内容简介：
The issue of how we determine what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, was raised at mankindas beginning, in the Garden of Eden. It is still an issue today: Is it God who makes the determination? Is it religious leaders? Is it legislators who may be liberal or conservative? Or is it each person, individually, on the basis of his own convictions and desires? In the novella occupying the major part of this book, the protagonist, Madeline, opts for self, elevating herself to the position of final arbiter of what is good or bad strictly on the basis of her own rationalizing. How she manipulates Richard to marry her, how her relentless maneuvering, in effect, emasculates him, and how she manages to have him killed, is conveyed exclusively through the use of dialogueaconversations between protagonists and characters. It was the authoras intent to thereby convey a greater sense of immediacy by eliminating descriptions and narrative lead-ins. Several short stories deal with a variety of matters: aHo-Huma tells the story of a gigolo with a very strange aversion; aThe Godsenda deals with a theatre director who is plagued with flare-ups of his five senses that happen with increasing intensity, and the unusual cure that he experiences; aThe Differencea centers on a boyas concern over his circumcision; aPoint of No Returna describes how a sensitive high school student bullied by his classmates at school and by his father at home, resolves the problem. Also includes, aCindy, a aMother Lovea and aPraise Be to God.a