An Ocean Full of Angels

Book excerpt: "On the connections between Jesus Christ, Muhammad, dead Vikings, sassy Black feminists, Dutch Calvinist seminarians, large mother substitues, armless nature mystics, Caribbean rubber dancers, three popes in one year, Cortez, Romeo and Juliet, the wandering Jew, the sea serpent, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the demon Hurricano, Islam in the art of body surfing, the universal fate wave theory, the Palestinian intifada, the fatal beauty of the sea, dreams of Jungian archetypes, the dooms of the Boston Red Sox, abortion wars, the great blizzard of '78, the wisdom of the "handicapped," the ecumenical jihad, the psychology of suicide, the disguises of angels, and the end of the world."