|
In a
world of weekly-released post-apocalyptic narratives, Ron
Currie, Jr.'s God Is Dead is a good bet for the discerning
reader. Crisply-written and emotionally-endearing, this text
imagines the fate of the world after everyone learns that
God has been killed.
In the
book's opening section, the reader follows God in His last
moments on Earth: Mortally wounded and stumbling through the
war-torn Sudan, God—disguised as a native girl named
Sora—seeks out a boy to whom He must apologize for all
the pain and suffering that has been caused in His name. Instead,
He finds a long-suffering General Colin Powell who does his
best to help "Sora" but ends up sentencing Him and a village
of refugees to their deaths in retaliation for heavy-handed
diplomacy.
Once
the word begins to spread that God has died, the world begins
to fall apart as clergymen commit suicide en masse and the
lawless begin to tear apart the infrastructure of civilization.
But the world doesn't end with God's death. When doomsday
fails to materialize, society reemerges in an odd and twisted
form that—for all its strangeness—isn't very different
from our own. For example, instead of holy wars divided by
different interpretations of God, wars in the post-God world
are fought over differing philosophies: the Evolutionary Psychologists
(who believe in fate) versus the Postmodern Anthropologists
(who believe in free will).
Currie's
debut is being marketed as a novel, but one could just as
easily apply the label of "short fiction" to this masterfully-wrought
braid of narratives. God Is Dead is divided into nine
sections that would easily stand alone as short narratives—and,
indeed, some have been published individually. Each piece
revolves around a different group of characters at separate
points during and after the reaction to the death of God.
Though readers may be distressed at the prospect of leaving
behind a character to move onto the next section, the format
matches the perceived chaos that Currie cultivates in this
post-God world. Additionally, each new section is as engaging
and absorbing as the last.
Currie's
prose is decisive and packs an emotive punch with its clarity.
The style and form shifts slightly in each section to mirror
the characters' situation. The eponymous opening section,
for example, is characterized by rich descriptions of the
African landscape, contrasted by harshness and brutality apparent
in the dialogue of the chapter's politicos and warlords. Later,
in the self-explanatory section titled "Interview with the
Last Remaining Member of the Feral Dog Pack Which Fed on God's
Corpse," Currie adopts a more brusque 'Q & A' format that
still manages to evoke poignant and complex emotions in the
reader.
God
Is Dead is a gripping, fast-paced read that will appeal
to lovers of short stories and novels alike. The strangeness
of the piece puts it in the same realm as the nouveau magical
realists—including George Saunders, Kelly Link, and Judy
Budnitz—but the closest comparison would be Max Brook's
World War Z: another strange and powerful series of
narratives in a world gone mad. Currie's book is highly recommended
for lovers of stories both odd and absorbing.
(August,
2007)
|
