Humans

Having read Donald Westlake with tremendous enjoyment for years, I have to say that he has more than scored with this one. His usual ironic humor revs into high gear and serves to enhance a truly wondrous story about humans, with all their flaws and strengths, charm and hatefulness, creativity and destructiveness, compassion and cruelty. What the angel finds after God sends him to correct his "mistake" makes for both laughter and great poignancy--often at the same time--in an entertaining thriller format. Underneath the ever-present Westlake humor and view of human frailties is a powerful argument regarding the value of the human species. This is a book I will read over and over. And, in the wake of 9/11 and the Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina disasters, HUMANS has had even more meaning for me.

Humans by Donald Westlake might finally reconcile the problem of an omnipotent creator and human free will - or maybe not. It does contain a supreme novel with a unique view of divine concepts and is loaded with interesting characters. (It's impossible to separate the good guys from the bad. You'll be surprised who you're rooting for.) Very original!

This is a terrific novel that's both really funny and pretty dark. I'm a huge fan of Donald Westlake's work. I've probably read at least a dozen of his novels in the five or six years since I first discovered his books. Nearly all of them share some qualities that I've come to associate with his work: great characters, sharp dialogue, a strongly satirical tone and a twisted plot. Humans is no different. When God becomes angry with the Earth's inhabitants, he sends his chief angel down to gather a diverse group of eccentrics who will bring about the end of the world. Satan, who needs mankind's sins in order to stay in business, sends his minions to save mankind. It's a wild story with a lot of surprises. I highly recommend it, and I really hope some talented director decides to bring it to film - it would make a terrific movie.

this book would be unavailable as the millennium approaches. Westlake's best effort outside the mystery genre is a brutal, funny, and somehow charming epic. I hope someone reprints this book. It's a sad sign for civilization that awful movies like End of Days and Stigmata have been produced while this novel sits just begging to be turned into a screenplay.