As a God Might Be

Reading goal 2 out of 5 done for 2019.

But what the hell do I actually say about it?
I've been struggling, for a while now, to write anything about this novel.
That's mostly because its themes, its questions and its story are laid out very clearly.
At the novel's close, anything you might be unclear about, any question you might have, has got one all-encompassing answer, of sorts. There is a statement that validates the novel, that cuts through the clutter, and bypasses any and all philosophizing and soul-searching by submitting a very straightforward mindset and a simple way of being. It is probably the most significant novel, in a personal sense, that I've read in years. I also happened to read the bulk of it during a time where I desperately needed it. Serendipity.

Mention should be made of the characters, as they are of note in the way that they are naked to such an extent, and with this I mean that they are utterly human with all their motivations laid out clearly in such a way that it has become almost impossible for them to be misunderstood or that they will fail to be identified with, in a way that I've only ever seen done better once. Here this is because the protagonist, the one in whose mind we dwell for the duration of this journey, sees them very clearly at pretty much every step of the road. He's an analyst. That is his skill, his way of looking at the world, and as such we get to have such an insight into the people around him that the best and worst parts of themselves, the best and worst of their humanity, is laid bare.
  It is the author in love with his creation, exploring it as much as he can and because of this these characters have become extremely realistic.
There is only the one book, self-contained, but I admit these characters really got to me, and they'll stay with me for quite a while. I found myself wishing, well before its end, that there would be more stories following them around. But of course, that is not what this is about.

Obviously the book is about religion, but it also about families; the ones we build for ourselves, and those that we become a part of. It is about our relationships; our problems and our love.
It is about dying, illness and autism. And though that last one occasionally bordered on veneration I'm unsure if I've ever seen autism addressed this respectfully, certainly not without every shying away from the difficulties that go with it, and to have it so clear, and so honest.

The whole thing is beautifully written and it has a story that is incredibly well executed.
I came here for the whole 'man might've had an encounter with God and does something extreme', hoping for some delicious snippets of interesting mythology I could explore, and though the novel does have that, I'm surprised to find that, when it was all done, I found I didn't really want to.

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If I explored this novel the way I usually do, try to make sense of its mythology by making it coherent and easily navigable, I would look at the scenes where there's an arguably 'higher' presence, indicative of said mythology, but there isn't enough of that to not easily explain it away by relying on unreliable narration or issues of psychology, so I'm not even going to bother.

I don't think that it is that, however: I think that the story indeed plays out the way it is told and that the higher force is exactly the way it is shown to be. Or at least, I was enamored enough with the novel that I just accepted what was being presented.

I have pages and pages of notes and quotes, but I can't really share them.
The novel speaks for itself. It is lovely and though it gets dark, it is nonetheless a beautiful experience.