Sunday, September 12, 2010

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend, inside a dog, it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx


When I received this novel, my first reaction was that this was the book from which the film with Denzel Washington was made. I couldn't have been further from the truth.
Eli Canaan is a good man who tries to do all the right things like coaching children and encouraging them, putting the garbage out without being reminded and putting the toilet seat down after going to the bathroom. However, he does have one little problem. He loves to have intercourse and not just with his wife, Abagail.
Abagail has decreed that she and Eli will have sex 2.5 times per month since she read that and felt that it was sufficient. This is way too few times for Eli and he continues to have sex elsewhere, Abagail finds a Gypsy and casts a spell on Eli where her wish is that he never seeks another woman.
Unfortunately, as the Gypsy tells her, "...be careful what you wish for."
Poor Eli has the best sex ever with one of his usual partners, Mary, and just at the pivotal moment, he screams, "Oh God!" Then he wakes up in heaven.
Eli is confused and when he hears a voice and believes that it is God, the voice sounds like Orson Wells. Then he's corrected. The voice actually belongs to a cigar smoking person named Julius who is Eli's guide in heaven. Julius takes Eli on a tour where he meets other celebrities like Groucho Marx.
In an amusing story, Julius and Eli talk about life, cats and dogs and other people in haven. When Eli asks about other well know people in heaven, Julius tells him about the waiting lines for such celebrities such as Sartre and Descartes.
Later, Eli meets Freud and they discuss Eli's fixation with sex.
The story is very witty and I felt that I was reading some one liners that might be spoken by Don Rickles or Jerry Seinfeld.

Check out the amazon review and if you agree, please indicate that the review was helpful.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know when I read the title, I thought it was from the movie. Did you happen to see it?

Off to Amazon! :) I'll comment about your review there.

Mishel (P.S. I Love Books) said...

I too thought of the movie as soon as I saw that cover. Pity it wasn't because I really enjoyed that movie. I was never planning on watching it but caved when a friend brought it over. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

But I digress, this novel sounds quirky =) Definitely not a bad thing though.

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