My Adventures with God [Paperback]

A delightful collection from legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky—who currently appears onThe Goldbergs, HBO’sSilicon Valley, and the serial podcast The Tobolowsky Files—“a series of true stories that wrestle with a big idea: how belief shapes our lives. Funny, smart, and moving, this is a wonderful account of our relationship with the unknowable” (Susan Orlean,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe Orchid ThiefandRin Tin Tin).

InMy Adventures with God, Stephen Tobolowsky explores the idea that most people’s lives seem to fit into the template of the Old Testament. We all have powerful creation myths: tales of our childhood and family, our first battles won and lost. It is our Genesis. Then, like in the Book of Exodus,we go into slavery. Rather than building pyramids, we lose ourselves in fear and ambition—in first loves, first jobs, too many dreams mixed with too much beer. We eventually become free, only to wander in the wilderness. At some point we stop and proclaim to the universe who we are. This is our Leviticus moment. We reconcile what we thought we would be with what we have become. We often attempt a mid-course correction. Then, as in the Book of Numbers, we are shaped by mortality as we bear the loss of family and friends. Finally, we retell our stories to our children hoping to make sense of the journey, like Moses did in Deuteronomy.

Tobolowsky’s stories tell of a boy growing up in the wilds of Texas, finding and losing love, losing and finding himself—all told through the prism of the Torah and Talmud, mixed with insights from science, and refined through a child’s sense of wonder.My Adventures with Godis a “fast-paced, precise, wide-ranging, and impressive book draws on the I Ching, Talmud, Einstein,Grimms’ Fairy Tales, and reruns ofSportsCenterto create counterpoints when discussinglE