Only Begotten Daughter

The critics pulled out their entire arsenal of hyperbole to construct encomiums for James Morrow's last novel, This Is the Way the World Ends. And the book was nominated for the Nebula Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America as best of the year. Combining the strategies of contemporary fiction with the heightened images of science fiction, Morrow's novel established him as a major writer, confirmed this year when he was given the Nebula for short fiction for his story "Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: the Deluge."

Now, in Only Begotten Daughter, he has surpassed his earlier works with a story of extraordinary wit and power, the chronicle of the life of God's daughter. This is a novel that has something to offend everyone! Julie Katz, born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the last years of the twentieth century, the miraculous offspring of a solitary sperm donation, grows up wondering about her Almighty Mother: Why does God allow so much pain and suffering on earth? And what is Julie supposed to do about it?

Julie's dad, Murray, an eccentric who lives in a lighthouse on the coast, wants her to live a normal life, eschew miracles and avoid parallels with the life of her deceased brother, Jesus Christ. For instance, he permits her to walk only under water.

And true to her twentieth-century upbringing, Julie avoids the hands-on approach—but does try long-distance, anonymous miracles as an advice columnist for a local supermarket tabloid ("Heaven Help You" in the Midnight Moon). Julie can cure cancer, restore sight to the blind, and sink effortless baskets from forty feet out, but desperately wants to talk to her Mother, who remains silent. Even when the Revelationists—a neo-Christian cult—invade Atlantic City prepared to burn it to the ground, killing everyone.

Only Begotten Daughter is a novel that has something to amuse, stimulate, and intrigue everyone. It is imaginative, skewed, compassionate, horrifying—and funny as hell.