The Autobiography of God: A Novel

by Julius Lester

Overview

Rebecca Nachman is a Rabbi without a synagogue. Having resigned from her dwindling congregation, she now works as a college counselor at a small Vermont college advising students about private matters and offering the "Jewish perspective" on issues raised at faculty dinner parties.

Deeply lonely and on the edge of losing her faith, she comes into possession of a Torah, the last relic of Czechowa, a village of Polish Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. With the Torah, the unquiet spirits of the village dead begin to visit Rebecca. On one visit they leave a manuscript written in Hebrew and titled My Life, an autobiography by God who, like any eager author, is seeking a sympathetic reader. No one has ever finished reading the manuscript, including Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Maimonides, and Augustine. God thinks Rebecca will.

Rebecca's life is further complicated when one of her advisees-a troubled young woman who seemed on the verge of confessing something-is found murdered. As the college struggles to comprehend the tragedy and a police investigation is launched, Rebecca begins reading, and so comes to confront the central challenge to her faith in His most troubling and unlikely incarnation.

Julius Lester's first adult novel in more than a decade, The Autobiography of God marks the return of an utterly original and provocative voice in American letters, addressing religion with wicked humor and profound reverence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429937405
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/27/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	261
File size:	426 KB

About the Author

Julius Lester is the author of over 30 books for children and adults, for which he has received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, ALA Notable Book, and Smithsonian Magazine Best Book of the Year. He lives in Belcherdown, MA.

Julius Lester (1939-2018) is the author of over 30 books for children and adults, for which he received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Award, ALA Notable Book, and Smithsonian Magazine Best Book of the Year. His books include To Be a Slave, The Autobiography of God, John Henry, Time's Memory, and Do Lord Remember Me. He lived in Belchertown, Massachusetts.

Reading Group Guide

1. What importance does Rebecca's crippled leg have in her life? Why does she choose not to conceal her limp? How does she come to terms with her situation and why?
2. Rebecca decries accusations of vanity: "She took the time to take what God had given her and transform it into a vessel of beauty. Was that any different than taking wheat and transforming it into flour and the flour into challah braided like the hair of the Sabbath Queen?" (page 26). How does Rebecca's care for herself-a quality easily perceived as vanity-juxtapose with her religious inclinations? What other internal struggles does she face?
3. The narrator tells us, "In Judaism the object of learning was not to build a better mousetrap but to ask a better question. The questions you asked indicated just how closely you were attending to Him" (page 31). What does Rebecca's relationship with her teacher, the Rosh Yeshiva of her old congregation, reveal about the nature of Judaism?
4. Is the old woman who speaks to Rebecca an actual spirit, or a figment of Rebecca's imagination? The novel implies that there are realities beyond our five senses that are just as real. What do you think?
5. The novel presents a God who is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. How do you feel about such a God? If such a God came to you and asked for your help, as He does of Rebecca, what would be your response?
6. Rebecca wonders why God came to visit her and then thinks, "Maybe women preferred the truth, regardless of the consequences" (page 170). Do you think this is true? Why do you think God came to visit a woman?
7. Rebecca realizes that "goodness, unlike evil, has to be struggled for repeatedly" (page 219). When God argues against turning over Patric's confession to the police, is he acting out of evilness? Does he have a point? What do you think of Rebecca's response?
8. Many would call parts of the novel, or the novel as a whole, religious blasphemy. On the other hand, others might call it a deeply religious and devotedly Jewish attempt to explore God. How does Lester challenge religious convention in both small details and with broader themes? How do you feel about the risks he takes with his literal portrayal of God?