Customer Reviews

Towing Jehovah

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I first started reading Towing Jehovah, I'm not sure what I expected. What I got was a very funny (laugh-out-loud funny) satirical novel that is about towing the 2 mile long body of God to Antartica for preservation.

I didn't expect it but the book was terrific. I've ordered the two sequels and looking forward to devouring them!

It has been a while since i have read this, but I remember it being an interesting read. I think it ended up fizzling out a little at the end, but it left a good enough impression on me that I am using it to direct me to other books like it.

God, a 2 mile giant, croaks and floats in the ocean. What now?
I laughed and thought a lot. You won't forget this one! James Morrow is a gem. A World Fantasy Award Winner. (You never know where these books will take you.)

P>TOWING JEHOVAH starts with an intriguing premise; if God were dead, what would happen to the body? In this case, it lies in the Atlantic Ocean, a two mile-long corpse of staggering dimensions. Faced with this dilemma, leaderless angels take it upon themselves to contact the Vatican, hire a ship commanded by the disgraced captain of a horrific oil spill (think EXXON), and tow the body to the Arctic, where an icy tomb awaits.

Along the way, a variety of people and events serve to point out the many, MANY foibles of mankind. Suddenly faced with the prospect of life without constant watch from above, the boat's crew begins to experiment with life in Anno Postdomini One. Sin becomes pointless, and anarchy begins to take hold. Murder occurs, sex explodes, and gluttony becomes the order of the day, despite the ship's Vatican representative insisting that despite the lack of a supreme being, it does not negate the Kantian moral law that exists within.

The Vatican (or, the Big See) faces extinction, and attempt to hide God's death from the public. Devoted atheists, also facing extinction, seek to destroy the corpse, thus hiding proof of God's existence. I recall a particular sketch from Canadian comedy troupe THE KIDS IN THE HALL; a priest, faced with proof that God both existed and is dead, solemnly intones, "I've got some good news . . . and some bad news."

Critics have compared Morrow's tale to the works of Jonathan Swift, but the comparison is not accurate. Morrow's methods are a much more direct version of satire than Swift, who preferred metaphor to direct comparison. This is not to slight Morrow's accomplishments at all, only to point out that Morrow's targets are never in doubt. Vonnegut is a far more incisive comparison in both Morrow's scope and humour.

However, Morrow has a more detailed style than Vonnegut. Where Vonnegut's classics read as fables in their simplicity of design and form, Morrow favours more descriptive language, more asides as to the nature of his characters and settings.

For example, Morrow goes into unexpectedly particular depiction of God's floating body. As the shipmates watch over the gigantic corpse, ensuring that scavengers do not make off with large chunks of it, the overall immensity of the body hits home. Hunters drive jeeps over the belly, into the navel. Divers swim into the ear canal to attach tow hooks. Trekkers pause in the shade of a mole.

While Morrow unflinchingly details the descent into chaos that mankind is capable of, TOWING JEHOVAH is not a condemnation of our faults. It is a celebration of everything that makes us who we are, capturing the beauty and sorrow of our existence in equal measure.

In TOWING JEHOVAH, Morrow has captured the comedic essence of mankind's search for meaning beyond what we can see. Like Vonnegut, he satirizes while sympathizing, a rare combination. If Morrow can avoid the almost standard protests that accompany the more widely seen films that question faith (e.g., DOGMA, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST), he may reach the level of respectability that Vonnegut has achieved.

James Morrow has made eschatological science fiction and fantasy his domain over the past ten years. He started with the short stories "Bible Stories for Adults", which garnered him a Nebula award, then quickly followed up with a novel in the same vein, 1990's Only Begotten Daughter, in which the second coming of God comes in the female form. His latest novel, Towing Jehovah, continues his study of modern religion with the ultimate test of faith--the Death of God.

Anthony Van Horne is a disgraced oil freighter Captain who lost his post after a disastrous collision with a reef in the Gulf of Mexico that spilled crude over a 20 mile stretch of Texas coastline. His ablutions prove fruitful, because it is he who the archangel Raphael chooses to helm the most important salvage operation of all time. Yes, God is dead and floating supine in tropical waters. The angels, who are dying of empathy, have carved him a tomb in the Antartic and want Van Horne to take control of his recently repaired oil freighter, find the Corpus Dei, and tow it to its icy grave.

Joining Van Horne is Thomas Ockham, the controversial New York priest cum physicist, personally selected by the Vatican in consultation with the archangel Gabriel to be the spiritual leader of the expedition. The Vatican has its own goal--due to the calculations of its powerful computer OMNIVAC, it has determined that due to the size of the corpse, brain death may not have fully occurred, and the faster the corpse is frozen, the better the chance that God's neurons might be saved. Along the way, Van Horne rescues Dr. Cassandra Fowler, adrift in the tropics due to a failed trip to the Galapagos Islands in a recreation of Darwin's famous voyage in the Beagle. Unbeknownst to Van Horne, Fowler is a member of a radical feminist/atheist organization and is determined to sink Van Horne's cargo instead of taking the chance that the current patriarchal system use it as proof of the gender of the creator just as feminist advances had made such inroads against the system.

Morrow's novel is both audacious and extremely funny. While some find his eschatological studies sacrilegious, I do not think that is his intent (beyond the obvious establishment nose-tweaking). Morrow, in true science fiction fashion, is postulating "What If," but instead of writing about starships and aliens, Morrow examines culture and religion. For his background sources he utilizes the work of Kant, Thomas Moore, and Heigel, following the long tradition of philosophers trying to explain the ultimate mystery of creation. While Morrow's text is serious in its intent, it remains a modern novel, full of character and events, some of which may also offend gentler sensibilities. For those willing to play what if, however, Morrow has found his niche, and he continues to mine gold.

I came across Morrow's novels through a Freethinker's website. I don't know whether I'm a theist or not, but I appreciate the idea of a post-theist world. There are some masterful moments in this book, which I had a hard time putting down. I read the whole series in 4 days! (I intend to write reviews of "Blameless in Abaddon" and "The Eternal Footman.") I was tickled by the subplot involving Cassie Fowler and her little coffee klatsch of free-thinkers. I know someone just like her so I couldn't help but think of this woman as I was reading.

There were a number of fairly well-developed minor characters as well. Weisinger will stay with me for a long time to come as will Fr. Thomas Ockham. Morrow doesn't condescend to his theistic characters, though he is rightfully unsympathetic to the one representative of oranized religion that appears in the book. And at the close, I did find myself getting emotional. At the beginning of the book, Raphael hints at what will be coming at the end -- a scene with Van Horne's dysfunctional father. I found myself crying at that scene, but I am an old softy.

It's a very good read, and one that I found more fruitful than Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I can't help but compare the two in my head. They're very different, but they say similar things and I think this one is superior.

I became aware of James Morrow because I happen to live in the same town as him. He's made the local news a few times as his books have been banned by religious conservatives. This is my first novel of his and I can see what the fuss is about. There are some truly hysterical plot elements in this story, like God's corpse floating in the ocean, a sinful civilization rising from the sea, and a rambunctious World War II reenactment that ends up with as much carnage as the real thing. There are some gaps in the plot madness, and a few boners like two characters near the end of the book observing the Milky Way from the middle of Manhattan (remember: light pollution). But those glitches are minor. While your mind reels at the bizarre concepts of the plot, Morrow injects some heavy sermonizing on the state of Christianity, from a clear rationalist and atheist perspective. This is the source of the religious trouble, but folks who ban books think you are too weak to think for yourself. There is real food for thought here, and while it might not be digestible for everybody, you can still find this novel to be one of the more bizarre and entertaining things you've read in a while.

The author treats his characters with great dignity and compassion, even as they go about their odd task. The priest and the nun ring true as real people, and their relationship (or lack thereof) seems very honest.

The great thing about this book is that, except for the Corpus Dei, it exists in the real world, where real people live, making realistic decisions.

Fun! I'm a devout Christian, but I'd read this athiest's work again.

I enjoyed the entire book. The subplots offer fascinating questions to think about years later. For instance; how was Cassie, a self-avowed atheist, changed when she forced herself to pray for rescue and then the non-existent "jerk" came through?
God's will, serendipity, What???
I wish Mr. Morrow had chosen "Serving God" as the title.

Towing Jehovah has one of the best starting points for a plot that I have ever seen: GOD IS DEAD(!) Body's fallen into the ocean. Some dude's gotta go get him out. When I first heard about this book, I was almost overcome with giddy excitement.

Unfortunately, this book doesn't go about the story in the way that you might expect. The "dead God" angle is actually secondary to the human interest part of the story - which is as it should be, some might say, but I came into this book looking for a theological satire, not a human story with a dead God as the backdrop.

This is not to say the book is bad, however. It is, in fact, quite good. It just may not be exactly what you're expecting. As satire, it falls short of Vonnegut and Heller - and even Heinlein's masterful JOB - and, while sharp-toothed and biting at times - and even funny at others - it's not the main part of the story. This book offers few outright criticisms of religion - indeed, though the author is a claimed atheist, one derives an almost sympathetic feeling for organized religion and theists from this book by the end of the story. Perhaps the author realizes religion's opiatic theraputic qualities - due to the placebo effect, as one character in the book would say - and considers it a necessary evil. It's not even the sacreligious. Though some parts of the book are absolutely laugh out loud funny - the part where they start cutting up God to make cheeseburgers always makes me laugh, as does the part where the priest and the nun are dancing naked together in God's navel, to the tune of a loud song blaring from the speakers of the Jeep Wrangler that got them there - I truly believe that most theists - though not fundamentalists - would not even have a problem reading this book, being offended by it.

Indeed, it brings up some good points. This book is not, as you may expect a critique of God or organized religion - nor is it a theodicy; check out the second book in this trilogy, Blameless In Abaddon, for that. I think it does bring out one very good - and oddly rarely-mentioned - point, though: that of The Bible and organized religon's role in the subversion of women. Womankind's centuries long struggle for equality and their centuries of toil under subversion and the subordinate role under men can be traced back to none other than - Adam and Eve, in the garden. Eve at the apple; God subordinated women to men for the rest of eternity. Thus, from this sprung gender stereotyping, chauvinism, sexual inequality - the whole bit. Why isn't this point brought up more? It seems quite obvious to me. I once wrote a paper over the subject for school. Morrow recognizes this, and brings it out in the book. It is one of the few fairly original points brought out in the book, and makes it worth reading.

Overall, this IS a good book, and one that I would reccommend. You might not get exactly what you thought you would get going in, but you will get a good, and fairly thought-provoking read. I will tell you this, too: read the other two books in the series as well. They are a great improvement over this one, and Morrow has certainly grown and matured as a writer.

Heartily reccommended semi-irrevent reading.