Shalom Aus­lan­der’s sto­ries in Beware of God have the mys­te­ri­ous punch of a dream. They are wide rang­ing and inven­tive: A young Jew­ish man’s inex­plic­a­ble trans­for­ma­tion into a very large, blond, tat­tooed goy ends with an argu­ment over whether or not his father can beat his unclean son with a copy of the Tal­mud. A pious man hav­ing a near-death expe­ri­ence dis­cov­ers that God is actu­al­ly a chick­en, and he’s forced to recon­sid­er his life — and his diet. At God’s insis­tence, Leo Schwartz­man search­es Home Depot for sup­plies for an ark. And a young boy mis­takes Holo­caust Remem­brance Day as emer­gency pre­pared­ness train­ing for the future.