"The world has become absurd."

More good reviews for Ron Currie Jr.'s God Is Dead (mentioned here yesterday):

Tod Goldberg of the L.A. Times says, "Currie's strength rests in his ability to focus humanity's conundrums on the smallest physical particles.... The impression may be that Currie handles these issues with a light touch, but the truth he presents is that the world has become absurd; he is merely delivering a steady-cam view."

Also, Entertainment Weekly (which, I'm told, is stingy with high grades) gives God Is Dead a B+, but calls the book "a downer." I couldn't disagree more. Great art, even at it's most grim, is much more than a downer--and Currie's book explores a world more emphatically absurd than grim. When George Saunders conjures a world filled with absurdly themed amusement parks and capitalism run amok, or when Vonnegut yanks the reader back and forth through time to (in part) show the madness and silliness of the lives we lead, is that "a downer"? This book puts Currie squarely in the league of those two giants of satirical fiction. Sure, he's a rookie--but this home-run of a book shows he's playing with the same ball and in the same parks as those guys.

I interviewed Currie recently (and I'm trying to make time to shop this interview around, but teaching and the move have utterly dominated my schedule), and here's what he had to say when I asked him whther the book's characters have anything to live for in a world without God:

I don't think [they] have any less to live for than they did before. I think they may feel that way, but that doesn’t make it so. Because really, once the initial madness following God’s death dies down, nothing has changed in any fundamental way. People still need to figure out how to get out of bed every morning. There is drudge work to do, mortgages to pay and funerals to attend. Parents and children still eyeball one another across great chasms. People still engage in wholesale slaughter over dubious ideologies. I guess what I’m saying is that, God or no, we most often have to find our own motivation for getting on with it every day, even in the face of intense pain, or sadness, or boredom. Most of the time we succeed. Occasionally, we do not, and we’re never heard from again.

Is that a downer? I find the outlook liberating. Refreshing. Honest.

It's a great book, one which strikes a teetering balance between stark realism, rich satire, and a playful sense of the absurd. Don't miss it.

UPDATE: God Is Dead passes the Page 69 Test.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never met in person nor spoken on the phone with Ron Currie, Jr. I have known him for about five years, though, via an online ficiton workshop at Zoetrope.com, and I nearly published an excerpt from his second novel in my online journal, The God Particle. I consider him a friend, which is precisely why I've refrained from writing and attempting to publish a review of the novel. Though you may want to weigh this if you're considering buying the book on my word alone, I feel confident that the book is truly excellent. I wouldn't stick my neck out like this if I felt otherwise. Friends read this blog now and again, occasionally students and colleagues--people I have a vested interest in steering right. And I place great value on critical honesty. Besides, as reviews roll in, the evidence will mount: God Is Dead is great.