Status
Available
Collection
Series
Publication
Mariner Books (1995), Paperback, 384 pages
Description
God is dead, and Anthony Van Horne must tow the corpse to the Arctic (to preserve Him from sharks and decomposition). En route Van Horne must also contend with ecological guilt, a militant girlfriend, sabotage both natural and spiritual, and greedy hucksters of oil, condoms, and doubtful ideas. Winner of a 1995 World Fantasy Award.
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1995)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1994)
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 1995)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 1995)
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (Winner — 1996)
Language
Original publication date
1994
Physical description
384 p.; 5.5 x 1 inches
Media reviews
"Morrow makes it happen with Vonnegutian verve and wit and an enviable expertise in fields ranging from seamanship to junk food to Bob Hope routines to theology."
"There's an unnecessary death that deprives the narrative of the perspective of one of its potentially most interesting characters, but this clever novel still stands as a wry, boisterous celebration."
User reviews
LibraryThing member vpfluke
The conceit of this novel is that God is dead, that is, his physical body, which must be towed from the tropics to the Arctic to get a proper watery burial for him. At times, funny and provocative, this was a thoroughly interesting read. The Vatican and its representatives play a role, sometimes
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spurious. There is a n intersting mix of characters tha keeps it from being boring and the sub-themes of eating, romance, shipping, etc are done with a light touch. Show Less
LibraryThing member smichaelwilson
When I sought out this novel about God's corpse being towed across the ocean by a disgraced oil rig captain, I was expecting a hilarious farce along the lines of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's series, playing fast and loose with religious beliefs. Not so, I found, as the humor was much more dark and
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subtle, and nowhere near as zany as the subject matter would suggest. Not laugh out loud funny, but rather a sly and knowledgeable humor, a wink and a nudge, say no more. But this wasn't a disappointment, for what I found that Morrow handled successfully was the motivations behind both blind faith and lack thereof. Devout Christians and Atheists are represented at their most extreme, both rational and irrational, and neither side is truly taken by Morrow in his endeavor to explore God's true nature, both in reality and our mind's eye. Its not a comedy as much as it is a thinking-man's comedy of errors, and that's the best way I can think to recommend it. Show Less
LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
no spoilers, but here's a synopsis
An unqualified 10! I literally did not put this book down. I was up until 4 a.m finishing it and it was well worth the nasty headache I have right now. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone! Okay...maybe not to devout Christians or Catholics -- they
The main premise is that God is dead and that his huge body (2 miles long, with 7 million tons of displacement)has fallen into the sea from Heaven. The angels get in touch with the Vatican to give them the news; the Vatican sends the angel Raphael to one Anthony Van Horne to tell him that his mission is to tow God's body into the Arctic ocean from where it is off the coast of Africa and deposit it into a specially-prepared iceberg. There's one slight problem: towing God's body would require a huge ship, much like the one that Van Horne was captaining when it ran a reef and spilled enough oil to cover every living creature with tons of oil. Since that time, Van Horne has lost his license. But the Vatican comes to the rescue: not only will Van Horne get a new license from Brazil, he will also be getting back the very ship that wrecked on his watch, now repaired and ready to go. Van Horne, who can't shower enough to get rid of the oil on his conscience, is of course wary; but Raphael tells him that if he does this, he will gain redemption. Van Horne agrees to do the job. There's a catch: because the Vatican supercomputer predicts that while God's heart has stopped functioning, his brain may still be alive, and so they need to get God under ice within a certain time frame and make a quick journey. How does the Vatican explain all this? They launch a huge cover up (another side benefit to this book -- the "Vatican conspiracy" plot) saying that there has been a gigantic spill and the Vatican is financing a mission to clean it up.
So Van Horne sets out with his hastily-picked crew, picks up God's body and starts the journey north. Then the first of many problems occurs: the crew receives a distress call from a woman who had been traveling as part of a biologist team on a replica of Darwin's The Beagle, which was wrecked in a hurricane and left her stranded on a small island which was nothing more than rocks filled with guano. Van Horne wants to send someone else after her; the Jesuit priest on board says that they must pick her up and save her. God would have wanted that. So they rescue the woman, who is an ardent feminist who belongs to an Enlightenment society and the trouble begins when she realizes what the ship's mission is. I'm not going to say another word about the plot so as not to give it away.
What I will tell you is that Towing Jehovah is a brilliant piece of writing. For example, on page 118, the priest Tom and the nun Miriam are taking a drive on God's body, with the music "Also Sprach Zarasthustra" in the background, discussing how God died. The priest argues that "he died from a bad case of the twentieth century." On the next page, they get into a discussion of Nietzsche -- wonderful! Don't forget it was Nietzsche who gave the famous quote "God is Dead." And it's not just the Vatican that gets the brunt of Morrow's satire: Jews, feminists, evangelicals and others as represented by the crew members also fall victim. Even atheists & agnostics are examined: on page 135, the priest notes the effect that the discovery that God was dead would have on the world's population:
"In the old days...whether you were a believer, a nonbeliever, or a confused agnostic, at some level, conscious or unconscious, you felt God was watching you, and the intuition kept you in check. Now a whole new era is upon us."
And again, on 181, Miriam wonders about the post-theistic age and what's in store for the new postdomini world.
There are some really funny moments in here, including a stint where the crew is starving after they run aground on an island created from Europe's garbage & refuse and are forced to eat from God's Breast -- which includes a recipe for Dieu Bourguignon. But at the heart of this story is the question of how and why God died -- and the answer may surprise you.
I cannot say enough about how marvelous this book is and I would strongly recommend it.
An unqualified 10! I literally did not put this book down. I was up until 4 a.m finishing it and it was well worth the nasty headache I have right now. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone! Okay...maybe not to devout Christians or Catholics -- they
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might be a little upset with the satire. However, if you find yourself with an open mind, do read this book. You will NOT be disappointed. At times it is just downright funny; at other times, filled with wisdom.The main premise is that God is dead and that his huge body (2 miles long, with 7 million tons of displacement)has fallen into the sea from Heaven. The angels get in touch with the Vatican to give them the news; the Vatican sends the angel Raphael to one Anthony Van Horne to tell him that his mission is to tow God's body into the Arctic ocean from where it is off the coast of Africa and deposit it into a specially-prepared iceberg. There's one slight problem: towing God's body would require a huge ship, much like the one that Van Horne was captaining when it ran a reef and spilled enough oil to cover every living creature with tons of oil. Since that time, Van Horne has lost his license. But the Vatican comes to the rescue: not only will Van Horne get a new license from Brazil, he will also be getting back the very ship that wrecked on his watch, now repaired and ready to go. Van Horne, who can't shower enough to get rid of the oil on his conscience, is of course wary; but Raphael tells him that if he does this, he will gain redemption. Van Horne agrees to do the job. There's a catch: because the Vatican supercomputer predicts that while God's heart has stopped functioning, his brain may still be alive, and so they need to get God under ice within a certain time frame and make a quick journey. How does the Vatican explain all this? They launch a huge cover up (another side benefit to this book -- the "Vatican conspiracy" plot) saying that there has been a gigantic spill and the Vatican is financing a mission to clean it up.
So Van Horne sets out with his hastily-picked crew, picks up God's body and starts the journey north. Then the first of many problems occurs: the crew receives a distress call from a woman who had been traveling as part of a biologist team on a replica of Darwin's The Beagle, which was wrecked in a hurricane and left her stranded on a small island which was nothing more than rocks filled with guano. Van Horne wants to send someone else after her; the Jesuit priest on board says that they must pick her up and save her. God would have wanted that. So they rescue the woman, who is an ardent feminist who belongs to an Enlightenment society and the trouble begins when she realizes what the ship's mission is. I'm not going to say another word about the plot so as not to give it away.
What I will tell you is that Towing Jehovah is a brilliant piece of writing. For example, on page 118, the priest Tom and the nun Miriam are taking a drive on God's body, with the music "Also Sprach Zarasthustra" in the background, discussing how God died. The priest argues that "he died from a bad case of the twentieth century." On the next page, they get into a discussion of Nietzsche -- wonderful! Don't forget it was Nietzsche who gave the famous quote "God is Dead." And it's not just the Vatican that gets the brunt of Morrow's satire: Jews, feminists, evangelicals and others as represented by the crew members also fall victim. Even atheists & agnostics are examined: on page 135, the priest notes the effect that the discovery that God was dead would have on the world's population:
"In the old days...whether you were a believer, a nonbeliever, or a confused agnostic, at some level, conscious or unconscious, you felt God was watching you, and the intuition kept you in check. Now a whole new era is upon us."
And again, on 181, Miriam wonders about the post-theistic age and what's in store for the new postdomini world.
There are some really funny moments in here, including a stint where the crew is starving after they run aground on an island created from Europe's garbage & refuse and are forced to eat from God's Breast -- which includes a recipe for Dieu Bourguignon. But at the heart of this story is the question of how and why God died -- and the answer may surprise you.
I cannot say enough about how marvelous this book is and I would strongly recommend it.
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LibraryThing member reverends
When I sought out this novel about God's corpse being towed across the ocean by a disgraced oil rig captain, I was expecting a hilarious farce along the lines of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's series, playing fast and loose with religious beliefs. Not so, I found, as the humor was much more dark and
Show More
subtle, and nowhere near as zany as the subject matter would suggest. Not laugh out loud funny, but rather a sly and knowledgable humor, a wink and a nudge, say no more. But this wasn't a dissapointment, for what I found that Morrow handled successfully was the motivations behind both blind faith and lack thereof. Devout Christians and Athiests are represented at their most extreme, both rational and irrational, and neither side is truly taken by Morrow in his endeavor to explore God's true nature, both in reality and our mind's eye. Its not a comedy as much as it is a thinking-man's comedy of errors, and that's the best way I can think to recommend it. Show Less
LibraryThing member uvula_fr_b4
I officially decided to abandon Towing Jehovah on 9-29-13, after starting it on 1-3-09 and stalling out after 200 or so pages.
This is the first book in the Godhead Trilogy (the subsequent books are Blameless in Abaddon and The Eternal Footman), whose premise is: What would people do if they had
Silly rabbit.
In Towing Jehovah, the Lord of Host's less-than-immortal Remains plummet to the Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean, only to float to the surface; the Vatican hires a disgraced oil tanker captain (think of the guy who helmed the Exxon Valdez to such lasting fame...) to pilot a tanker, with a Vatican-hired crew, to tow Jehovah (get it? get it) to a secret location in the Arctic (the better to forestall decomposition and assaults by scavengers) where more Vatican-hired scientists and clergy can study Him in depth (and, presumably, revive Him -- if that fits in with the Vatican's plans). Obviously, this absurd premise is really a clever symbolic representation of the way that mankind drags around the concept of Deity throughout history, with not always edifying or salutary results; oh, that clever, clever Morrow!
Complications ensue, but not terribly interesting ones. A quantum physicist (a Jesuit, if memory serves) and a nun get jiggy wit'it while walking around on His Corpse. The crew decides, after getting a good look at His Remains, that Hassan i Sabbah's dictum of "Do as thou wilt, that be the whole of the Law" (so admired by Aleister Crowley and William S. Burroughs) makes a lot more sense than the Ten Commandments; apparently, in Morrow's world, no one lives his or her life by any moral standard that isn't backed up by fear and dread of some supernatural entity -- excuse me, (the Judeo-Christian) God On High -- and so everybody just naturally relocates to the Land of Do-As-You-Please. There's a bunch of rich twits who re-enact World War II naval battles using live ammo, which sounds like the plot of a Richard Lester movie; one of their re-enactments blunders into the path of Jehovah's Corpse. Oh, and it's discovered that God has a Belly Button. How? Why? Discuss.
The real marvel to me isn't that I gave Towing Jehovah up; it's that it took me 4+ years to formally acknowledge to myself that I had in fact abandoned it. Part of this was due to my guilt over having splashed out on buying the entire trilogy; part of it was due to a residual adherence to a foolish notion that I must finish every book that I start. Meh. Life's too short, and it's getting shorter all the time.
This is the first book in the Godhead Trilogy (the subsequent books are Blameless in Abaddon and The Eternal Footman), whose premise is: What would people do if they had
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irrefutable proof that the Judeo-Christian God was in fact dead? Since I'd previously read, and mostly liked, Morrow's fable about nuclear war, This is the Way the World Ends (although it's not a patch on his main inspiration, Jonathan Schell's non-fiction book The Fate of the Earth, which introduced the concept of nuclear winter to the general public), I picked up all three books via Amazon.com or resellers working through Amazon.com, without reading the beginning book first. Silly rabbit.
In Towing Jehovah, the Lord of Host's less-than-immortal Remains plummet to the Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean, only to float to the surface; the Vatican hires a disgraced oil tanker captain (think of the guy who helmed the Exxon Valdez to such lasting fame...) to pilot a tanker, with a Vatican-hired crew, to tow Jehovah (get it? get it) to a secret location in the Arctic (the better to forestall decomposition and assaults by scavengers) where more Vatican-hired scientists and clergy can study Him in depth (and, presumably, revive Him -- if that fits in with the Vatican's plans). Obviously, this absurd premise is really a clever symbolic representation of the way that mankind drags around the concept of Deity throughout history, with not always edifying or salutary results; oh, that clever, clever Morrow!
Complications ensue, but not terribly interesting ones. A quantum physicist (a Jesuit, if memory serves) and a nun get jiggy wit'it while walking around on His Corpse. The crew decides, after getting a good look at His Remains, that Hassan i Sabbah's dictum of "Do as thou wilt, that be the whole of the Law" (so admired by Aleister Crowley and William S. Burroughs) makes a lot more sense than the Ten Commandments; apparently, in Morrow's world, no one lives his or her life by any moral standard that isn't backed up by fear and dread of some supernatural entity -- excuse me, (the Judeo-Christian) God On High -- and so everybody just naturally relocates to the Land of Do-As-You-Please. There's a bunch of rich twits who re-enact World War II naval battles using live ammo, which sounds like the plot of a Richard Lester movie; one of their re-enactments blunders into the path of Jehovah's Corpse. Oh, and it's discovered that God has a Belly Button. How? Why? Discuss.
The real marvel to me isn't that I gave Towing Jehovah up; it's that it took me 4+ years to formally acknowledge to myself that I had in fact abandoned it. Part of this was due to my guilt over having splashed out on buying the entire trilogy; part of it was due to a residual adherence to a foolish notion that I must finish every book that I start. Meh. Life's too short, and it's getting shorter all the time.
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LibraryThing member fiddlersgreen
Great book. I highly recommend. God dies, falls into the ocean and a drunken captain is hired to tow Him to the arctic for "burial."
LibraryThing member PGAllison
A great read with an isolated crew acting as a microcosm for society when the world learns that God is dead.
LibraryThing member Medellia
This book is just wonderful. Great satire with a real plot, fleshed-out characters, and loads of symbolic meaning. It's Nietzschean philosophy at a literal level: God is dead, and his two-mile-long body is floating out in the ocean. An angel appears to a disgraced captain of an oil tanker and tells
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him he needs to tow the body to the Arctic for a proper burial. In the meantime, the Vatican wants him to get it there as quickly as possible so that they can cryogenically freeze the body and resuscitate it later. While the Vatican seems unconcerned with the philosophical ramifications of God's apparent death, the Jesuit Father Thomas Ockham muses aboard the ship, struggling for answers. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member crazybatcow
As I checked this book out of the library, the librarian commented that this was his favorite book so I had great expectations for it.
I didn't like it. It's not because I don't like satirical novels (read Lullaby), or religious "commentary" (read Lamb)... it's because... hmmm... I can't put my
It's ridiculous in the way that Lullaby is ridiculous, but at least Lullaby attempted to be so over the top that you knew it, this one tries to pretend that it's NOT so over the top...
Oh, I dunno...
I didn't like it. It's not because I don't like satirical novels (read Lullaby), or religious "commentary" (read Lamb)... it's because... hmmm... I can't put my
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finger on it. It tried too hard?It's ridiculous in the way that Lullaby is ridiculous, but at least Lullaby attempted to be so over the top that you knew it, this one tries to pretend that it's NOT so over the top...
Oh, I dunno...
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LibraryThing member sboyte
Morrow has written a good story, although at times the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the novel are hard to follow. Essentially, he examines the literal death of god and its implications for society as the corpse is towed north by an oil tanker.
The book is well-written and pretty
But, still, really enjoyable and totally irreverant. Thumbs up.
The book is well-written and pretty
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hard to put down at times. My one complaint would be that the character of Cassie, a supposed feminist/atheist, is portrayed as a militant idiot. Although she is a "smart" character, Morrow has written her as rather dumb and inconsiderate.But, still, really enjoyable and totally irreverant. Thumbs up.
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LibraryThing member Mrs_McGreevy
God is dead (we know this because His 2 mile-long body is floating in the ocean). Before all of the angels die of grief, they hire a disgraced tanker captain to tow the body into the Arctic Sea so it won’t rot. Funny, satirical, and thought-provoking, Morrow’s book reminds me of Vonnegut,
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although I couldn’t tell you exactly why. Show Less
LibraryThing member Devil_llama
Fun fiction based on the premise that God has died and needs to be transported to his final resting place. This imaginative plot tie together the Catholic Church hierarchy, a Jesuit priest and a nun, a ship captain who has lost his license, a group of atheists, and a bunch of Nazi sympthizers in a
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twisty, quirky plot that asks the question "What would happen if there were no God?". I don't agree with the author's answer, but it's fun getting there. Unfortunately, some of the characters were unbelievable stereotypes, particularly the atheists, and the ending was pure Hollywood pap. Show Less
LibraryThing member ehines
Imagine if Carl Hiassen ventured to write something like Wilton Barnhardt's Gospel. This would be it, I think. The philosophical bits could have been a lot better thought out, but all in all a good read that is skeptical but not hostile to religion.
LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
Not a stunner, but an enjoyable trip to the Arctic circle with the unimaginably gigantic corpse of a Judeo-Christian diety in tow. After the extremely extensive remains of what looks like a picture-book version of Our Holy Father, a disgraced captain obviously based on Joseph Hazlewood, the skipper
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of the Exxon Valdez, a Jesuit priest, a Carmelite nun, and a few dozen members of the merchant marine are tasked with towing him to His final resting place. "Towing Jehova" something of a good, old-fashioned sea story: Morrow almost certainly read up extensively on modern navigation and shipbuilding while writing it. His focus is, as always, more directly theological: what does the definitive confirmation, or the rejection, of somebody's religious beliefs do to them? How excruciatingly physical can God be? (The answer, by the way, is "very.") Would God's death shake up atheists or believers more? A lot of these questions aren't treated as deeply as a of readers might like; the book has a "first in a series of three" feel to it. But I don't think it's as superficial as some other reviewers contend, either, and Morrow's writing, which is well-crafted, witty, and, in places, surprisingly evocative, rises to the task. Some of the theological happenings do seem out of place -- I'm not too sure how many members of the merchant marine are regular churchgoers who'd have their morals unmoored by the Almighty's passing, for example. But the huge body that is a constant presence in this novel seems to constantly remind the reader of the consequences and perils of confronting God in the most literal sense. The most fun to be had here involves, as others have also mentioned, a society of World War II reenactors nostalgic for a past they never lived through. As Morrow lives in eastern Pennsylvania, I wonder if he isn't poking fun at the Civil War do-over crowd that descends upon Gettysburg on a regular basis. Not as good a place to start with Morrow as "Only Begotten Daughter" or "City of Truth," but I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
First - I'm glad I read it. At times, it was too... gross. Other times, it was a bit surreal. However, it always made me think. How a ship works was interesting - and the theme of internal redemption vs godly redemption.
LibraryThing member SChant
Disappointing. An intriguing idea that just meandered pointlessly to an unsatisfactory end. Might have been better/sharper as a short story.
LibraryThing member libraryofus
(Amy) God is dead. Morrow is scarcely the first to write about such things, but this tale of towing God's corpse to its final resting place in the Arctic Circle is far more entertaining than Nietzche ever dreamed of being. Managing to be both deliciously blasphemous and amazingly thought-provoking,
(Alistair) I second absolutely all of the above.
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this book is well worth reading.(Alistair) I second absolutely all of the above.
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LibraryThing member electrascaife
God is dead and his corpse is floating somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The angels choose a disgraced ship captain to lead a disparate crew on a secret mission to tow the holy vessel to a final resting place in the arctic circle. Weirdness ensues.
It started out good – the writing is
It started out good – the writing is
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pretty great and the weird was a good weird. But then is just…stayed…weird…with no real dynamics. And the characters were more annoying than eccentric. So, in the end, sort of disappointing. Show Less
Pages
384