Rating: 
Summary: Well-written humor, intriguing questions, but no answers
Review: An excellent demonstration of how cynicism, once it has exhausted humor, leaves no basis for life. Even Nietzsche (somewhat mis-applied in the frontispiece) is lighter reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliantly disturbing.
Review: This book has something to offend everyone. It is hilarious, deep, troubling, and enlightening, all at the same time. No matter what your faith (or lack thereof) you will gain something from it. Buy it and read it
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Summary: The Salman Rushdie of Christendom
Review: Towing Jehovah is the most thought-provoking and heart-rending take on God and man since Christ cried out "Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is also profoundly funny. Morrow is as hard on the atheists threatened by God's existence as he is on the Christians threatened by his apparent demise. He uses up-level puns and pyrotechnic language worthy of Tom Robbins. Morrow's religious ficiton has won many awards from the speculative fiction community, but he has yet to find the wide audience he really deserves. I think it's time to start sending copies of Towing Jehovah to prominent Christian fundamentalists. Only when he becomes as hunted as Salman Rushdie will his hilarious and thought-provoking takes on religion find the audience they deserve: Those millions of Americans who only read books someone tells them they shouldn't
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre Romance Novel Wrapped in a Fantasic Story
Review: I wanted to like this book, I reeeeeallly reeeeally did. But 2/3rds through the story it fell flat on God's frozen smiling face. The story of disgraced Valpariso capt Anthony Van Horne began earnestly enough -angst is always partial to strong protagonists and Morrow's ability to paint the portrait of his lead character shone through brilliantly right up to when he became sexually involved with Cassie Fowler. Truthfully the story was compelling to me only because it pioneered new material in the sci fi/fantasy genre -no one has ever written a book based on the death of God before- but that's where the innovation ends. Morrow started out with an intriguing premise and turned it into a Harlequin romance set amidst a surreal, quasi-religious fantasy novel. Given the white picket fence with little Montessori-schooled Stevie, complete with a talking macaw ending, Towing Jehovah does not inspire me to read the sequels it has since spawned and that is a shame b/c I had such high hopes for this series.
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Summary: Oops, God Fell and He Can't Get Up!
Review: I've been reading Morrow's fanciful trilogy out of order: I began with The Eternal Footman (the third book), and followed that with Towing Jehovah (the first), now I just have the second, Blameless in Abaddon, left to read.
I thought Towing Jehovah to be a superior novel to The Eternal Footman. While T.E.F. had more philosophical content, T.J. was definitely more enjoyable to read and better put together overall.
The plot of the novel leaves little to be desired. How often do you have archangels instructing a lead character to come out of an early retirement-from the shipping business-in order to make one last delivery, the delivery to end all deliveries: to tow the dead body of God (floating somewhere off the coast of Africa) to an icy sarcophagus in the Arctic? Outrageous stuff and the beginning of a compelling, and at times hilarious, odyssey to redeem a character, to make sense of postmodernity, and to successfully complete a challenge. Morrow proves himself a dexterous writer and a profound thinker. I sense that he didn't want to explore the philosophical ideas too much in this first novel. Rather, he seems to have wanted merely to set the stage for his latter two books which could more thoroughly delve into the deep significance of God's unexpected death.
This is a fun, fast-paced, and meaningful read for those wanting to veer from the well-trodden path of popular fiction with little significance. If you want to read something that will lead you to ask the big questions or at least form the basis for an interesting conversation (other than, "Yes, what a great book. Nice weather we're having, dontcha think?"), then Towing Jehovah should be high on your list.
Rating: 
Summary: At Odds with our Moral Compass
Review: The intellects have spoken! Nietzsche, Darwin, and Kant's names have all been invoked here at Amazon.com, vainly trying to encapsulate TOWING JEHOVAH: a world/book that knows no god.
So what's this TOWING JEHOVAH stuff all about?
We have the Catholic Church, Angels (Raphael, etc.), Theologians, and a smattering of other religious people and symbols trying to battle against the sinful concept that God doesn't exist. Well what would happen if God's two mile long body was found floating at 0 degrees Latitude and 0 degrees Longitude? Who would be right? Uh-oh. A conundrum.
What the author of TOWING JEHOVAH (James Morrow) does is show us the conflict that would ensue in light of such a discovery. The devout would like to say, "Ah-hah! See! God does exist. Or ...um ...he DID exist." While the atheists and agnostics would be saying, "Ah-hah! See! God is dead! Um ...but I guess he did exist."
But now that God IS dead, what do you do? How do you prove your points about God (be you an atheist or a believer), if his corpse has been found lifelessly floating in the Atlantic? Maybe we should just sweep this under the rug ...
And to that effect, God's angels recommend that His body be entombed in the arctic in a special cave that the angels have dug out for Him. Is this what God really wanted? Hmm. And how do we get His body up to the icy cave?
Enter Anthony Van Horne, an able sea captain in the Merchant Marines who's had a bit of bad luck recently. A supertanker he was captaining, the Carpco Valparaiso, ran aground and spilled crude over a beautiful section of the sea. He's also got an old sea-dog father who's none too happy with the way his son has turned out. But the Carpco Valparaiso was saved and her hull repaired. She now flies the colors of the Vatican and they have a plan to get God's body to His final resting place; thus TOWING JEHOVAH.
Once they've hooked up to God and begin towing Him, the story really starts to pick up. Believers and non-believers are at odds as to the significance of God's death, and as to WHY they're TOWING JEHOVAH to an icy grave without letting the world know of His demise (There's also a side plot involving women's rights and how the evidence of a truly male deity might destroy all the work that women have done to improve their standings in society; but this isn't what holds the book together).
Getting God's body to His grave becomes the challenge of a lifetime for Anthony Van Horne. He has to battle his own past, atheists who want the body destroyed because it shows the truth of God's existence (even though He's dead now), the Catholic Church who want to keep this all hush-hush ("What would happen if people found out that God had died? Would they have any sort of moral compass to guide them?"), and an island of Pagan symbolism that sprouts from the sea like an angry mound of cr@p!
Against all odds, and opposition from both sides of the religious theocratic discussion, Captain Van Horne delivers his "cargo" to its destination.
The comedy in TOWING JEHOVAH isn't a `slap your leg and laugh-out-loud' style. It's subtle and satirical and biting and the type that will invite discussions on what James Morrow has dropped in our laps. Some have gone so far as to call this author "the Salmon Rushdie of Christianity." Maybe. But his jabs at both sides of the spiritual issues are what draw you into this book, not its pretext that God is dead. Because, let's face it, for those that truly believe in God, how COULD He die?
Also, if you're looking for a "final answer" to the question of God's existence or what we should do if He is ever discovered (dead or alive), you won't find it in these pages. Mr. Morrow sets up the pins, but he purposely doesn't knock them down. I mean, come on! He's not stupid!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, fun and deeper than it seems
Review: Some said "great idea, poor execution"... Well, in my opinion it is quite hard to do better than Morrow did. There are tons of references to the issue of God, from Nietzsche to Kant and etc. Besides, this book can be read by religious people as well, it's not some atheist book really, in fact, reading that book sort of makes you regret God's death (in the book) and you start to be scared by a Godless world, honestly! Anyway, this is not a novel to read with a realistic point of view, as much for the events as for the characters' psychologies; this being said, it's perfectly fine, realism would not have brought anything valuable to a novel such as this one. It is funny and light, yet, if you feel like it and have interest in the field, you can easily go deeper and explore the profounder meanings of this book.
Globally, this is a book about the death of God (a God that has a two-mile body) but you should not be offended if you're a believer, one of the main character is a priest, and despite the fun mood of this novel you can still sense that God's being dead remains a sad thing for everyone, and even you as a reader, even you don't exactly believe in God. My advise is to read this book as some kind of metaphorical satire without taking it too straightforwardly, as the angel says in the beginning "everything is a metaphor". Anyway, unlike the reviewer before me I would not consider this book "drivel" for it is not. You just have to adjust your mind to the mood of this book. Keep in mind this is a novel where God dies and falls from the sky into the ocean! It's not a bad read at all, it's hilarious at times and it's well written, humorous and fun. The main idea, rather than to praise God's death, is to figure out the death of God as the reason why we should grow up as humans and consider a life without a higher authority, and think for ourselves and take full responsability of our lives and their inherent existentialism. Of course, this is a Freudian God we are talking about, because for those of you who have a higher idea of God there is nothing in this book that would go against your beliefs; I can't remember exactly but I don't think any of the characters ever thought that maybe this body of God was a trick to test their faiths or something, or to tell them they have to be independant now, yet I might be wrong, I read this book some months ago. Anyway, that novel is fully worth the read.
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Summary: Of course god is dead! Darwin shot him 150 years ago!
Review: What happened when the god YHWH decided humanity has grown up and no longer needs its surrogate daddy in the sky? Why, he commited suicide of course! After all--- children growing up makes their parents obsolete. (Ask any ancient Greek playwrite.)
In my opinion this is a very good book. Not great, but good. The characters seemed to act contrary to real life, but then, this IS a fantasy.
The "atheists" in the book want to destroy the body of the god. That makes zero sense at all here in real life: if a god ever showed up, atheists would no longer be atheists. It makes no sense for atheists to want to hide the fact that a god existed, let alone died.
In the book, the Roman Catholic Church also wanted to hide the fact that the god was dead: that is directly counter the wishes of the god. The whole point of the god dying, and falling to Earth on the equator and prime meridian (0 latitude, 0 longitude) was so that huanity could see that it was dead. To hide the body was counter the god's wishes. Wouldn't the god have know its body would be hidden, and the god's plans thwarted?
What really struck me as absurd in the book is its major premis: people who know a god is dead will tend to become homicidal, suicidal, and psychotic rapiists. The book's premis is that humanity requires belief in a god for humanity to behave itself. What utter absurdity! Real life shows the exact opposite: atheists are vastly under-represented in the United States Penal System (for example). The USA has 14.7% atheists, but less than one percent of the prison population is atheist. If the book's chief premis were valid, there ought to be at least 14.7% atheists in prison.
The book is VASTLY funny, with cool dry wit. It is a very good read, and I recomend it.
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Summary: What an odd and terrific book
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: 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.
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