Wardlin is a cynical bartender with no great love for people when he's receives a 10 year prison sentence for manslaughter. In prison, following a fight with a fellow prisonmate in which he comes off faring poorly, he develops something he calls prayerstyle. He writes poetic prayers to no discernable god and when his prayers produces the girlfriend he asked for, other prisonmates start asking him to compose prayerstyles for them too, with mostly positive results. Out on parole, his life takes turns he had not expected, he get married to a woman who manages to center him, the book he wrote on prayerstyles takes off like a rocket, gaining him fame and elevating him to near rockstar status. This brings him into a contentious showdown with a fundamentalist preacher and things escalate to violence.

The questions of what part religion plays in the lives of many and how society creates and builds the cult-like celebrities are subtly raised and analyzed. You feel sorry for Wardlin,a man you see trying to stay grounded despite his fame, starting to question himself and the inspiration for the prayersytles. Just as he considers giving up prayerstyles, he meets his fictitious god.

This is a wonderful study of conflict and in staying true to yourself or letting yourself be tempted into a world of shallow glitz. ( )