Take my word for it
Feb. 8th, 2006 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
It's so sad that I've barely started the year and I've already read what will probably be the best book of it.
I just finished up The Wrestler's Cruel Study by Stephen Dobyns. It is, hands down, a fantastic book.
Why?
Two words: Gnostic Wrestlers
Why are you still reading this? Why haven't you lept to your feet to procure a copy at any cost?
*sigh*
Very well. The story follows professional wrestler Michael Marmaduke (a.k.a Marduk the Magnificent) and his quest to find his kidnapped fiance Rose White. In the process Michael enters a world of Heretical Christian street gangs, deep philosophical arguments over the nature of evil wrapped up in a wrestling match and his own personal confrontations with various monsters. There is also the tale of a spinning coin, the lives of the people it passes to and how those lives all glide past one another (and Michael). There are tales of transformation, tales of salvation and tales of damnation. The prose is lyrical and sensuous and even though it clips right along, you want to read the book in small bites and savor it.
Had their been some treatment of zeppelins, the book would have been perfect and a fiery chariot would have swooped down from the skies to carry me to heaven.
Pretty much everyone on my friend's list should check this out, although the Boston Gamer crowd (and ex pats) will probably find it more exciting than most.
Fabulous, Fabulous book. Highly recommended.
Tom
It's so sad that I've barely started the year and I've already read what will probably be the best book of it.
I just finished up The Wrestler's Cruel Study by Stephen Dobyns. It is, hands down, a fantastic book.
Why?
Two words: Gnostic Wrestlers
Why are you still reading this? Why haven't you lept to your feet to procure a copy at any cost?
*sigh*
Very well. The story follows professional wrestler Michael Marmaduke (a.k.a Marduk the Magnificent) and his quest to find his kidnapped fiance Rose White. In the process Michael enters a world of Heretical Christian street gangs, deep philosophical arguments over the nature of evil wrapped up in a wrestling match and his own personal confrontations with various monsters. There is also the tale of a spinning coin, the lives of the people it passes to and how those lives all glide past one another (and Michael). There are tales of transformation, tales of salvation and tales of damnation. The prose is lyrical and sensuous and even though it clips right along, you want to read the book in small bites and savor it.
Had their been some treatment of zeppelins, the book would have been perfect and a fiery chariot would have swooped down from the skies to carry me to heaven.
Pretty much everyone on my friend's list should check this out, although the Boston Gamer crowd (and ex pats) will probably find it more exciting than most.
Fabulous, Fabulous book. Highly recommended.
Tom
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-08 09:57 pm (UTC)James Morrow, Towing Jehovah.
God dies and His gargantuan body falls into the sea. Despondant, dying angels appear and call a disgraced supertanker captain out of retirement to tow the Corpus Dei to a tomb they have built in the Arctic. He does, and he and his crew get to deal with proof that not only is there a God, but he is demonstrably and verifiably dead. Mmmm, satire.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 04:12 pm (UTC)It was great. Read it in Satire class in High School, which was better.
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Date: 2006-02-09 04:13 pm (UTC)Great book, yep.
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Date: 2006-02-08 10:00 pm (UTC)I finally feel like I've absorbed enough eliptony (http://princeofcairo.livejournal.com/) to be able to note the alchemical implications of his fiance's name.
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Date: 2006-02-08 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-09 01:18 am (UTC)You joke, but dude, it covers that on page 5 and then goes way, way beyond that little chestnut.
Tom
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Date: 2006-02-09 01:48 am (UTC):)
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Date: 2006-02-09 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-11 07:07 am (UTC)