Set against the decaying halls of a San Diego rest home in the 1970s, "God Clobbers Us All" is the shimmering, hysterical, and melancholy account of eighteen-year-old surfer-boy orderly, Edgar Donahoe, and his struggles with romance, death, friendship, and an ill-advised affair with the wife of a maladjusted war veteran. All of Edgar's problems become mundane, however, when he and his lesbian Blackfoot nurse's aide best friend, Pat Fillmore, become responsible for the disappearance of their fellow worker, Beverley Fey, after an LSD party gone awry. Ballantine's own brand of delicious quirkiness and storytelling is smooth and compelling, and "God Clobbers Us All" is guaranteed to satisfy Ballantine fans as well as convert those lucky enough to be discovering his work for the first time.