Monday, November 20, 2006

Towing Jehovah - James Morrow


Now this is what I call outlandish fiction. The basic premise in this 1995 world fantasy award winner is that God has died, and his body needs transporting to his resting place. As I see it there’s only a few ways you could treat this subject, either with a perfect sense of formality, tailoring to a religious viewpoint or you can go for the laughs, and insult every religion possible along the way.

James Morrow chose the latter option.

And I’m thankful he did. Often the book borders on the ludicrously inane, the characters are quite flat, and are very type cast, and the book does sometimes have a strange sentimentality to it all. Yet, it is a funny book, and in a satirical ironic tone, that has some surreal and quite often hilarious moments, you really start to connect with the story, well you would when the central theme is of towing God by his ears from the back of an oil tanker.

Not a very great emotional impact, though this is more than compensated for by the outrageous way Morrow tackles the themes in the book.

Towing Jehovah – 7/10

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