In this final book before his death, Mailer reveals his views on the nature of God. In discussions held over a period of three years with his friend and collaborator, Michael Lennon, the author appears more provocative than ever. "I think," says Mailer, "that piety operates oppressively. It suffocates free thought," and he establishes his own system of ideas by rejecting organized religion as well as atheism. He insists on the perspective of a world created by a God-artist who sometimes succeeds in his pursuits and sometimes fails, due to the strong resistance he receives from opposing forces of the universe, with which he is constantly at war, vying for the souls of humanity. Of course, we are given the freedom to choose our own path. And Mailer believes that our individual behavior - a permanent, complex mixture of good and evil - will be rewarded or punished with a reincarnation corresponding to the life we have lived.