Calling Bernadette's Bluff

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book club novel
Review: A lively and intelligent read, full of rich fodder for book club discussions. The author treats the reader as an intelligent partner, allowing room for interpretation and providing a consistent invitation to think for one's self about truly meaningful subjects rarely approached in fiction. Not to say the appeal's just cerebral, far from it: it's painfully funny, devastatingly so at times. A rare and lovely combination --- intelligence, wit, and relevance. A first-class piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book club novel
Review: A lively and intelligent read, full of rich fodder for book club discussions. The author treats the reader as an intelligent partner, allowing room for interpretation and providing a consistent invitation to think for one's self about truly meaningful subjects rarely approached in fiction. Not to say the appeal's just cerebral, far from it: it's painfully funny, devastatingly so at times. A rare and lovely combination --- intelligence, wit, and relevance. A first-class piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: A philosophical orgy of farcical hilarity
Review: Dale McGowan's "Calling Bernadette's Bluff" will make you feel good about being a humanist--but not _too_ good.

The protagonist is Jack Kassel, a closet humanist teaching at the College of St. Bernadette. CSB is a women's liberal-arts college which attempts to be simultaneously feminist, with a strong postmodern leaning, and devoutly Catholic. Needless to say, if you're an atheistic, rigorously intellectual humanities professor, it can be a strange place to work.

Nor is this the only clash of philosophies confronting poor Jack. His five-year-old son, who lives primarily with his ex-wife, is being sandwiched between Jack's own atheism and the sadly intolerant brand of Christianity he is learning in school. A group of students starts up a humanist club, with his help, but the club is taken over by nihilistic Satanists. To make matters even more surreal, an old friend of his, an atheist in the robes of a charismatic priest, arrives to lead the campus ministry. Soon, Humanism, Satanism, Creationism, Catholicism, and postmodernism are all frolicking about in a philosophical orgy of farcical hilarity.

McGowan is critical, although gently so, of postmodernists who insist on valueing all opinions, no matter how absurd. He directs much more biting satire at conservative politicians who use atheism as a whipping boy to bring in the votes of insecure Christians. Nor do students and their bloopers escape his pen; one student lambasts an author for referring to a woman as "Indian," rather than "Native American." When Jack corrects her, explaining that the woman is in fact from India, she replies that the author still has no right to be racist.

"Bluff" takes place right here, and right now. The World Trade Center attacks are referred to (although not excessively so) and for the first time in any novel I have read, a character uses the word "Doh." Some details leave a bit to be desired; McGowan never quite explains how male Satanists came to hang out at a Catholic women's college in the middle of nowhere. And as controversy builds around religion and secularism at the College, none of the national humanist groups are anywhere to be found.

"Bluff" will make you laugh in some passages, while others will make you want to cheer. Infuriated by a tired rehashing of Pascal's Wager at a church service, Jack envisions himself getting up and tearing the preacher's argument to shreds. Jack's initial meeting with an atheist student, at which he explains to her what humanism is and why she should care, is also quite convincing. Overall, "Bluff" is a rare breed: a complex, creative work of humor that will force you to think.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised
Review: I ordered this book because everyone told me to ... despite some misgivings. I thought this would be a novel dripping with good ideas, but [I feared] poorly written. But that was not the case! This book is both chock-full of good ideas, and surprisingly funny, complex, and well-crafted. The author is obviously a fan of Vonnegut and Keillor, both of whom I can see in his style. And his philosophy is all freethinking humanism, a refreshing philosophy in modern fiction. While it is not perfect, it succeded surprisingly well. I hope it is not McGowan's last book.

The book gets four stars, by the way, because of the tense. McGowan tells his story in the present tense, instead of the more common (for fiction) past tense. It took some getting used to, which dulled the impact of the earlier parts of the book ... and bugged me a bit throughout. Not enough to make this a bad book [not even close!], but enough to lose it a star. Let's hope McGowan is a bit more traditional in his storytelling with his next novel!

Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised
Review: I ordered this book because everyone told me to ... despite some misgivings. I thought this would be a novel dripping with good ideas, but [I feared] poorly written. But that was not the case! This book is both chock-full of good ideas, and surprisingly funny, complex, and well-crafted. The author is obviously a fan of Vonnegut and Keillor, both of whom I can see in his style. And his philosophy is all freethinking humanism, a refreshing philosophy in modern fiction. While it is not perfect, it succeded surprisingly well. I hope it is not McGowan's last book.

The book gets four stars, by the way, because of the tense. McGowan tells his story in the present tense, instead of the more common (for fiction) past tense. It took some getting used to, which dulled the impact of the earlier parts of the book ... and bugged me a bit throughout. Not enough to make this a bad book [not even close!], but enough to lose it a star. Let's hope McGowan is a bit more traditional in his storytelling with his next novel!

Rating:
Summary: A find for the mind
Review: Not a beach read, this one --- it's something much more wonderful and rare, a smorgasbord for the intellect. Rich and funny and clever situations and characters. Not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: A refreshing combination of intellect and humor
Review: This book is not only fun to read (I actually laughed out loud a number of times), but it really makes you think, and not about anything less trivial than the meaning of life, the origins of the universe, and the ignorance of the masses. McGowan's character names never ceased to make me smile (Robert Frapples was one of my favorites) and the dialog was very convincing. At some points I really felt as though I was sitting in a college bar with the author debating the intricacies of Faith vs. Reason over a pitcher of beer. Ultimately I felt both entertained and educated. This is a great book for anyone not afraid to think for themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Prepare to laugh hard and think harder
Review: When I heard about a "new humanist novel" I was skeptical, expecting something heavy-handed, one-sided, simplistic... maybe even one of these "happy humanist" bits, just bursting with joy. Fortunately this is SO much better than that. It's a hysterical ride through the postmodern as the main character tries to live a reasonable life in a world of nonsense, religious and otherwise. The humanists come off just as nuts as the True Believers whenever they turn their backs on reason. Very even-handed.

Some of the philosophical references went past me the first time, but it didn't matter. The style is so original and the ideas so compelling that I reread it and picked up a lot more. Really rich, really thought-provoking. It goes after ideas, not people, so it's funny and convincing without feeling like a personal attack.

I'm buying copies as gifts for two Baptist friends and one atheist friend...and I KNOW they'll all love it. How many religious satires can you say THAT about?