In the Beauty of the Lilies

by John Updike

Paterson, New Jersey, 1910. Mary Pickford is making the movie The Call to Arms when she faints from the heat. At that same moment a few blocks away, Reverend Clarence Wilmot loses his faith in God. As generations follow, Wilmot's son Theodore substitutes movies for the faith that failed, Theodore's daughter Esther becomes a film star, and her son Clark goes back to religion as a cult member. Strong language and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller 1996.