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caitpoytress's review
3.0
This reminded me of a shorter and smarter version of a Christopher Moore novel (no disrespect intended; believe me, Moore is no dummy). Only 3 stars because I thought it was strongest in the beginning and weakened a bit as it progressed.
blackoxford's review against another edition
4.0
Miracle Was My Metier
Watching the new Sherlock Holmes series on the BBC last night, I was intrigued by the script's repetition of the Americanism "It is what it is" as a designation of inevitability and fatefulness. C.S. Lewis had used the phrase in his 1943 Mere Christianity, possibly for the first time. But its origin is much more ancient. It is one of the many possible translations of one of the biblical identifiers of God. Hebrew is inherently metaphorical and has only limited ways to express past, present and future tenses. Yahweh, ehyeh asher ehyeh in Hebrew, one of the principle biblical names of God, can alternatively be translated as "I am Who I am," "I will be What I will be," "He is What he is,"or indeed, at a stretch, "It is What It is."
"It is what it is" could well be the catch-phrase for Stanley Elkin's The Living End. Its protagonist is a divine being who as inexplicable as the phrase implies. From the point of view of the world this unpredictable being has created, the theme could be "No good deed goes unpunished". Or less laconically but more philosophically, "A good man in an evil world is a misfit and deserves some form of punishment." Elkin's principle human subject, Ellerbee, is just such a man. And Elkin's God has few scruples about making his life and everyone else's not only a misery but also a complete waste of time.
Despite being condemned to the hell of Hell, "where even the disciplined reflexes of martyrs and stylites twitched like thrown dice", Ellerbee, a man of remarkable charity while alive, can't stop trying to make even the lives of the damned better. He digs channels to drain vomit and puss. He tries to organise community.
Until he discovers that it is precisely the need to socialise, to make contact with those in similar agony by projecting their own images into others that is the motive force, the engine, of Hell. Heaven on the other hand is filled with all manner of "high-echelon" celebrities, the Elect. A reversal that's a bit much to digest, even for a saint.
Ellerbee, like the biblical Job, can only pray in a blasphemous litany to the "Lord God of Ambush and Unconditional Surrender...Power Play God of Judo Leverage, Grand Guignol, Martial Artist...Browbeater...Bouncer Being, Boss of Bullies... Old Terrorist, God the Father, God the Godfather." Accurate names, if not particularly praise-worthy.
More insistent than the biblical Job, Ellerbee demands an explanation even after an attempt by God at intimidation. Ellerbee is informed that, although he did indeed act decently and humanely throughout his life, he technically had broken many of the commandments - keeping his shop open on the Sabbath, blasphemous usage of the divine name, and participation in various other suspect activities like dancing, driving automobiles, and smoking cigarettes.
Although more than a bit burlesqued, the God that Ellerbee confronts is no more insane than that described in the Bible, even if He is a bit more inventive. Turns out there are worse places than Hell, as Ellerbee's murderer, and lately pal in the nether regions, Ladlehaus, finds out when he sasses the Almighty. A place not of pain but of utter aloneness, one's earthly grave, from which one can plead with a completely unresponsive living world for succour.
Except eventually there is a response: from a sadistic paedophile, Quiz, who takes acute pleasure in feeding Ladlehaus misinformation about what's happening in the world. Quiz also schools his young victims in how to be interlocutors with the interred Ladlehaus, but even this concession is withdrawn by the Almighty for no apparent reason.
Ladlehaus's experience of this Hell beyond Hell is one of uncertainty, half-heard conversations, and constantly dashed hopes - more or less life without the worst parts. Until, provoking God to precipitous lethal action, he causes Quiz's death. Not bad for a twice-damned wraith.
Quiz, the paedophile, is outraged, "I make no charges, I've got no proof, but a thing like that, all that wrath, those terrible swift sword arrangements, that's the M.O. Of God Himself! ...I was Pearl Harbor'd ...December Seventh'd by the Lord." Surprisingly, this rage surprises even God. First He is surprised that he is surprised; then he is surprised that upon reflection, He thinks he might have over-reacted in killing Quiz.
God then goes into conference with Christ, His Son, to thrash out, apparently for the first time, some old, unresolved issues - like the Father's throwing the Son under the bus in Jerusalem. Christ clearly has a smouldering grudge, but not against humanity. "What did those poor bastards ever do to me?", he says. It's Pa he's got the grudge against.
Christ quickly gets to the point he's been brooding on for eternity. In a tone of "rage cornered" he says: "Absolve Me, shrive Me, wipe My slate, Put me on your tab, pick up My check. Carry Me. Forgive Us Our debts as We forgive Our debtors, Luv." Pa, however, remains implacable.
But lo and behold the juice of Hell gets turned down, perhaps even off. Behind the scenes, possibly, the woman with the "fruity womb", Jesus's virginal mother living in a sort of heavenly house arrest, has been inserting some rationality and common sense into the divine thought processes. Whatever the motivation God turns down the heat.
Respite gives those in the nether world time to consider their situation. The meaning of death for example, about which some can wax philosophical: "Death made no sense but it meant something." And the meaning of death? "The meaning of death is how long it takes."
This and other secrets, like the name of Kennedy's assassin as well as the mysteries of suffering and divine retribution, are revealed by an increasingly (and suspiciously) avuncular God. And why exactly did God engage in a creation in the first place given the all-round misery it has caused? God finally comes clean: "Because it makes a better story is why."
With that revelation, the dead of all ages begin to rise from the ground and the depths. "Like elopers they left their burials." But there is no general joy and jubilation. There are complaints. The world is cold after the fires of Hell, amputees and organ donors are left at a disadvantage, the stench is overwhelming.
But no matter. God assembles everyone and everything for a universal pow-wow. His final announcement is explicitly theatrical. "I never found my audience.", He repeats over and over to Christ, the angels, Mary (now divinely expecting once again) and the assembled masses. And then he inexplicably and summarily... extinguishes it all. He annihilates everything that exists. Including Himself.
Omnipotence is tiring after all. And it is what it is: A story. And stories must indeed have an audience.
So perhaps there is/was/will be (to be a bit Hebraic) such a God and we are but his thoughts, as some philosophers have surmised. And perhaps such a God can learn, that is, become self-reflectively conscious of his own thoughts, as he appears to do in the Bible. Is that really such a good thing? His very consciousness of Himself and the somewhat random nature of His thoughts might just be enough to provoke an Elkin-like implosion. The last unfortunate miracle.
Watching the new Sherlock Holmes series on the BBC last night, I was intrigued by the script's repetition of the Americanism "It is what it is" as a designation of inevitability and fatefulness. C.S. Lewis had used the phrase in his 1943 Mere Christianity, possibly for the first time. But its origin is much more ancient. It is one of the many possible translations of one of the biblical identifiers of God. Hebrew is inherently metaphorical and has only limited ways to express past, present and future tenses. Yahweh, ehyeh asher ehyeh in Hebrew, one of the principle biblical names of God, can alternatively be translated as "I am Who I am," "I will be What I will be," "He is What he is,"or indeed, at a stretch, "It is What It is."
"It is what it is" could well be the catch-phrase for Stanley Elkin's The Living End. Its protagonist is a divine being who as inexplicable as the phrase implies. From the point of view of the world this unpredictable being has created, the theme could be "No good deed goes unpunished". Or less laconically but more philosophically, "A good man in an evil world is a misfit and deserves some form of punishment." Elkin's principle human subject, Ellerbee, is just such a man. And Elkin's God has few scruples about making his life and everyone else's not only a misery but also a complete waste of time.
Despite being condemned to the hell of Hell, "where even the disciplined reflexes of martyrs and stylites twitched like thrown dice", Ellerbee, a man of remarkable charity while alive, can't stop trying to make even the lives of the damned better. He digs channels to drain vomit and puss. He tries to organise community.
Until he discovers that it is precisely the need to socialise, to make contact with those in similar agony by projecting their own images into others that is the motive force, the engine, of Hell. Heaven on the other hand is filled with all manner of "high-echelon" celebrities, the Elect. A reversal that's a bit much to digest, even for a saint.
Ellerbee, like the biblical Job, can only pray in a blasphemous litany to the "Lord God of Ambush and Unconditional Surrender...Power Play God of Judo Leverage, Grand Guignol, Martial Artist...Browbeater...Bouncer Being, Boss of Bullies... Old Terrorist, God the Father, God the Godfather." Accurate names, if not particularly praise-worthy.
More insistent than the biblical Job, Ellerbee demands an explanation even after an attempt by God at intimidation. Ellerbee is informed that, although he did indeed act decently and humanely throughout his life, he technically had broken many of the commandments - keeping his shop open on the Sabbath, blasphemous usage of the divine name, and participation in various other suspect activities like dancing, driving automobiles, and smoking cigarettes.
Although more than a bit burlesqued, the God that Ellerbee confronts is no more insane than that described in the Bible, even if He is a bit more inventive. Turns out there are worse places than Hell, as Ellerbee's murderer, and lately pal in the nether regions, Ladlehaus, finds out when he sasses the Almighty. A place not of pain but of utter aloneness, one's earthly grave, from which one can plead with a completely unresponsive living world for succour.
Except eventually there is a response: from a sadistic paedophile, Quiz, who takes acute pleasure in feeding Ladlehaus misinformation about what's happening in the world. Quiz also schools his young victims in how to be interlocutors with the interred Ladlehaus, but even this concession is withdrawn by the Almighty for no apparent reason.
Ladlehaus's experience of this Hell beyond Hell is one of uncertainty, half-heard conversations, and constantly dashed hopes - more or less life without the worst parts. Until, provoking God to precipitous lethal action, he causes Quiz's death. Not bad for a twice-damned wraith.
Quiz, the paedophile, is outraged, "I make no charges, I've got no proof, but a thing like that, all that wrath, those terrible swift sword arrangements, that's the M.O. Of God Himself! ...I was Pearl Harbor'd ...December Seventh'd by the Lord." Surprisingly, this rage surprises even God. First He is surprised that he is surprised; then he is surprised that upon reflection, He thinks he might have over-reacted in killing Quiz.
God then goes into conference with Christ, His Son, to thrash out, apparently for the first time, some old, unresolved issues - like the Father's throwing the Son under the bus in Jerusalem. Christ clearly has a smouldering grudge, but not against humanity. "What did those poor bastards ever do to me?", he says. It's Pa he's got the grudge against.
Christ quickly gets to the point he's been brooding on for eternity. In a tone of "rage cornered" he says: "Absolve Me, shrive Me, wipe My slate, Put me on your tab, pick up My check. Carry Me. Forgive Us Our debts as We forgive Our debtors, Luv." Pa, however, remains implacable.
But lo and behold the juice of Hell gets turned down, perhaps even off. Behind the scenes, possibly, the woman with the "fruity womb", Jesus's virginal mother living in a sort of heavenly house arrest, has been inserting some rationality and common sense into the divine thought processes. Whatever the motivation God turns down the heat.
Respite gives those in the nether world time to consider their situation. The meaning of death for example, about which some can wax philosophical: "Death made no sense but it meant something." And the meaning of death? "The meaning of death is how long it takes."
This and other secrets, like the name of Kennedy's assassin as well as the mysteries of suffering and divine retribution, are revealed by an increasingly (and suspiciously) avuncular God. And why exactly did God engage in a creation in the first place given the all-round misery it has caused? God finally comes clean: "Because it makes a better story is why."
With that revelation, the dead of all ages begin to rise from the ground and the depths. "Like elopers they left their burials." But there is no general joy and jubilation. There are complaints. The world is cold after the fires of Hell, amputees and organ donors are left at a disadvantage, the stench is overwhelming.
But no matter. God assembles everyone and everything for a universal pow-wow. His final announcement is explicitly theatrical. "I never found my audience.", He repeats over and over to Christ, the angels, Mary (now divinely expecting once again) and the assembled masses. And then he inexplicably and summarily... extinguishes it all. He annihilates everything that exists. Including Himself.
Omnipotence is tiring after all. And it is what it is: A story. And stories must indeed have an audience.
So perhaps there is/was/will be (to be a bit Hebraic) such a God and we are but his thoughts, as some philosophers have surmised. And perhaps such a God can learn, that is, become self-reflectively conscious of his own thoughts, as he appears to do in the Bible. Is that really such a good thing? His very consciousness of Himself and the somewhat random nature of His thoughts might just be enough to provoke an Elkin-like implosion. The last unfortunate miracle.
recognitions's review
challenging
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
libbymon's review
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
elmeco's review
3.0
The synopsis of this book tries to sell this as "A contemporary Divine Comedy"... Not even close. Started off REALLY great... and then went nowhere... Loved Part I, Ellerbee was such an interesting character that Elkins built up and went nowhere with, no closure either for the poor guy. Part II was a confusing mess. Part III was better, the dialogue with God, Jesus, and Mary was fun, very Saramago-esque. That's about it...
blackoxford's review
4.0
Miracle Was My Metier
Watching the new Sherlock Holmes series on the BBC last night, I was intrigued by the script's repetition of the Americanism "It is what it is" as a designation of inevitability and fatefulness. C.S. Lewis had used the phrase in his 1943 Mere Christianity, possibly for the first time. But its origin is much more ancient. It is one of the many possible translations of one of the biblical identifiers of God. Hebrew is inherently metaphorical and has only limited ways to express past, present and future tenses. Yahweh, ehyeh asher ehyeh in Hebrew, one of the principle biblical names of God, can alternatively be translated as "I am Who I am," "I will be What I will be," "He is What he is,"or indeed, at a stretch, "It is What It is."
"It is what it is" could well be the catch-phrase for Stanley Elkin's The Living End. Its protagonist is a divine being who as inexplicable as the phrase implies. From the point of view of the world this unpredictable being has created, the theme could be "No good deed goes unpunished". Or less laconically but more philosophically, "A good man in an evil world is a misfit and deserves some form of punishment." Elkin's principle human subject, Ellerbee, is just such a man. And Elkin's God has few scruples about making his life and everyone else's not only a misery but also a complete waste of time.
Despite being condemned to the hell of Hell, "where even the disciplined reflexes of martyrs and stylites twitched like thrown dice", Ellerbee, a man of remarkable charity while alive, can't stop trying to make even the lives of the damned better. He digs channels to drain vomit and puss. He tries to organise community.
Until he discovers that it is precisely the need to socialise, to make contact with those in similar agony by projecting their own images into others that is the motive force, the engine, of Hell. Heaven on the other hand is filled with all manner of "high-echelon" celebrities, the Elect. A reversal that's a bit much to digest, even for a saint.
Ellerbee, like the biblical Job, can only pray in a blasphemous litany to the "Lord God of Ambush and Unconditional Surrender...Power Play God of Judo Leverage, Grand Guignol, Martial Artist...Browbeater...Bouncer Being, Boss of Bullies... Old Terrorist, God the Father, God the Godfather." Accurate names, if not particularly praise-worthy.
More insistent than the biblical Job, Ellerbee demands an explanation even after an attempt by God at intimidation. Ellerbee is informed that, although he did indeed act decently and humanely throughout his life, he technically had broken many of the commandments - keeping his shop open on the Sabbath, blasphemous usage of the divine name, and participation in various other suspect activities like dancing, driving automobiles, and smoking cigarettes.
Although more than a bit burlesqued, the God that Ellerbee confronts is no more insane than that described in the Bible, even if He is a bit more inventive. Turns out there are worse places than Hell, as Ellerbee's murderer, and lately pal in the nether regions, Ladlehaus, finds out when he sasses the Almighty. A place not of pain but of utter aloneness, one's earthly grave, from which one can plead with a completely unresponsive living world for succour.
Except eventually there is a response: from a sadistic paedophile, Quiz, who takes acute pleasure in feeding Ladlehaus misinformation about what's happening in the world. Quiz also schools his young victims in how to be interlocutors with the interred Ladlehaus, but even this concession is withdrawn by the Almighty for no apparent reason.
Ladlehaus's experience of this Hell beyond Hell is one of uncertainty, half-heard conversations, and constantly dashed hopes - more or less life without the worst parts. Until, provoking God to precipitous lethal action, he causes Quiz's death. Not bad for a twice-damned wraith.
Quiz, the paedophile, is outraged, "I make no charges, I've got no proof, but a thing like that, all that wrath, those terrible swift sword arrangements, that's the M.O. Of God Himself! ...I was Pearl Harbor'd ...December Seventh'd by the Lord." Surprisingly, this rage surprises even God. First He is surprised that he is surprised; then he is surprised that upon reflection, He thinks he might have over-reacted in killing Quiz.
God then goes into conference with Christ, His Son, to thrash out, apparently for the first time, some old, unresolved issues - like the Father's throwing the Son under the bus in Jerusalem. Christ clearly has a smouldering grudge, but not against humanity. "What did those poor bastards ever do to me?", he says. It's Pa he's got the grudge against.
Christ quickly gets to the point he's been brooding on for eternity. In a tone of "rage cornered" he says: "Absolve Me, shrive Me, wipe My slate, Put me on your tab, pick up My check. Carry Me. Forgive Us Our debts as We forgive Our debtors, Luv." Pa, however, remains implacable.
But lo and behold the juice of Hell gets turned down, perhaps even off. Behind the scenes, possibly, the woman with the "fruity womb", Jesus's virginal mother living in a sort of heavenly house arrest, has been inserting some rationality and common sense into the divine thought processes. Whatever the motivation God turns down the heat.
Respite gives those in the nether world time to consider their situation. The meaning of death for example, about which some can wax philosophical: "Death made no sense but it meant something." And the meaning of death? "The meaning of death is how long it takes."
This and other secrets, like the name of Kennedy's assassin as well as the mysteries of suffering and divine retribution, are revealed by an increasingly (and suspiciously) avuncular God. And why exactly did God engage in a creation in the first place given the all-round misery it has caused? God finally comes clean: "Because it makes a better story is why."
With that revelation, the dead of all ages begin to rise from the ground and the depths. "Like elopers they left their burials." But there is no general joy and jubilation. There are complaints. The world is cold after the fires of Hell, amputees and organ donors are left at a disadvantage, the stench is overwhelming.
But no matter. God assembles everyone and everything for a universal pow-wow. His final announcement is explicitly theatrical. "I never found my audience.", He repeats over and over to Christ, the angels, Mary (now divinely expecting once again) and the assembled masses. And then he inexplicably and summarily... extinguishes it all. He annihilates everything that exists. Including Himself.
Omnipotence is tiring after all. And it is what it is: A story. And stories must indeed have an audience.
So perhaps there is/was/will be (to be a bit Hebraic) such a God and we are but his thoughts, as some philosophers have surmised. And perhaps such a God can learn, that is, become self-reflectively conscious of his own thoughts, as he appears to do in the Bible. Is that really such a good thing? His very consciousness of Himself and the somewhat random nature of His thoughts might just be enough to provoke an Elkin-like implosion. The last unfortunate miracle.
Watching the new Sherlock Holmes series on the BBC last night, I was intrigued by the script's repetition of the Americanism "It is what it is" as a designation of inevitability and fatefulness. C.S. Lewis had used the phrase in his 1943 Mere Christianity, possibly for the first time. But its origin is much more ancient. It is one of the many possible translations of one of the biblical identifiers of God. Hebrew is inherently metaphorical and has only limited ways to express past, present and future tenses. Yahweh, ehyeh asher ehyeh in Hebrew, one of the principle biblical names of God, can alternatively be translated as "I am Who I am," "I will be What I will be," "He is What he is,"or indeed, at a stretch, "It is What It is."
"It is what it is" could well be the catch-phrase for Stanley Elkin's The Living End. Its protagonist is a divine being who as inexplicable as the phrase implies. From the point of view of the world this unpredictable being has created, the theme could be "No good deed goes unpunished". Or less laconically but more philosophically, "A good man in an evil world is a misfit and deserves some form of punishment." Elkin's principle human subject, Ellerbee, is just such a man. And Elkin's God has few scruples about making his life and everyone else's not only a misery but also a complete waste of time.
Despite being condemned to the hell of Hell, "where even the disciplined reflexes of martyrs and stylites twitched like thrown dice", Ellerbee, a man of remarkable charity while alive, can't stop trying to make even the lives of the damned better. He digs channels to drain vomit and puss. He tries to organise community.
Until he discovers that it is precisely the need to socialise, to make contact with those in similar agony by projecting their own images into others that is the motive force, the engine, of Hell. Heaven on the other hand is filled with all manner of "high-echelon" celebrities, the Elect. A reversal that's a bit much to digest, even for a saint.
Ellerbee, like the biblical Job, can only pray in a blasphemous litany to the "Lord God of Ambush and Unconditional Surrender...Power Play God of Judo Leverage, Grand Guignol, Martial Artist...Browbeater...Bouncer Being, Boss of Bullies... Old Terrorist, God the Father, God the Godfather." Accurate names, if not particularly praise-worthy.
More insistent than the biblical Job, Ellerbee demands an explanation even after an attempt by God at intimidation. Ellerbee is informed that, although he did indeed act decently and humanely throughout his life, he technically had broken many of the commandments - keeping his shop open on the Sabbath, blasphemous usage of the divine name, and participation in various other suspect activities like dancing, driving automobiles, and smoking cigarettes.
Although more than a bit burlesqued, the God that Ellerbee confronts is no more insane than that described in the Bible, even if He is a bit more inventive. Turns out there are worse places than Hell, as Ellerbee's murderer, and lately pal in the nether regions, Ladlehaus, finds out when he sasses the Almighty. A place not of pain but of utter aloneness, one's earthly grave, from which one can plead with a completely unresponsive living world for succour.
Except eventually there is a response: from a sadistic paedophile, Quiz, who takes acute pleasure in feeding Ladlehaus misinformation about what's happening in the world. Quiz also schools his young victims in how to be interlocutors with the interred Ladlehaus, but even this concession is withdrawn by the Almighty for no apparent reason.
Ladlehaus's experience of this Hell beyond Hell is one of uncertainty, half-heard conversations, and constantly dashed hopes - more or less life without the worst parts. Until, provoking God to precipitous lethal action, he causes Quiz's death. Not bad for a twice-damned wraith.
Quiz, the paedophile, is outraged, "I make no charges, I've got no proof, but a thing like that, all that wrath, those terrible swift sword arrangements, that's the M.O. Of God Himself! ...I was Pearl Harbor'd ...December Seventh'd by the Lord." Surprisingly, this rage surprises even God. First He is surprised that he is surprised; then he is surprised that upon reflection, He thinks he might have over-reacted in killing Quiz.
God then goes into conference with Christ, His Son, to thrash out, apparently for the first time, some old, unresolved issues - like the Father's throwing the Son under the bus in Jerusalem. Christ clearly has a smouldering grudge, but not against humanity. "What did those poor bastards ever do to me?", he says. It's Pa he's got the grudge against.
Christ quickly gets to the point he's been brooding on for eternity. In a tone of "rage cornered" he says: "Absolve Me, shrive Me, wipe My slate, Put me on your tab, pick up My check. Carry Me. Forgive Us Our debts as We forgive Our debtors, Luv." Pa, however, remains implacable.
But lo and behold the juice of Hell gets turned down, perhaps even off. Behind the scenes, possibly, the woman with the "fruity womb", Jesus's virginal mother living in a sort of heavenly house arrest, has been inserting some rationality and common sense into the divine thought processes. Whatever the motivation God turns down the heat.
Respite gives those in the nether world time to consider their situation. The meaning of death for example, about which some can wax philosophical: "Death made no sense but it meant something." And the meaning of death? "The meaning of death is how long it takes."
This and other secrets, like the name of Kennedy's assassin as well as the mysteries of suffering and divine retribution, are revealed by an increasingly (and suspiciously) avuncular God. And why exactly did God engage in a creation in the first place given the all-round misery it has caused? God finally comes clean: "Because it makes a better story is why."
With that revelation, the dead of all ages begin to rise from the ground and the depths. "Like elopers they left their burials." But there is no general joy and jubilation. There are complaints. The world is cold after the fires of Hell, amputees and organ donors are left at a disadvantage, the stench is overwhelming.
But no matter. God assembles everyone and everything for a universal pow-wow. His final announcement is explicitly theatrical. "I never found my audience.", He repeats over and over to Christ, the angels, Mary (now divinely expecting once again) and the assembled masses. And then he inexplicably and summarily... extinguishes it all. He annihilates everything that exists. Including Himself.
Omnipotence is tiring after all. And it is what it is: A story. And stories must indeed have an audience.
So perhaps there is/was/will be (to be a bit Hebraic) such a God and we are but his thoughts, as some philosophers have surmised. And perhaps such a God can learn, that is, become self-reflectively conscious of his own thoughts, as he appears to do in the Bible. Is that really such a good thing? His very consciousness of Himself and the somewhat random nature of His thoughts might just be enough to provoke an Elkin-like implosion. The last unfortunate miracle.
zachkuhn's review
5.0
Recommended to me by Curtis White, who wrote the introduction and is a genius. Srsly.
Elkin rules.
Elkin rules.
gastronauta's review
4.0
This is Dante's [b:The Divine Comedy|6656|The Divine Comedy|Dante Alighieri|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320552051s/6656.jpg|809248] on acid. Lots of acid.
It starts out with Mr. Ellerbee, a kind-hearted man who, after getting shot at his own liquor shop, gets sent to hell for thinking that Heaven looks like a theme park. Part II follows Ladlehaus, one of Mr. Ellerbee's assailants, as he gets relocated to a Purgatory of sorts for putting God in the uncomfortable position of making a mistake. Finally, part III features Quiz, a groundskeeper who is randomly killed by God because he wouldn't let him concentrate. It all comes together in a rather bizarre Last Judgement scene.
It's funny how down to earth (tee hee hee) everyone is, though. God is a bit of a loser, Jesus whines, Mary feels her privacy has been violated, and Joseph wonders when he'll be allowed to shag her already.
Dark and absurd and priceless stuff. It's also amazingly well written, in case anyone cares.
It starts out with Mr. Ellerbee, a kind-hearted man who, after getting shot at his own liquor shop, gets sent to hell for thinking that Heaven looks like a theme park. Part II follows Ladlehaus, one of Mr. Ellerbee's assailants, as he gets relocated to a Purgatory of sorts for putting God in the uncomfortable position of making a mistake. Finally, part III features Quiz, a groundskeeper who is randomly killed by God because he wouldn't let him concentrate. It all comes together in a rather bizarre Last Judgement scene.
It's funny how down to earth (tee hee hee) everyone is, though. God is a bit of a loser, Jesus whines, Mary feels her privacy has been violated, and Joseph wonders when he'll be allowed to shag her already.
Dark and absurd and priceless stuff. It's also amazingly well written, in case anyone cares.
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