God, the Proprietor

TRAVELING MERCIES: SOME THOUGHTS ON FAITH By Anne Lamott Pantheon 275 pp., $23

Looking back on the God my friend believed in, he seems a little erratic, not entirely unlike her father - God as borderline personality. It was like believing in the guy who ran the dime store, someone with a kind face who was always running behind and had already heard every one of your lame excuses a dozen times.... This God could be loving and reassuring one minute, sure that you had potential, and then fiercely disappointed the next. - From 'Traveling Mercies'