Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Review: Gods Behaving Badly

I have not enjoyed a book this much in years. It is pure laugh out loud fun. I'm sure there are people who will try to analyse it in terms of relations to present day religions, but I didn't try to make a theologic or anthropologic exercise out of it. If you ever studied Greek Mythology, you have enough under-pinnings to just plain love the hilarious antics. This was my weekly audio book, and the narrator was British. I had a great deal of fun with the human heroine named Alice--I kept picturing her as Alice, the ditzy side-kick to Dawn French in the old BBC series "Vicar of Dibley". Neil, her he doesn't realize he is, boyfriend, is such a mouse that you have to love his naivete, especially when he has to interact with gods he's never heard of and doesn't believe in. Apollo is portrayed as a promiscuous pompous ass, and the rivalry between Artemis and Aphrodite is played perfectly. The juxtaposition of the high intelligence of the one, and the extraordinary sex drive of the other is set against the futziness and foibles of a bunch of run-down deities trying to live together in a flat in London. It's a hoot! Put this one on the list of "I need a perk me up" -it won't let you down.

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