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Good to Be God
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Most helpful positive review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4Back to Form
ByTNon 26 June 2009
I became a fan of Tibor Fischer after reading The Thought Gang in 1995, then discovered the wonderful Under the Frog shortly afterwards. I was a little disappointed by Collector Collector and Don't Read This Book if Your Stupid, and although I enjoyed Voyage to the End of the Room, it was for me still not a book that would have sent me out on the streets to hunt down his other work.
Good to be God, by contrast, was a joy to read.
Good to be God, by contrast, was a joy to read.
Most helpful critical review
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
3Good God it's average!
BySam Quixoteon 29 July 2009
The book is something of a mix. It starts out with a guy with no job and no life who's given a chance to go to Miami and while there figures out that he's been aiming low all his life and that's why hes failed - now he wants to aim higher, in fact highest: he will become God. Or at least that's what hes going to tell people and endeavour to become.
So far so good. But the story never really takes off. Initially he tries to figure it out by becoming a sort of assistant preacher (sub-Heirophant is the title) in a church wonderfully titled The Church of the Heavily Armed Christ. Then after the leader of the church goes to take care of his ailing mum, our hero steps in and becomes leader of this church.
I'll stop there because the story branches out into too many sub stories and the review'll go on forever. Suffice it to say each aspect of our hero's life is explored fully. He needs a place to sleep, we meet a new character and we meet the others who live there and their stories. He needs some money, we meet a new character and he becomes a drug dealer and we find out about that world. He gets sidetracked by slapstick goons, caricatures of "low lifes", a high class prostitute, a creepy flatmate, a slacker undertaker, some evil old women running a corrupt church, an immigrant with a heart of gold, a millionaire who pretended to be poor, I'm only remembering part of it but there are many more characters here usually with single names like Napalm and Sixto. Hmm.
You're probably thinking "what's wrong with that, sounds like a ripping yarn!" and you're sort of right. Only, Fischer's style is skewed. Sometimes its trying too hard to be funny, sometimes its being too preachy for its own good ("life isnt worth trying, doing things is basically waiting speeded up, you never get anywhere planning" - I'm paraphrasing but the repetitiveness of some of our hero's thoughts are a bit dull), sometimes its being too kooky, sometimes its being too "noir". The whole becoming God thing is touched on toward the end but for the most of the book it's about a bloke who knocks around Miami meeting eccentrics and having an alright time of it while commenting heavily on "life".
It's an alright book, I enjoyed it, it passes the time, and it's much better written and far more interesting than the average novel available today. But is it a classic or something I'd even remember 10 years, maybe even 1 year from now? Probably not. It had the potential to be more than it ended up being really. "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk is a better book if you're looking for a bloke who becomes a messiah story.
So far so good. But the story never really takes off. Initially he tries to figure it out by becoming a sort of assistant preacher (sub-Heirophant is the title) in a church wonderfully titled The Church of the Heavily Armed Christ. Then after the leader of the church goes to take care of his ailing mum, our hero steps in and becomes leader of this church.
I'll stop there because the story branches out into too many sub stories and the review'll go on forever. Suffice it to say each aspect of our hero's life is explored fully. He needs a place to sleep, we meet a new character and we meet the others who live there and their stories. He needs some money, we meet a new character and he becomes a drug dealer and we find out about that world. He gets sidetracked by slapstick goons, caricatures of "low lifes", a high class prostitute, a creepy flatmate, a slacker undertaker, some evil old women running a corrupt church, an immigrant with a heart of gold, a millionaire who pretended to be poor, I'm only remembering part of it but there are many more characters here usually with single names like Napalm and Sixto. Hmm.
You're probably thinking "what's wrong with that, sounds like a ripping yarn!" and you're sort of right. Only, Fischer's style is skewed. Sometimes its trying too hard to be funny, sometimes its being too preachy for its own good ("life isnt worth trying, doing things is basically waiting speeded up, you never get anywhere planning" - I'm paraphrasing but the repetitiveness of some of our hero's thoughts are a bit dull), sometimes its being too kooky, sometimes its being too "noir". The whole becoming God thing is touched on toward the end but for the most of the book it's about a bloke who knocks around Miami meeting eccentrics and having an alright time of it while commenting heavily on "life".
It's an alright book, I enjoyed it, it passes the time, and it's much better written and far more interesting than the average novel available today. But is it a classic or something I'd even remember 10 years, maybe even 1 year from now? Probably not. It had the potential to be more than it ended up being really. "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk is a better book if you're looking for a bloke who becomes a messiah story.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
The book is something of a mix. It starts out with a guy with no job and no life who's given a chance to go to Miami and while there figures out that he's been aiming low all his life and that's why hes failed - now he wants to aim higher, in fact highest: he will become God. Or at least that's what hes going to tell people and endeavour to become.
So far so good. But the story never really takes off. Initially he tries to figure it out by becoming a sort of assistant preacher (sub-Heirophant is the title) in a church wonderfully titled The Church of the Heavily Armed Christ. Then after the leader of the church goes to take care of his ailing mum, our hero steps in and becomes leader of this church.
I'll stop there because the story branches out into too many sub stories and the review'll go on forever. Suffice it to say each aspect of our hero's life is explored fully. He needs a place to sleep, we meet a new character and we meet the others who live there and their stories. He needs some money, we meet a new character and he becomes a drug dealer and we find out about that world. He gets sidetracked by slapstick goons, caricatures of "low lifes", a high class prostitute, a creepy flatmate, a slacker undertaker, some evil old women running a corrupt church, an immigrant with a heart of gold, a millionaire who pretended to be poor, I'm only remembering part of it but there are many more characters here usually with single names like Napalm and Sixto. Hmm.
You're probably thinking "what's wrong with that, sounds like a ripping yarn!" and you're sort of right. Only, Fischer's style is skewed. Sometimes its trying too hard to be funny, sometimes its being too preachy for its own good ("life isnt worth trying, doing things is basically waiting speeded up, you never get anywhere planning" - I'm paraphrasing but the repetitiveness of some of our hero's thoughts are a bit dull), sometimes its being too kooky, sometimes its being too "noir". The whole becoming God thing is touched on toward the end but for the most of the book it's about a bloke who knocks around Miami meeting eccentrics and having an alright time of it while commenting heavily on "life".
It's an alright book, I enjoyed it, it passes the time, and it's much better written and far more interesting than the average novel available today. But is it a classic or something I'd even remember 10 years, maybe even 1 year from now? Probably not. It had the potential to be more than it ended up being really. "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk is a better book if you're looking for a bloke who becomes a messiah story.
So far so good. But the story never really takes off. Initially he tries to figure it out by becoming a sort of assistant preacher (sub-Heirophant is the title) in a church wonderfully titled The Church of the Heavily Armed Christ. Then after the leader of the church goes to take care of his ailing mum, our hero steps in and becomes leader of this church.
I'll stop there because the story branches out into too many sub stories and the review'll go on forever. Suffice it to say each aspect of our hero's life is explored fully. He needs a place to sleep, we meet a new character and we meet the others who live there and their stories. He needs some money, we meet a new character and he becomes a drug dealer and we find out about that world. He gets sidetracked by slapstick goons, caricatures of "low lifes", a high class prostitute, a creepy flatmate, a slacker undertaker, some evil old women running a corrupt church, an immigrant with a heart of gold, a millionaire who pretended to be poor, I'm only remembering part of it but there are many more characters here usually with single names like Napalm and Sixto. Hmm.
You're probably thinking "what's wrong with that, sounds like a ripping yarn!" and you're sort of right. Only, Fischer's style is skewed. Sometimes its trying too hard to be funny, sometimes its being too preachy for its own good ("life isnt worth trying, doing things is basically waiting speeded up, you never get anywhere planning" - I'm paraphrasing but the repetitiveness of some of our hero's thoughts are a bit dull), sometimes its being too kooky, sometimes its being too "noir". The whole becoming God thing is touched on toward the end but for the most of the book it's about a bloke who knocks around Miami meeting eccentrics and having an alright time of it while commenting heavily on "life".
It's an alright book, I enjoyed it, it passes the time, and it's much better written and far more interesting than the average novel available today. But is it a classic or something I'd even remember 10 years, maybe even 1 year from now? Probably not. It had the potential to be more than it ended up being really. "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk is a better book if you're looking for a bloke who becomes a messiah story.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
ByTNon 26 June 2009
I became a fan of Tibor Fischer after reading The Thought Gang in 1995, then discovered the wonderful Under the Frog shortly afterwards. I was a little disappointed by Collector Collector and Don't Read This Book if Your Stupid, and although I enjoyed Voyage to the End of the Room, it was for me still not a book that would have sent me out on the streets to hunt down his other work.
Good to be God, by contrast, was a joy to read.
Good to be God, by contrast, was a joy to read.
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ByJames C. Foremanon 1 September 2010
It's a wish-fulfilment fantasy where a man takes on a new identity and reinvents himself in Miami (where everything admits of several layers of fakery anyway: I suppose if you want to deny reality, Miami is a good place to do it).
Unfortunately, because of the archness of the narrator constantly pointing out the pointlessness of reinvention and fantasy, and a middle section of the book where really nothing happens, the initial promise feels squandered. There's some great lines, and some lovely inventions of slang, but the narrator and the book both go nowhere.
Perhaps this is impressive work on the part of Fischer, to give us a narrator we don't care for, but it is hard to detach the narrator from the author's voice, and it's also hard to engage with somebody so gloomy, so eeyoreish.
Or perhaps it's because the blurb gives away too much, or the cheap deus ex machina that unfurls at the end, or the loose ends still flapping around, or the way several characters strain the reader's credulity by pointing out the unlikelihood of certain events. I'm a little depressed, because Under The Frog was a book that made a real impression on me, but even the callback to the accidental discovery of an arms-cache in that book isn't fully satisfying; it is just part of a meaningless story that doesn't move us anywhere, even while it's studded with beautiful, cynical, gloriously overwrought sentences.
Unfortunately, because of the archness of the narrator constantly pointing out the pointlessness of reinvention and fantasy, and a middle section of the book where really nothing happens, the initial promise feels squandered. There's some great lines, and some lovely inventions of slang, but the narrator and the book both go nowhere.
Perhaps this is impressive work on the part of Fischer, to give us a narrator we don't care for, but it is hard to detach the narrator from the author's voice, and it's also hard to engage with somebody so gloomy, so eeyoreish.
Or perhaps it's because the blurb gives away too much, or the cheap deus ex machina that unfurls at the end, or the loose ends still flapping around, or the way several characters strain the reader's credulity by pointing out the unlikelihood of certain events. I'm a little depressed, because Under The Frog was a book that made a real impression on me, but even the callback to the accidental discovery of an arms-cache in that book isn't fully satisfying; it is just part of a meaningless story that doesn't move us anywhere, even while it's studded with beautiful, cynical, gloriously overwrought sentences.
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ByIan Edward "arpeggios"on 10 March 2011
Like many other reviews, mine is lukewarm about this book. And yet like many other reviewers, I was wildly enthusiastic about the earlier books. Under The Frog was a seminal work. The Thought Gang was brilliantly, page turningly funny - up there with The Catcher In The Rye, Lucky Jim and Catch 22. Yes, I'm serious. But this book and the one before about the porn star and the ones before that about the ... I forget, they're so forgettable ... have left me feeling, well, let down, cheated - a bit like I felt when after Elvis' stunning 'Heartbreak Hotel' and 'Jailhouse Rock' he gave us 'Are you Lonesome Tonight' and 'In The Ghetto'. Do I make myself clear? Dig up Eddie Coffin, he's up to no good somewhere in the South of France, and we want to know where and what his jubilation specialist is up to in 2011. Am I wasting my time, or does Tibor Fischer ever read any of this stuff?
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But not universally well-reviewed. Most of these reviews are accurate, and reflect my own view. It may be worth adding that while the story isn't perfect and some of the points are laboured, there are many, many more laugh-out-loud sentences and well-phrased insights into the human condition and modern life here than in a shelf full of other novels in this vein. Some story elements and sentences lack tightness - there are even a few typos - and for this I'm tempted to blame the editor, rather than the author. I'm starting to appreciate the role and value of a good editor more as my reading life continues, and it's easy to see how a fundamentally enjoyable book could have been excellent. Actually, if you'd edited stringently enough, you would have ended up with a Magnus Mills book ...
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ByJezzaon 13 August 2009
Enjoyable, witty, and provocative about the causes and consequences of life's disappointments. Nicely anti-religious and anti-clerical, though not in a heavy-handed way, as so much writing about American religion can be.
Mildly misanthropic, and I'm tempted to say misogynist - though on reflection I'm not sure why. Women come out better than men in the book, and there's no obvious woman-hatred; it's just that so much of the humour, and the narrator's preoccupations, are so blokey - drinking sessions, drug dealing, guns, porn - that it's hard to imagine recommending this to a woman friend to read. Comments from women who have enjoyed this most welcome - I enjoyed it myself and would like to recommend it widely, but don't feel entirely comfortable doing so.
Mildly misanthropic, and I'm tempted to say misogynist - though on reflection I'm not sure why. Women come out better than men in the book, and there's no obvious woman-hatred; it's just that so much of the humour, and the narrator's preoccupations, are so blokey - drinking sessions, drug dealing, guns, porn - that it's hard to imagine recommending this to a woman friend to read. Comments from women who have enjoyed this most welcome - I enjoyed it myself and would like to recommend it widely, but don't feel entirely comfortable doing so.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
ByCrossyon 22 October 2008
Fischer's latest is great fun. Written with pace and laden with his customary wit, thoroughly enjoyed the book. Definitely his best since The Thought Gang. Plus the ending left the possibility of more Tyndale adventures. I really hope so.
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BySnejana Damwellon 22 May 2011
well yeah... I `m not joking. To be honest I am on page 92 today and I have never been impulsive this much.
Having a catch sight of the reviewers so far there was no suprises. The majority of reviewers are men who, everyone knows that, are much more interested in action, plot, suspence and such, that`s testosteron talking. There is no much action here it seems. Women are fascinated by turning a phrase, play with words, coin a phrase and to be honest i feel comfortable being woman.
I give Good to be God 55 points.
I do appologize , my English is still far from perfection.
Having a catch sight of the reviewers so far there was no suprises. The majority of reviewers are men who, everyone knows that, are much more interested in action, plot, suspence and such, that`s testosteron talking. There is no much action here it seems. Women are fascinated by turning a phrase, play with words, coin a phrase and to be honest i feel comfortable being woman.
I give Good to be God 55 points.
I do appologize , my English is still far from perfection.
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ByMr. Richard Mosson 30 October 2009
I read the Thought Gang years ago and enjoyed it very much; as a result I have read a few more of Tibor Fischer's books and been left wanting. Similarly I found this to be a disappointing collection of vignettes without a strong plot to bind them together. I stayed with it as I was hoping it would develop into something better. but I felt like this was the first draft of an idea, with very limited development or refinement. Of course this is my subjective opinion, your view may be different.
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ByPelikan Elvtarson 3 August 2009
I wonder if I qualify to give a review on this as I only gave it 100 pages before binning it. In short, really disappointing, especially as I loved Under the Frog and, as an atheist, I was interested to see what the author would make of the subject. Yes, this had the well put-together jokes and the ready wit but I found I really didn't care whether Tynedale lived or died - and, without that, I couldn't see the point.
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