Infidels.

Abstract

Infidels is a short story collection dealing with a myriad of themes, most centrally of failed parenting, love, and yearning for the divine through spiritual brotherhood. The world the characters of Infidels inhabit is one of psychological wilderness. In the story, Squatting, for instance, a son watches helplessly as his father realizes that he cannot successfully raise his child as a homeless field squatter. Gnosis shows a physics professor experiencing cognitive breakdown as he struggles to rectify or even realize the pain he's causing his wife. In God Will Hear You, the half-Nepali, half-American protagonist only reveals to himself his love for his wife after driving her into a feigned state of catatonia. The collection culminates with Elohim, a story about an isolated young man's attempt to experience the divine after discovering companionship in two poorly recovering methamphetamine addicts. More than anything, however, Infidels explores beauty in the most putrid and dysfunctional landscapes of contemporary American life.--Abstract.