“This Is the Way the World Ends”
by James Morrow is a classic black satire of nuclear proliferation in the cold war. In an interesting way this book did not resonate with me, but I still found it interesting as a window into the ideas and debates of proliferation and deterance during the cold war. So, as a window into so political satire of the cold war, I give it high marks. But as a captivating story which still seems relevant today, I give it low marks. Perhaps I should be scared that I’m not scared of nuclear proliferation. Or at least I’m not scared in the same way people were scared during the cold war.
I’m familiar only with Morrow’s “Towing Jehovah.” This is about a disgraced oil tanker captain recruited by the Vatican to haul God’s corpse across the ocean to a final resting place in the Arctic. It is a curious book, weird and philosophical, with interesting characters. The “God is Dead” theme is deftly explored, and the strangeness of the event and the mission is engrossing reading. Funny and absurd in a PKD way, surreal like Ballard, with the narrative drive of Disch or Sturgeon or Aldiss, it is a good book, but my response to it was similarly lukewarm. How is that? It had all the ingredients, but the final stew wasn’t as tasty as I imagined. I would like to give Mr. Morrow another shot–any other ideas out there?