An extremely funny and moving book about what happens when the beings we call "God" and "The Devil" collaborate to prevent the conception of a possible Hitler. Young, conservative Charity and Roy are snatched from a seedy hotel room and taken on separate journeys through the afterlife, with the cooperation of theatrical and historical figures recruited to play supporting roles. Meanwhile, "Judgement Day" is coming for the two puppet masters as their long-lost past catches up to them. ( )

Ok, the elliptical & convoluted sentence structure, I could put up with - after all, I'm guilty of creating amateur sailors' knots in my own writing. The lack of referents for the pronouns is somewhat more troubling (which is the 'he' this time?). But I almost put it down the third time I saw bad editing to the point of a missing word. When a sentence is supposed to have the word 'was' in it, make sure it really is there, please.

Still, I persisted. Until I realized that there was going to be a lot of yucky stuff about violent bigots and not-actually-smarter aliens messing around with us and religious & spiritual parables. No, no way, not fun, not a romp, not provocative, and most definitely not for me.

Two brothers, who have powers, but not much foresight, meddle an ape into becoming the Human Race we know and love today. Funny enough to mute the anger I sometimes feel toward my contemporaries. ( )

This is an interesting take on the Dante's Inferno story from way back when - here we get two beings on a higher plain (not God's, but Godlike, without the all-knowing) On a college road trip through the outer regions of the universe, they get left behind on an insignificant little planet (not exactly an accident, since the two brothers are rather annoying). To keep things interesting, they start monkeying around (ha ha, get it!) with the local primate population, accidentally creating humanity.

Now, jump a few millennium. We find humanity in its present 1988 splendor and a couple of nobody kids who if they get together, they have a high potential of creating the next Hitler. So, the two higher order beings (not Gods, just Godlike without the all-knowing) decide they have to do something about. Hence, the rewrite of Dante's inferno, only this time, it was all a stage to prevent two people from hooking up.

Its a very interesting book - it can be a bit irreverent at times, but always insightful. Its a great bit of writing. At times, it feels a bit dated, but it was written in 1988 - if I remember, right before the age of computers and cell phones. ( )

This book was published in 1988. My guess is that it was written when Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984, after Godwin's head (like mine) nearly exploded. I just learned about it recently, when Jo Walton reviewed it on Tor.com. Godwin writes excellent novels. This is something rather different. He's ranting and raving about politics fueled by fear and hate, and the ways that fundamentalist religions (of every variety) feed into that. I think I'd have found it a bit quaint in 2000, but in 2010 with Glenn Beck foaming at the mouth on television, it's quite fresh again.

He's writes beautifully, and it's very funny. A favorite quote:

"'I don't like actors,' Grubb complained in a voice like a damp sock. 'I don't like writers. They're never as nice as their books. All they do is get drunk and arrogant and sick all over the furniture.'"