The Temptations of Man

In this novel, a man who believes himself to be good is beset with a variety of temptations that are universal in nature, but specific to Ethan Hawley as he struggles to rationalize the behaviors of modern thinking versus the old fashioned values he was taught as a child.

Ethan is a man who has been complacent about his place in life, as a grocery clerk in the store his family used to own. On Easter weekend of 1960, Ethan comes to realize that his family and the townspeople see him as a failure, not as a good man accepting his fate. With this dilemma in his mind, Ethan is confronted with a series of temptations.

He is approached by a traveling salesman, who offers him a substantial bribe to get the store owner to switch to the salesman's company for orders. At first Ethan refuses...