 I read a capsule review of this book and found the premise intriguing, so I went out and bought the book! Ron Currie’s novel is not the most uplifting narrative, but he does address aspects and excesses in our society in a powerful manner. The novel begins with the Big Bang of God dying — after manifesting herself as a Dinka woman (with a rather nasty wound) in Dafur. God is killed by a rival African tribe during a mass attack on the village and her corpse is consumed by wild dogs – who begin to speak in Hebrew and Greek a day after feasting on the semi-divine body. But that’s only part of the disjointed story. Through a number of semi-related stories, Currie’s novel explores the aftershocks of God’s death by highlighting mass despair resulting in suicides, people looking for “God alternatives†(i.e., worshiping children or the talking dogs), the loss of intimacy in relationships, wars over rival humanist ideologies, and mindless consumerism. When those themes are lined up, it’s pretty clear that Currie is saying that human nature, even when faced with the profound loss of a creator’s life, does not change when it comes to our basic instincts and cultural mores.  
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Okay, full disclosure here! This is the only novel in the Harry Potter series I’ve read. I’ve seen the films, so I know the basic storyline, but as anyone who has seen their favorite books adapted to the screen knows, it’s just not the same. We have to wait a few years to see this book translated to the screen, but in the meantime I get the pleasure of assessing the current book as a newbie to Rowling’s prose and storytelling. While I find Rowling is able to move the story forward at a good pace, she often gets bogged down in stretching the story out (sometimes needlessly) to the point where fatigue sets in. When the inevitable showdown between Harry and Voldemort happens, there was so much build up that conclusion was a bit of a letdown mostly because one could be reasonably sure that things were going to turn out okay. However, with the success of each book in the series, Rowling and her publisher must have figured that “more is better†and packed each novel with more fluff than necessary. While I’m satisfied with knowing the conclusion of Harry’s story, getting there was an endurance test.
I haven’t finished this book yet, but I must say the Nathaniel Philbrick has an impressive ability to tell the story of the Puritans and the Native Americans in a compelling manner. So much so, that Mayflower reads very much like a novel. Philbrick’s economy of style and good use of the data keeps the story both informative and even thrilling at times.  Mayflower will certainly appeal to those who love history, but it will also appeal to those who usually gravitate to fiction (like my wife).   🙂
–PK
ML
August 21, 2007 at 9:26 amThanks for the reviews 🙂
I’ve read all the HP books, and I do agree that this last one was quite drawn out. While Rowling did pull things together quite well, I found the conclusion a bit of a let down.
Beenzzz
August 21, 2007 at 9:42 amI didn’t think the conclusion was a let down. I thought Harry was going to die, but he didn’t. It was a nice story and can you imagine how tough it would be to write something like that? Then again, JK is RIIIIICHHHHHHH! 🙂
Py Korry
August 21, 2007 at 9:49 amI didn’t think Rowling was going to kill Harry off because his character was central to restoring a kind of “moral order” to the world.
J
August 21, 2007 at 10:53 amI kind of thought if she had killed off Harry, her house might have been burned down…
The Mayflower book reminds me of a TV show Maya and I watched last Thanksgiving on the History Channel: Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower”. The show interviews scholors in this area…I wonder if Philbrick was one of them? Hmmm….
That “God is Dead” book looked totally depressing. 🙂
University Update - Harry Potter - Books in Brief
August 21, 2007 at 11:05 am[…] Efron Books in Brief » This article link is from an article posted at Py Korry on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 This […]
Beenzzz
August 21, 2007 at 1:22 pmThey should have burned her house down for what she did to Fred! sniff, sniff
laluna
August 22, 2007 at 8:36 amThe books you read are so interesting. They are cool.
Gina
August 22, 2007 at 9:01 amOh yeah, Rowling dragged out that camping stuff waaaaaay too long. She’s never really done that before, I was a bit disappointed.
I haven’t read nearly as much as I wanted to this summer.
MsMamma
August 22, 2007 at 12:19 pmYay. She didn’t kill him. I’ve never read a Potter book, either. Now I don’t really have to! I’ve seen one film and I suppose Snowflake and I will read them together. I might be more attracted to Lemony Snickett though.