmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I haven't listened to a book that good in months. The first half was good but the second half was PHENOMENAL!

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been in a novel reading slump for a few months, and even though on the surface this book is about very little (mostly about writing a book, having an affair, and making deals with God), it gripped me enough to get me out of my slump. Very good writing and very good exploration of creativity, love, guilt, and grief.

[John]

I have long loved Raymond’s work in cinema, but never read his books. It’s clear that his work is in Reichardt’s, but her pre-Raymond style lets us know that she brings the slower, more understated tones out in front. This book was good, moved fast, and has an interesting thesis: love is one thing that can convince you miracles exist. Granted, Love & Miracles is a much worse title, but God & Sex is also awful.

I have a feeling that Phillip Roth would have LOVED this one if he was still alive.

[Mish Middelmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

How interesting to read the blurb on this new book, which makes it all about the confluence of climate change and spiritual belief. In a way this mirrors directly the narrator in the novel, who positions his book about trees to ride the wave of public interest in, for example, how trees communicate with each other. Riding the wave.

I've been trying to remember who or what recommended the book to me. All I can own up to is that the title rides the very long wave of my interest in sex, and promises some kind of tantalizing spiritual connection.
I was moderately satisfied on both wavelengths.

The sex and relationship story is quite well told, with some honesty about how people simply fall into what is often called a love triangle. It also depicts a remarkably close relationship between the two men on opposite "legs" of the triangle, even though as Arthur frankly acknowledges the impact "the fact was, we'd sent an exterminating love into Phil's life and he was awakening to the terror of his loss."

And also I can relate to the character who says

If everyone else wasn't walking around with these movies in their heads, these visions at once utterly depraved and utterly inconsequential, if they weren't imagining their fellow humans in every possible state of excitement and undress, I truly had no idea of what was going on in the world at all.

Very frank and honest and more common than most people realize.

The God story felt at some levels rather trite, but is at least partially redeemed by the deeper spirituality of the characters' connection with nature and its redemptive powers. I love the way one of the nature reclamation activists in the story puts it

This is a nerve ending of the world ... we're doing earth acupuncture here, opening up larger channels. When you do that, big things happen.

What felt like a bonus for me, given the obvious promises contained in the title, was some quite deep and interesting exploration of what it is to write. Having written a couple of books and lots of other published writing in my various blogs, I could relate a lot to the joy of simply diving, or sinking, into different phases of writing - from research to early drafts to crafting and refining a coherent piece of work.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The title of this novel isn’t a marketing tool, for sure. Having now read the book, I understand that it expresses well the book’s major theme, but still, it doesn’t make you (well, me) want to grab the book off the shelf, does it? But once I learned that the author is a screenwriter-collaborator with Kelly Reichardt on many of her sui generis films, especially the completely heart-rending Wendy and Lucy, I had to try this. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just say that it involves a writer of non-fiction books who plans to write a book about trees, knows very little about the subject, so consults a local academic expert. The two men bond immediately, becoming close friends very quickly, and then the writer meets his new friend’s wife. Well. A passionate affair ensues. And events progress to the point of making a desperate bargain with God (by a non-believer) in exchange for a miracle. So in addition to exploring themes of betrayal and guilt and love and passion, we have looks in at the existence and nature of God and man’s relationship to the divine. A major plot point involves an environmental disaster, so there’s that too. Most of all, I enjoyed the narrative voice (told in the first person by the betraying friend), intelligent and impassioned both, from a man who carefully considers every facet of his life and mostly lets himself be guided by his heart.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

God and Sex
By Jon Raymond

Arthur is a somewhat successful writer of spiritual books. He is searching for inspiration on a new book when he meets Phil, a college professor who becomes a close friend and mentor. He also meets Phil's wife, Sarah, a college librarian.

As the couple draws him into their circle of close friends, Arthur's feelings about them begin to change. Sarah and Arthur fall in love and have an affair. The lovers eventually decide that they want to have a life together, thus requiring that Sarah tell Phil and ask for a divorce. But before that conversation can happen, Sarah's life is threatened in a forest fire and Arthur goes to search for her. When he finds her, trapped and apparently lifeless, Arthur prays for a miracle. He bargains with a God he doesn't believe in and vows to give up Sarah if her life is spared.

What happens then is mysterious – is it a miracle, is there really a God, is Arthur bound to uphold his end of the bargain? What exactly is it that holds the universe together?

This is a well written but very strange book. If you have doubts – as many of us do – about the existence of a creator, this book leaves you with much to think about.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Anne Wolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

God and Sex is about writing a book about writing a book about trees. It is also a love story and an in ternal debate about belief in God. Arthur, a kind of naturalist author, whose previous book was about light (?). It is also a graphic and erotic novel about love, sex and friendship. It takes place in Oregon, where Arthur is living in his other's old house and researching a book following a less than well-reviewed previous tome. Arthur meets Phil, a professor at a local university and they become friends. Arthur also meets and falls in love with Phil's wife, Sarah.

The only really gripping portion of the novel describes a fast-moving forest fire. Much of the information about the life of trees and the reclamation of meadows left me skipping pages and fighting boredom. The other somewhat interesting and thought-provoking writing are the chapters dealing with negotiating with God. This novel may appeal to some readers, but it was not, unfortunately, my cup of tea.

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the chance to read this strangely titled ARC. (But I guess I can see why Jon Raymond chose it.

[Carol Werner Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

God and Sex
by Jon Raymond
Pub Date: Aug 05 2025

God and Sex is a well written but very different kind of book. If you have doubts – as some do – about the existence of a creator, this book leaves you with much to think about. What exactly is it that holds the universe together?

Synopsis: What if God spoke to you? Would you hear Him? Would you obey His command? Arthur Zinn, an author of high-end spiritual texts, has fallen in love with a librarian married to a newfound close friend. When an environmental disaster threatens her life, Arthur’s frantic prayers lead to a mystifying event that challenges his assumptions about the nature of the universe and the divine. In God and Sex, Oregon Book Award winner and acclaimed screenwriter Jon Raymond masterfully entwines themes of ecology, mortality, art, faith, and the tangled complexities of carnal love.

Many thanks to #GodandSex #NetGalley and #Simon&Schuster for providing me an E-ARC of this book.

[Lisa Hitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that blend reality with fiction and in the end you don’t know whether this is a story or a memoir.

This is one of those books where you fall in love with the protagonist, you can find yourself in him, and then you hate him, but still find him relatable, and then you feel pity and all the feelings that come with it.

This is one those books, where actually not too much happens, but Jon has a way of making you want to read about every single detail of the ordinary moments. The ordinary moments, the thoughts of the characters, the interactions, the dialogues - they make the pace of the story and you just can’t put the book out of your hands.

This is a book, that doesn’t give you the answers, but just more questions than when you started reading.

I loved it!!! Brilliantly written!

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to love it. Didn't end up even really liking it. First 100 pages were admittedly a breezy enough wind-up for what was clearly a retelling of (homage to?) Graham Greene's Heart of the Matter, peppered with some later-era-Richard-Powers-esque tree worship. But both of those organs are ultimately transplanted into a non-responding patient. As Raymond writes of his protagonist's literary struggles late in the novel, "It was becoming a mere intellectual premise, without any emotion attached." The conflicts and dilemmas and betrayals and supposedly life-altering tragedies all end up feeling like nothing that can't be mostly overcome in three or four more pages. A lot of these characters spend time worrying that someone else will believe them; the problem for me was ultimately that I never even really believed in them.

[Blake Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

"God and sex, she said. Those were the ways people communed with the divine. Or the way the mind broke."

This book caught me by surprise. I started it pretty blindly, and after a few pages, I couldn’t stop reading. In the first half, I kept wondering: how is this about God and sex? Then the sex came—and much later, God. By the end, I understood them as things that might not be separate.

I really enjoyed how Raymond delineated the narrator’s experience with God in a way that felt separate from religion. I never once found myself asking whether he was talking about a Christian God, a Buddhist one, whatever. It didn’t matter. Sometimes that word is just a placeholder for a mass of unidentified spiritual frequencies. A heartbreaking, funny, and thought-provoking novel.

[andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

God and Sex. Pretty much sums up the storyline here with the inclusion of an environmental catastrophe and a touch of metafiction. The plot involves an intense love affair between the protagonist, an author whose previous works have a spiritual bent, and his friend's wife. The sexual relations are graphically described. A tragic occurrence leads to excessive rumination regarding the existence of God and the possibility of miracles. I definitely preferred the erotic part although I could appreciate what was ultimately a poignant consideration of chance, loss and grief.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beauty and connectiveness throughout

Beautifully written. Tough subjects flowed like a conversation between best friends. I can’t recall a book where I could so relate to the author. Our stories are certainly different, but I could relate to the stories as I would a long time close friend sharing deep, important thoughts from his life.

It is also wonderful to read a romance (although this book is much more than that) where the protagonist is not some strong , handsome, successful, rich heartthrob - just a man trying to live a worthy life.

[Diana (Reading While Mommying) Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came away from this novel with mixed feelings.

The story begins with an affair between Arthur Zinn, a new-age writer researching his latest book on trees, and Sarah, the wife of a professor he’s consulting for the project. Their relationship quickly escalates into an energetic, all-consuming affair. When Arthur realizes that Sarah’s husband, Phil, suspects her infidelity, he rushes to warn her at a secluded retreat—only for the visit to be interrupted by a massive wildfire that threatens their lives.

I won’t give away more for fear of spoilers, but in truth, there isn’t much “there there.” The title had me expecting a deeper exploration of the “god” portion, but the spiritual themes felt thin. The twist was predictable, and ultimately, neither Arthur, Sarah, nor Phil seemed to experience much growth or transformation. Instead, the novel leaned heavily on its explicit sex scenes without grounding them in meaningful character development or reflection.

What did stand out were Raymond’s descriptions of the wildfire. These passages were vivid and terrifying, offering a stark reminder of how climate change is reshaping our landscapes—and how fragile everything is when disaster strikes.

Unfortunately, aside from those gripping moments, I found the novel underwhelming.

[EL · Rating 3 out of 5]

so incredibly average i was kind of surprised at his boldness for writing such an overtrod story

just how i like my climate books though earth really will be fine and maybe humanity too it’s just individuals and groups along the way

the equivalence between lust and divinity in terms of the mystery in both is interesting

could've been gayer though it's pretty gay and ace(!) alr

would be so much more interesting from sarah's perspective but then of course it wouldn't be called god and sex or be like this at all

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 3.5

This didn't quite come together for me. There is a lot of good pieces, but the sum of the whole seemed to be less than the sum of the parts.

I was struck by Arthur's conversation with his mother, specifically the part where the title comes from. When men break down, they hear voices from god. When women break down, their lives come to be about sex. It's a curious idea that seems to carry some weight. I thought it might launch the remainer of the book into something greater, but instead the rest is a meander.