In a sense, Heller creates one character, King David, who in a virtuoso narrative performance creates a cast of characters, most of whom are one-dimensional. God briefly plays the heavy, then remains silently waiting in the wings for a reentrance. Bathsheba is a lusty wench in Act I and a Jewish mother relendessly pushing her son to power in Act II. Solomon, the epitome of wisdom through the ages, in David's play is "Shlomo," who mindlessly records his father's words on clay tablets. In fact, all of the characters serve primarily to highlight the leading role, which David plays himself— that of chief victim in an unjust universe.

God Knows is David's proof that he has the best story in the Bible. "I've got the poetry and passion, savage violence and the plain raw civilizing grief of human heartbreak," he brags. "Gory deeds? I've got more than...