Reviews for Book Against God

The average rating for Book Against God based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-11-28 00:00:00 Issam Yousi An Educated Failure I have no idea what to make of this book. It is apparently pointless, written in deadeningly tedious prose about marriage, religion, and the neuroses of the English middle class. Woolf's introspection without insight; and Murdoch's thought reduced to triviality. Yet James Wood is a brilliant literary critic whose nuanced understanding of texts matches anyone's. How can that person have written and published this book? The protagonist, Tom, is a neurotic, hapless, puerile slob with poor personal hygiene. He also lies as impulsively as Donald Trump, particularly to his wife, until she gives him the boot. His response is to complain in the manner of Harry Enfield's petulant teenager, Kevin, about her unfairness. Characters pop in and quickly out of the narrative with no apparent purpose. The dialogue is stifling in the extreme: "Are you all right, Tommy? You know we all care about you.' The words fell like instantly evaporating rain. 'Oh good, it's nice to know that you all care about me,' I said, with excessive bitterness. 'You're being unpleasant again.' 'And you are being less than sensitive.' 'This isn't the place for this.'" It goes on for pages like this. The story is held together by an undisclosed horrid and life-changing event on Christmas Eve. Turns out the effort of getting to the reveal is entirely wasted. The big event is about as trivial as a weather report in the New Testament. Tom's spiritual journey, implied in the title, is equally trivial and the book leaves him exactly where he started. There is much philosophical and theological name-dropping throughout, to no point whatsoever. Silly opinions flow constantly at pub meetings, dinner parties, and family get-togethers. "'No,' replied Max. 'I'm not going to church. But I think as I get older that no one is really ever an atheist. Everyone believes.'" And "My intellectual hero is Martin Luther. I don't think that needs further justification. My spiritual hero -well there are so awfully many, but I will nominate Father Brown, in the marvellous old Chesterton stories. And my moral hero: Winston Churchill." Yes, and...? So, a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Clearly fiction is not Wood's metier. But this book is so bad I find it difficult to judge his other work with my former enthusiasm (See: )

Review # 2 was written on 2014-02-16 00:00:00 Lou Austin Tom, the narrator is the 30 year old intellectual son of a vicar, a professional student and also a militant atheist. His long drawn out PHD in philosophy has been delayed by a secret writing project leading up to a spiritual crisis which he chronicles in a deadpan, unintentionally comic way. His project is a debate about the existence and nature of God and the insoluble 'problem of evil' (i.e. if God is omnipotent and benevolent, how can he allow evil to exist in the world?) This is a thought provoking and witty approach to difficult concepts, full of literary and philosophical allusions, but enlivened by Tom's over-dramatic style, rendering his existential angst too comic to be tragic. [This was Woods first novel and as gamekeeper turned poacher, he was given a rough reception by fellow reviewers due to his own reputation as the Guardian's unforgiving literary critic in the late 80's] Reviewed for Whichbook.net