God Knows

The David story is, arguably, the best-known story in the world. Tackling it is an act of supreme chutzpah. Joseph Heller, as always, fails to disappoint. It's a crime and a sin that Heller never won the Pulitzer Prize. He should have, many times over, if for no other reason than his body of work clearly shows that humor can be just as effective a statement on the human condition as something that makes you want to slash your wrists. "God Knows" is a breathtaking take on the maddeningly complicated and all too human life of King David. Heller brings King David, in all his complexity, to life as no one else ever has. David, in his dotage, is here in all facets of his character--the adulterer, murderer, consummate politician, cranky and disappointed Jewish father, and one-time confidant of God. The book is a jaw-dropping accomplishment on a hundred different levels. It's a classic work of humor, damn fine erotica, and where Heller got the audacity to interweave David's story from a perspective that uses time the way Escher used space (David kvetches about his statue by Michelangelo, continually rails against that second-rate hack William Shakespeare, sighs about there being no amniocentesis when Abigail was pregnant with Chileab, and refuses to buy Bathsheba a word processor), God knows. But the real accomplishment of God Knows is that it illustrates just how timeless the really great stories are. David's story has as much to say about the human condition today as it did in 1000 B.C.--but it takes a genius to show us how. Fortunately, Heller was a genius.

Joseph Heller was one of two writers who ALWAYS made me laugh out loud (Mark Twain was the other one). This is a very funny look at the Old Testament, as told by King David. Only Heller could turn the wise King Solomon into Shlomo, the idiot. As David tells it, the famous story where Solomon suggested cutting the baby in half to find out who it's real mother was had been twisted around. According to David, Shlomo was an idiot and actually wanted to cut the baby in half!Some fundamentalist people will be offended by this book, but if God has a sense of humor I'm sure He got a kick out of this book. This was one of Heller's best books. If you've ever read anything by him and laughed, don't hesitate to pick this one up.

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.

I wouldn't say this book was as good as Catch-22, but it is close. I prefer this telling of the story of David over the one in the Bible. Reading this novel, I felt like I knew King David, and I hated finishing it because I felt like i had lost a friend. It is funny and very moving, the best of Heller.

A delightfully insightful, if irreverent, look at the life of King David, one of the best-known figures in the Biblical Old Testament. Through Heller's wit and excellent grasp of the Hebrew language in which David's life was originally chronicled, the subtlelty of "God Knows" makes you glad your mom made you go to Sunday School!