Towing Jehovah (Harvest Book)

James Morrow has made eschatological science fiction and fantasy his domain over the past ten years. He started with the short stories "Bible Stories for Adults", which garnered him a Nebula award, then quickly followed up with a novel in the same vein, 1990's Only Begotten Daughter, in which the second coming of God comes in the female form. His latest novel, Towing Jehovah, continues his study of modern religion with the ultimate test of faith--the Death of God.Anthony Van Horne is a disgraced oil freighter Captain who lost his post after a disastrous collision with a reef in the Gulf of Mexico that spilled crude over a 20 mile stretch of Texas coastline. His ablutions prove fruitful, because it is he who the archangel Raphael chooses to helm the most important salvage operation of all time. Yes, God is dead and floating supine in tropical waters. The angels, who are dying of empathy, have carved him a tomb in the Antartic and want Van Horne to take control of his recently repaired oil freighter, find the Corpus Dei, and tow it to its icy grave.Joining Van Horne is Thomas Ockham, the controversial New York priest cum physicist, personally selected by the Vatican in consultation with the archangel Gabriel to be the spiritual leader of the expedition. The Vatican has its own goal--due to the calculations of its powerful computer OMNIVAC, it has determined that due to the size of the corpse, brain death may not have fully occurred, and the faster the corpse is frozen, the better the chance that God's neurons might be saved. Along the way, Van Horne rescues Dr. Cassandra Fowler, adrift in the tropics due to a failed trip to the Galapagos Islands in a recreation of Darwin's famous voyage in the Beagle. Unbeknownst to Van Horne, Fowler is a member of a radical feminist/atheist organization and is determined to sink Van Horne's cargo instead of taking the chance that the current patriarchal system use it as proof of the gender of the creator just as feminist advances had made such inroads against the system.Morrow's novel is both audacious and extremely funny. While some find his eschatological studies sacrilegious, I do not think that is his intent (beyond the obvious establishment nose-tweaking). Morrow, in true science fiction fashion, is postulating "What If," but instead of writing about starships and aliens, Morrow examines culture and religion. For his background sources he utilizes the work of Kant, Thomas Moore, and Heigel, following the long tradition of philosophers trying to explain the ultimate mystery of creation. While Morrow's text is serious in its intent, it remains a modern novel, full of character and events, some of which may also offend gentler sensibilities. For those willing to play what if, however, Morrow has found his niche, and he continues to mine gold.

The first book in James Morrow's "Jehovah" trilogy, "Towing Jehovah," introduces readers to the idea that God has, in fact, died, and His gigantic corpse is drifting in the Atlantic. Tanker captain Anthony Van Horn learns this from no less than a dying angel, while attempting to atone for an ecological disaster he caused. Soon, an emissary from the Vatican confirms it, and Van Horn is off to tow God's corpse to the Arctic to prevent it from decaying in the elements and to preserve whatever brain function God might have left.At first glance, this might seem like a pithy, clever, and self-serving attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like any intelligent satirist, Morrow attacks the extremes on both sides; it is imperative that the mission is kept a secret to keep it from a public that might not understand, and it becomes important to a society of gawdawful liberal humanists that God's body be destroyed so that no one ever discovers it. The humanists and atheists are the most obvious targets of Morrow's lampooning, and for good reason: the bourgeoisie snobbery they exhibit shows not only the narrowest of minds, but also one of the most hypocritical belief-systems on the planet (much like the fundamentalist Christians, who receive the lampoon-stick in the next book of the trilogy). In fact, this book takes away one of the most ambiguous aspects of religion: the existence of God. What God's dead body does is FORCE people to accept that He was, at least at one time, quite real and quite alive. By taking God's existence as a matter of empirical fact instead of a matter of faith, "Towing Jehovah" can then outline a concrete, believable, and very real cosmology about the nature of God and the meaning of human existence - and, according to the story, that might just be what God was planning all along.Morrow is an exceptional writer, although his style hasn't matured as much in this first book as it does in the other two. His ideas show a unique kind of absurdist creativity, but that's a good thing: it is only in the most absurd, extreme situations that philosophies and cosmologies can really be tested. Satirical science fiction may be the funniest way to do so, and the way that reaches the most people. What good is theology when one has to wade through twenty volumes of Aquinas, or try to understand Heidegger's convoluted language? By demonstrating philosophical possibilities, Morrow uses his exceptional talents to do his readers a favor. To that, one must raise the glass and toast his efforts. While Morrow's prose might not be Nabokov's, there is certainly enough allusion to keep it fresh and enough poetry to keep it timeless, regardless of the subject matter. All in all, the first part in a truly exceptional work of art.

Wow - what a concept. G-d has died and fallen into the sea. Now the angels have approached the Vatican, as well as a sea captain with a tainted history, to tow him to a glacial crypt so he won't decompose. Although I never read sci-fi, I had to pick this one up. Contrary to some other reviews, I did laugh out loud -- several times! Just picture a nun and a high priest tooling around G-d's belly button in a 4 wheel drive. Of course they are searching against all hope for proof that the Creator has a Creator above him. The alternative is that there is no G-d; no one watches over mankind anymore and there will be no rewards or punishments in the great beyond...imagine the potential for world chaos.I can see this as an epic movie -- there are certainly enough twists and turns to keep a reader interested. Everyone I have recommended it to can't wait to read it.Try it..

Sea captain Anthony Van Horne, who blames himself for an ExxonValdez-style oil spill years ago, is suddenly visited by an angel whobears the most profound - and disturbing - tidings of all time. GodHimself is dead, and His two-mile-long corpse has fallen into theAtlantic Ocean! The Host of Heaven are dying of grief, the angelexplains, and as their last act of worship they've prepared a tomb forJehovah in a huge iceberg in the Arctic. Van Horne can achieve somevindication by towing the late Creator's body to His frozencrypt. At the helm of the supertanker Carpco Valparaiso (the shipinvolved in the earlier maritime disaster), and flying the flag of theVatican, Van Horne leads a ragtag crew on a secret mission to find Hiscorpse and steer Him to His final resting place. Along the way, theyrescue a militant feminist-atheist who, when she discovers the natureof their mission, secretly decides that she must find a way to preventthis "proof" from becoming known to the world atlarge. Morrow's Towing Jehovah is an absolutely brilliant and oftenqueasily unsettling satire that explores many of the great issues ofreligion, faith, and skepticism. Using the tanker's crew as amicrocosm of society, Morrow takes jabs at Catholics, Jews, skeptics,feminists - just about everybody. How would the Catholic Church reactto the news that God really is dead? What would atheists do if theydiscovered they'd been wrong all along? Would there be any reason toadhere to morality, knowing that God is no longer watching? And thegreatest mystery of all - why did He die? I can't recommend thisbook highly enough for fantasy lovers who are tired of the eternalTolkien rehashes. If you're looking for a book that will make youthink about your life, laugh out loud, and groan with embarrassment -sometimes all at once - this is the book for you. Both Believer andSkeptic will enjoy the ideas mulled over in Towing Jehovah - but thethin-skinned should be warned to proceed at their own risk. JohnC. Snider...

It's very odd. No, not this book, I'm speaking of the reviews I'm reading about it here.I must say that I find very little humor in Towing Jehovah--or at least not the guffaw kind of humor. Read Stephen Fry for that. No, James Morrow has woven a thoughtful and provocative tale around a most improbable premise (the physical demise of God Almighty). And yet I also find little sacrilege in this, unless perhaps you are endeared with the notion that the Catholic Church is not very much like any other human institution, seeking to perpetuate its own dogma and ideology. Also, I must confess to finding little real satire here, too. Yes, there are the inevitable, and quite brilliantly done, jabs at the foibles of modern man and the society we have built--and especially at the diet we choose to eat--but these jabs are not delivered so as to ridicule or demean. There is no sense that Morrow wants us to join him in holding ourselves aloof from the rest of humanity in snobbish repose and declare solemnly "We are so much better than all that." Read Douglas Adams for that. What I did find was an intellectual, though never daunting work that displays a profound understanding of--and sympathy for--Man at the turn of this century. We may smirk at the idea that the best chef in the Merchant Marines is classified as such not because he prepares gourmet meals, but because he is capable of producing exact replicas of the world's leading fast food (no matter what the meat source). But doesn't that say an awful lot about us and our society? In Morrow's gifted hands it does. Morrow's intent seems less to ridicule Man and his institutions than it does to express faith in our inherent moral fiber. It's less a blaspheme against God of the Old Testament than it is a praise of Emmanuel Kant. In killing off God, and in writing the Jesuit physicist's final deduction of why God has died, Morrow is suggesting a humanist future for Mankind, a future in which we have passed by the need for a governing deity, grown to maturity and cast away the bonds that tie us to our Heavenly Father. Or rather, God has cast aside the bonds for us. If you love someone, let them go. This is not sacrilege, but a kind of theocratic Darwinism. Oh, there now, I went and said that awful name didn't I. Okay, maybe it IS sacrilege. Towing Jehovah: an intelligent and well written tale that DOES make sense no matter what else you read here about it.P.S. Contrary to at least one opinion, I found most of the characters very 3 dimensional. Any author who can take a character like Anthony Van Horne (gruff old sea dog with a penchant for wearing mirrored sunglasses, a down parka and John Deere hat, and who keeps his ships log in a Popeye the Sailor notebook) and make them not only interesting, but believable and compelling deserves respect and admiration. Morrow did, and does.