Friday, March 28, 2014

The Omen..er...Good Omens

Good Omens
by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Ann's Pick

Summary:

Good Omens is a comedic take on the end of the world. The story is driven primarily by the missions
and shenanigans of two supernatural beings--the fallen angel Crowley (the serpent in Eden) and the angel Aziraphale (Eden's cherub with the flaming sword)--who, when they discover they both like living on Earth more than either Heaven or Hell, aid each other in halting the apocalypse.

The cast of characters is quite long, but at the forefront is Adam--the child Antichrist who is 11 when the apocalypse begins. In a hilarious mix-up at the hospital, the Satanist nuns accidentally lose track of him in switching out the babies, so Adam is left to grow up in a normal English family in the town of Tadwell.


The only accurate prophecies for the apocalypse are held in one copy of a book by the 16th-century witch Agnes Nutter, a book passed down through the generations of her family to present-day Anathema Device, who interprets and follows the prophecies.

More memorable figures include the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse--War, Famine, Death, and Pollution (who replaces the retired Pestilence)--the real "Hell's Angels," careening on their motorbikes into the end of the world. Also, Dog--the Hell Hound sent to walk at the right hand of the Antichrist--who needed only to be named to become the embodiment of his name; and so he does.

Diane's Response

Where do I even start with this book? It's not too often that I "lol" while reading, but it seemed to happen constantly with Good Omens. So much marvelous British wit. It manages, paradoxically to be the most original, unoriginal story. Gaiman and Pratchett do well to base their story and jokes in the Biblical text which allows for wide association. It also allows for a cultural channeling of other permutations of the Bible. The title makes reference to The Omen horror film, and the days of the week chapter titles nod to G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday--one of our older book club reads. (They out-do Chesterton, really).

The book is solidly put together. Though clearly written for the jokes, the story carries as well--managing to have actual themes--the primary being that humans are capable of more evil than hell and more goodness than heaven.
Yes I drew this! #YayFanArt
The paradoxical theme harmonizes perfectly with the irony of the jokes--everything turned on its head. Surprisingly, the device feels fresh the whole way through to the Yeats-inspired final line with the Antichrist "slouching hopefully toward Tadwell."

My one critique of the book is that it perhaps gets too obsessed with its theme and repeats it one or two too many times--that heaven or hell can be created in the mind of man (A borrowing from the chiasmic line by Satan in Paradise Lost--that the mind creates "a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven"). The climactic scene somehow manages to be tense and anti-climactic--fittingly so, one might say.

I do think that the sharp wit of the opening tapers off somewhat as the apocalypse accelerates, but it reemerges in the epilogue scenes. As it should, the ending felt inevitable and right, so I can't fully explain my lack of perfect satisfaction. It may just be that I preferred the comedic wit for its own sake rather than the message and theme at the heart of the book.

I give it a full 5 stars and have to say I was sorry when it was all over, and it's definitely going on my re-read list a few years from now.




Jan's Response

Good Omens
was pretty hilarious as well as somewhat cynically insightful into the capital 's' State of the World. It was a little slow to get off the ground, but once it was in the air, it really soared. (Pardon the horrendous metaphor...)

I have not read any Terry Pratchett yet, despite my S.O. owning and having repeatedly read everything the man has ever written. (My S.O. was thrilled to learn the Pratchett's daughter would be taking over Discworld after Pratchett's eventual death.) Although I have plans to read Pratchett's books, I have not quite gotten around to it. I have, however, been assured that the portions of this book that he wrote are very much "Pratchett," even though this book was written when Pratchett had only just become Pratchett. (See the Q&A authors' note in the back of the book.) No disrespect to Neil Gaiman, who I have read and love, but I actually liked Pratchett's portions better. (Again, see Q&A for a brief idea of what was whose.)

According to the twice aforementioned Q&A, Gaiman was not yet even Gaiman. For him, I think, it shows a little more. His particular brand and execution of humor (oftentimes bluntly satiric) is there, and is distinct from Pratchett's humor, but it is less nuanced than it is in later works and is more of an interruption of the narrative than the interwoven thread of humor that I think it becomes. Maybe it's the difference between satire and fantasy, or maybe it's the intervening 6 years, but I think Good Omens (1990) lacks the prosaic beauty of Neverwhere (1996). Then again, I am quite partial to Neverwhere.

All in all, Good Omens is a fairly masterful work from two men who were not yet the masters they would become.

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