DRIVING BY MOONLIGHT: A Journey Through Love, War, and Infertility

The events of September 11, 2001, caused many Americans to re-examine their core beliefs. Henderson, a Quaker married to a Marine chaplain (and former Lutheran minister), was already juggling a multitude of contradictory beliefs before the terrorist attacks. This chronicle of a cross-country road trip with her German shepherd, Rosie, in a '78 Corvette, as her husband is shipped off to Afghanistan with the Marines, is less a travelogue than an intimate musing on her inner struggles, a time-out to come to terms with shifting religious beliefs, a complicated marriage and, primarily, her long, painful and unsuccessful attempt to have a baby. As she is a sophisticated and humorous writer, Henderson's initial naïveté about politics, religion and life in general is surprising. But this ingenuousness is redeemed by her frank acknowledgment that she hasn't a clue, and by her search for meaning. She whimsically compares her variety of religious experiences to cars (Quakerism is a Pacer; atheism, an MG; born-again Christianity, a custom leisure van; Lutheranism, a Ford sedan). Unlike her Midwestern Quaker cousins, after September 11, with her husband at risk, she becomes impatient with pacifism and excited about American flags. But Henderson slowly evolves to more nuanced views, from thinking of God as an indulgent, wish-fulfilling parent to considering, "maybe all the Light cares about is whether or not I live more fully in the Light...." She eventually finds a difficult and intriguing inner peace, concluding, "The world needs both Quakers and Marines. So does my marriage. And within myself, so do I." Photos. Agent, Sam Stoloff. (Oct. 15)

Forecast:Educated Americans struggling with questions about September 11 and the recent American militarism will find this intriguing, as will women with infertility problems. It may not give answers, but it will provoke questions about war, pacifism, the desire for children and the "right" to procreate.