God Knows | Joseph Heller | Wonderfully intriguing

God Knows | Joseph Heller | History has never been funnier

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God Knows

	God Knows Joseph Heller Simon & Schuster, 1997 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Wonderfully intriguing

I had to try hard to keep myself from giving in to my initial reaction of, "that's blasphemous!" many times in the book. On further inspection I always tended to see a very different picture than the surface would seem to describe. Instead of the borderline heretical picture of David that a 20th Century Christian might get without good study, I found an interesting character who actually strengthened my personal faith in a number of ways. The honest portrayal of David as a person who really has some issues with his God, but deep down really still has the requisite faith struck a chord as being very relevant to me and to most modern-day readers who may struggle with religion in todays society.

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History has never been funnier

Joseph Heller comically characterizes the life of King David. With a few wars, some concubines, and laugh out loud jokes, the Old Testament has never been more entertaining. A true classic, READ it!

God Knows How Great This Book Is

Joseph Heller has once again shown his mastery of irony and the absurd. His portrayal of King David is both hillarious and blasphemes. It is not often that I laugh out loud while reading a book. By breathing life into the Old Testament charachters, Heller is able to add flesh and bones to a somewhat boring Biblical account. But God Knows is something more than just a risque telling of Kings, it is also a story about aging, love and religion. He ponders great questions on the fallacy of a God that allows the innocent to die. All in all, a great read.

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More Entertaining Than Catch 22

If Heller had written Catch 22 with the same kind of easy style he exhibits in God Knows, then I might too be among those rabid Yosarian fans who claim it one of the best books in the damn universe. But it wasn't, and anyway, this review is about God Knows. There are many novels out there that make me smile and/or chuckle, but God Knows is one of the few that made me laugh out loud in several places. Read it if only for the passage with the lisps. You'll know what I mean when you get there. And I like the original treatment of Kind David, making him more human than divine. I normally avoid speculating on what the author was thinking or trying to do with a character, but given Heller's treatment of David's sense of time and the way David constantly claims credit for contemporary work, I kept thinking of him as a paranoid/neurotic in a mental ward somewhere imagining himself as David. Next time I'm at a seance I'll ask Heller if that was the case. But mental patient or not, the style still worked for me. Now some petty critiques: for such a build up regarding Solomon and his brother, the pay off was small to non-existent. The reader knows all along what happened with Solomon, and the expected fireworks never appeared. Fizzled even. And Heller (or a competent editor) could have or should have cut out about forty pages worth of redundancy. But there's so much entertainment here that, unless you're an easily offended pious type who can't take a little good natured blasphemy (stay away from that not helpful button, you) I enthusiastically recommend the book.

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Entertainingly vulgar

Hellers portrayal of David presented a vibrant yet ultimatly sad character. I found much of the language a bit vulgar for my taste. I'll never look at the biblical David in the same way.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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