Book 9 - Towing Jehovah by James Morrow

God dies and the angels charge the captain of a supertanker with transporting the body to its tomb in the Arctic.

The first book in a trilogy concerning the aftermath of God's actual literal death. It mainly focuses on the voyage of the supertanker, carrying its massive cargo behind it through some pretty horrible and interesting situations. Regular readers will know this kind of strange and bizarre plot and concept is exactly what I love, I wasnt disappointed.

At every turn in the book the world seems to get more and more bizarre. From the strange appearing island made of human trash and an ex-pagan civilisation, to the World War 2 re-enactment society, hell-bent on the destruction of God's corpse. By the end it was almost too out there.

The book of course isn't really about some guys towing Gods corpse. its about what it means to be an atheist, what it means to be a Christian and why sometimes both of those are horrible things. Its about life in a world where religion is quickly becoming less and less relevant. It is, at its heart a satire of both sides of the argument.
The hardcore atheist characters in the book are painted with the same brush as The Vatican as single minded foolish characters. One main gripe I had with the book concerns these characters however, at times (alot) they come off as extreme straw-men, walking parodies of themselves. I'm aware that was sort of the point but it detracted from an otherwise well written satire.

The book isn't perfect, not even close. The writing is jumpy at times, sometimes making it hard to remember where people are, what they are doing and whoy. At times its silly, at others its far too serious about itself. But it does manage to entertain while also making you think about yourself and the world we live in.