In his sixth work of fiction, Dr. King's Refrigerator, National Book Award-winner Charles Johnson offers a slim volume of eight short stories. The subtitle of the book, And Other Bedtime Stories, provides a clue about the characteristics of the collection: Each tale, like a story told at bedtime, is based on a simple conflict, provides some kind of moral or parable, and includes elements of (sometimes) wild fantasy.

Indeed, in this collection, Johnson lets his imagination run free. His characters run the gamut from an anonymous taxpayer, to corporate decision makers, to a fictitious African king, to a martial arts instructor on Chicago's rough South Side, to a college senior. Johnson also gives a voice to historical characters as various as Martin Luther King Jr.; Christina, the 17th-century queen of Sweden; and Rene Descartes.

The title story centers on the young Martin Luther King, toiling late into the night on December 1, 1954, exactly one year before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat. Dr. King is smoking cigarettes and writing memos, thinking about his doctoral dissertation (which he's struggling to finish), and, most immediately, trying to write a sermon for the following Sunday.

But King's growling stomach is distracting him. He succumbs to late-night hunger—something he'd determined he shouldn't do given his weight and all the hunger in the world. But in the end the decision turns out to be providential. Peeking at the refrigerator's well-stocked shelves, he has an inspiration for his sermon. Looking at the myriad foods from all corners of the earth—cheese from France, coffee from Brazil, spaghetti from Italy—King is struck afresh by the interconnectedness of all things. "He recalled Exodus 25: 30 and realized all this before him was showbread. From the floor Martin picked up a Golden Delicious apple, took a bite from it, and instantly apprehended the heat of summers past, the roots of the tree from which the fruit had been taken, the cycles of the sun and rain and seasons, the earth, even those who tended the orchard … .For was he too not the product of infinite causes and the full miraculous orchestration of being stretching back to the beginning of time?"

It's hard for the reader to share fully in the fictional King's excitement. The list of food that inspires his epiphany goes on and on before finally arriving at the marvelous passage quoted just above. Still, Johnson redeems his story with streams of vivid dialogue and a cameo by Mrs. King, groggily investigating the racket downstairs. "Don't ask how much [I spent on groceries] and I won't ask why you've turned the kitchen inside out," she says.

"Sweet Dreams" is a story in a very different key, a blackly comic satire. The story is narrated in the second person by an anonymous character describing a visit to the dream auditor—an official in charge of collecting taxes on dreams. Seattle citizens, hard up for government cash, have voted to require individuals to file annual reports to the dream-tax bureau on what kind of dreams they intend to have that year. Their estimates are then verified by "a little black box roughly the size of a cell phone with an LCD that digitally reads out the number of dreams you have in a night." The dream box also measures their duration and category, and assesses a fee for each one. Recurring dreams are taxed at twice the normal rate and nightmares are three times higher.

The person in this narrative is being questioned by a robot-like bureaucrat for failing to report naps and daydreams, a mistake that will cost him $91,645.14. (A dream inspired by reading the Odyssey before bedtime cost $500 alone.) "You should be more careful what you read at bedtime," the auditor cautions him.

At nine pages, "Cultural Relativity" is the shortest and oddest of the stories. Felicia Brooks is a senior at the University of Washington and engaged to the son of an African king. Felicia and her friends think Fortunata is perfect. He is handsome and smart, and every day he enchants her with ancient stories from his father's kingdom. The only problem is he refuses, under any circumstances, to kiss her. When Felicia decides to force herself on him, he—like any man too good to be true—turns into a frog.

"The Gift of the Osuo" is a story that cautions to be careful what you wish for. It centers on a "kind, large-bellied" African king in possession of a piece of magic chalk. Whatever the king sketches jumps to life. Shabaka tries to do good for his people. He sketches a prosperous and joyous kingdom. But the story ends sadly when the kingdom collapses and Shabaka and his people are captured by a rival tribe and sold to American slave traders.

Overall, Dr. King's Refrigerator is an enjoyable collection. The price might make some readers hesitate—$20 for just 120 pages—and some of the stories move a tad slowly. But for those who are willing to set aside the constraints of the workaday world and become as children again, Johnson's book may offer a delightful return to the pleasures of the bedtime story.

Rachel DiCarlo is an assistant editor at The Weekly Standard.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Scribner has more information on Dr. King's Refrigerator, including an excerpt.

More information on Johnson is available from the Charles Johnson Society, OxherdingTale.com, and the University of Washington.

Books & Culture Corner and Books & Culture's Book of the Week, from Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture: A Christian Review (want a free trial issue?), appears regularly on Tuesdays at Christianity Today. Earlier editions include:

Looking for God on the Holy Mountain | A journey to Mount Athos. (Apr. 25, 2005)

The Words of the Word | Two sharply contrasting perspectives on Bible translation. (April 19, 2005)

Divine Comedies | A report on Baylor's Art & Soul conference, version 2005. (April 12, 2005)

Unbelievable | Religion is really, really bad for you. (April 05, 2005)

This Land Is Whose Land? | An impassioned plea on behalf of the "caribou people" in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the land they have inhabited for nearly 20,000 years. (March 22, 2005)

All in Her Head | How a chronic pain sufferer found a little bit of strength in a lot of weakness. (March 15, 2005)

My Likeness, My Brother | A powerful autobiographical work from a prizewinning creator of comics in France. (March 08, 2005)

Looking for Yogi | The 2005 Spring Training preview. (March 01, 2005)

Gut Check | Blink makes the case for intuitive judgment. (Feb. 22, 2005)

Wayfaring Strangers | Set in Mexico, Anita Desai's latest novel is a compact but multilayered tale of pilgrimage. (Feb. 01, 2005)

What Do You Mean, 'Moral' Fiction? | John Gardner, Martin Amis, and the ethics of the novel. (Jan. 25, 2005)

Taking the T.U.L.I.P. Out of the Garden | Relating Calvinism to "the complexities of contemporary life." (Jan. 18, 2005)