["Son of the Morning"] is a hugely ambitious novel. Clearly well-researched, it could serve as a basis for the sociological study of the theory and practice of Pentecostal religion. It explores the phenomenon of "revelation" and mystical experience with an extraordinary imaginative thrust. It poses, without answering, questions about the nature of Christ, the church as an institution, and whether there is God or only the desire for God, leading to madness; and whether He is a God of Salvation or a vast metaphysical appetite for souls, a destroyer….

[The] author enters into the heightened feelings and experiences of nearly every character in the large cast—except God's. But the girl's memories of the rape, Nathan's relationship with God, his grandmother's supernatural adoration of him as a child, his grandfather's desperate stoicism, the hysterical fervor of the prayer meetings, the physical hardware of everyone's ordinary life, are all...