This Is the Way the World Ends

Rating:
Summary: Not Morrow's best work
Review: While still very good in its own right, I count This Is the Way the World Ends as one of Morrow's weaker efforts. The book details the end of humanity and the quest of the last surviving humans to both survive and make some meaning out of their existence.

In his work, Morrow handles the most serious topics (the death of God, the end of the world) with an sense of inventive whimsy that can almost always overcome the inherent absurdity of the subject matter -- but This Is the Way the World Ends is long on absurdity and short on inspiration. This Is the Way the World Ends has many absurd moments, but too few genuine moments to make it all come together the way it did with Towing Jehovah or Blameless in Abaddon.

As an author, James Morrow still stands head and shoulders above the pack in my book, and This Is the Way the World Ends is definitely a volume worth picking up -- but I would do so only after you've devoured his other works.