Rating: 
Summary: The Humanity of god, the Inhumanity of Man
Review: "The Universe was a PhD thesis that God was unable to successfully defend." (p. 212)If God is the Eternal Light, then why do His children live in such darkness? James Morrow wrestles with the age-old challenge of theodicy--how can an all-Good and all-Powerful Deity allow a world with suffering? His vehicle in this excursion is God's daughter, a fertilized ovum found in a male sperm donation, and brought to term in an artificial uterus. The world is indeed a dark place, and Julie Katz, (That's "Miss God" to you!) seems to find herself in some of the darkest corners. Why is God so distant? Why are miracles so useless? Religious fanatics and Devout Believers in Scientism both show up in bad form in this book. If you're an existentialist with a dark sense of humor, you'll love reading this. If you're a devout, evangelical Christian, I suspect you won't have as much fun. Morrow writes well, he dares to tread on the teats of many a sacred cow, and he does so exquisitely well. For those who find their understanding of God and religion offended, I offer you this quote from Julie Katz "If somebody kick your right buttock, turn the other cheek." (p. 260) Although the characters are somewhat charicaturish, they each have their own depth, motivation, and occasionally act to surprise the reader. The leading characters are more archetypal than human, and that is part of the book's power. Morrow gets five stars for a solid, well engineered plot. Five stars for characters who live beyond the pages of the books & occasionally drift into our dreams. Five more stars for telling it well, with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Courage. Morrow gets about five billion stars for courage--after all, he's insulted every fundamentalist this side of Venus. Once Jerry Falwell gets done blaming the gays, pagans, ACLU & secular humanists for the World Trade Center disaster, he's likely to call for a Jihad against Morrow! (If you'd like to respond to this review or discuss the book, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)
Rating:
Summary: The Humanity of god, the Inhumanity of Man
Review: "The Universe was a PhD thesis that God was unable to successfully defend." (p. 212) If God is the Eternal Light, then why do His children live in such darkness? James Morrow wrestles with the age-old challenge of theodicy--how can an all-Good and all-Powerful Deity allow a world with suffering? His vehicle in this excursion is God's daughter, a fertilized ovum found in a male sperm donation, and brought to term in an artificial uterus. The world is indeed a dark place, and Julie Katz, (That's "Miss God" to you!) seems to find herself in some of the darkest corners. Why is God so distant? Why are miracles so useless? Religious fanatics and Devout Believers in Scientism both show up in bad form in this book. If you're an existentialist with a dark sense of humor, you'll love reading this. If you're a devout, evangelical Christian, I suspect you won't have as much fun. Morrow writes well, he dares to tread on the teats of many a sacred cow, and he does so exquisitely well. For those who find their understanding of God and religion offended, I offer you this quote from Julie Katz "If somebody kick your right buttock, turn the other cheek." (p. 260) Although the characters are somewhat charicaturish, they each have their own depth, motivation, and occasionally act to surprise the reader. The leading characters are more archetypal than human, and that is part of the book's power. Morrow gets five stars for a solid, well engineered plot. Five stars for characters who live beyond the pages of the books & occasionally drift into our dreams. Five more stars for telling it well, with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Courage. Morrow gets about five billion stars for courage--after all, he's insulted every fundamentalist this side of Venus. Once Jerry Falwell gets done blaming the gays, pagans, ACLU & secular humanists for the World Trade Center disaster, he's likely to call for a Jihad against Morrow! (If you'd like to respond to this review or discuss the book, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended by a friend
Review: A friend of mine recommended this book, and Towing Jehovah. My husband bought them for me for Christmas. Not only will I never take a book recommendation from this friend again, I will never read another book by James Morrow. This book was thought provoking? Only if your thought was "What the heck is he thinking?!" Morrow's writing style is sadistic, boring, and painful to read. My first thought reading the first book - "it's got to get better... it has to". During the second book, ""this one can't be as bad as the first one..." I was wrong on both accounts. I am a collector of books, and for the first time ever, I have toyed with the idea of burning or just throwing away two books.
Rating:
Summary: The Second Coming - with quite a twist
Review: A story about the Second Coming - similarly to the First one, God's child arrives with a virgin birth to a Jew. However, this time a daughter is born to a Jewish man, who is a lighthouse keeper in New Jersey, and the "Babylon" of this story is Atlantic City, NJ. This has the best depiction of Hell I've ever found. This story looks at the time period of this second Messiah's life where the Gospels left Christ's life blank - you're a normal teenager, you find out you're the Messiah, and then what do you do? This is not some boring re-telling of the same old tale. The portrayal of the second messiah, God, Jesus Christ, Satan, etc. are quite thought-provoking. This should sincerely make you think about your pre-conceived notions of what heaven/hell & God's relationship with man is all about. It should also re-affirm that the principles and morals you learned as a Christian are right-on - but how they should be implemented isn't necessarily what gets popularly preached. [Then again, that's just what Christ said, the first time around, wasn't it?]
Rating:
Summary: Interesting.....
Review: A writer for the lost, troubled, souls that walk the earth. A must have for the heathen and closed minded. A bible for those that know the truth but fear it. I highly recomend it for anyone who wants to turn their eyes from the truth.
Rating:
Summary: This book completely blew my mind.
Review: Expect to spend more time thinking about it than reading it. I still think about it and I read it years ago. It was so refreshing to read a book that shows that the world's most dangerous religious fanatics are NOT in the centre of the world. James Morrow has a beautiful writing style and a talent for creating incredibly interesting characters. I also recommend Parke Godwin's, "Waiting for the Galactic Bus."
Rating: 
Summary: For God so loved the world....
Review: For God so loved the world that She gave her only begotten daughter.... to save us from ourselves Only Begotten Daughter: Good book. Thought provoking. I'm not Christian, so I can approach Christ and Jehovah as I would approach any other mythology. Let's play What If..... What if... the "Second Coming" wasn't meant to be Jesus returning, but was meant to mean God's second child being born. What if... everyone missed it because the child was female... and of course, the returning Son of God couldn't be female. What if... her "purpose" in returning was to say "Hey, y'all need to get a life and stop worshiping the past. Live in today. My brother didn't give his life just so the bunch of you could refuse to acknowledge the world around you." Water into wine? Forget it, it's been done. This chick changes gasoline into milk. Morrow does an excellent job of describing what growing up must be like for the child of a major deity. Walk on water? Never, the neighbors might see. The love of an over-protective parent, wondering why God allows things to happen, why He never speaks to His own child... all normal occurences for God's daughter. In some ways, Morrow is more realistic about his characters than the common belief about them is. He portrays Jesus, not sitting on a throne in the heaven to which he ascended, but offering water to the burning souls in hell. Helping the people after death that he cared for in life, according to the stories written down by his followers. Hell is run by bureaucrats (naturally... there's enough of them there), and Satan has been squeezed into a mere figurehead (much like the Queen of England). Oddly enough, he smells like oranges. In other ways, he relies on stereotypes. Julie's human parent, for example, draws heavily on the stereotype of the scholarly Jew. The antagonists - a group of religious extremists - are drawn from newspaper stories of abortion clinic protesters and Bible Belt Religious Rightists. In a less serious critique, I find it amusing that Julie finally finds her place in Philadelphia. I've lived in Philadelphia, and I find it difficult that anyone would find there place in that city without having family members there (one could argue that in theory, God is everywhere, and therefore in Philly, too. I don't buy it.) OR by living there for a minimum of 10 years. No seriously, the City of Brotherly Love is only loving if you've been in the community for a serious amount of time. Read the book. It's good. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: GODAWFUL
Review: Groovy premise. Asinine story. I can't believe this thing won some prize (I can't remember which) for best scifi novel of the year. I want my money back from those judges.
Rating:
Summary: NO WAY
Review: I dont really see whats so funny about making fun of Jehovah.He is the god that created us all, and people still think its funny when authors come up with these lies and rediculous stories about him and his ONLY BEGOTTEN SON jesus christ
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES
Review: I READ THIS BOOK SEVERAL YEARS AGO, AND MANY TIMES SINCE. I JUST RE-READ IT AGAIN AND FOUND IT JUST AS CAPTIVATING AND HUMOROUS AS EVERY TIME BEFORE. I LOVE THE WAY IT MAKES YOU QUESTION RELIGION AND LIFE IN GENERAL. WHEN JULIE MEETS HER BROTHER AND FINDS OUT HOW OUT OF TOUCH HE IS WITH RELIGIOUS VIEWS ALWAYS CRACKS ME UP. I GIVE THIS BOOK MANY STARS MORE THEN THEY ALLOW. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. ********** (IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK I STRONGLY RECOMMEND "TOWING JEHOVA"... ENJOY) C.H.
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