Blameless In Abaddon (signed by the author)

In Towing Jehovah, the discovery of the two-mile-long corpse of God in the mid-Atlantic proved a serious menace both to navigation and to faith. But was God truly dead, as the nihilists and the New York Times believed? In Blameless in Abaddon, His body - comatose yet far from inert - has been hauled from its temporary resting place in the Arctic to Florida, where it has become the Main Attraction at Orlando's Celestial City USA. And now one Martin Candle, a small-time and sore-afflicted judge practicing in Abaddon Township, Pennsylvania, proposes further travels for the Corpus Dei: to the World Court in The Hague, to answer for history's injustices large and small.
In his quest to counter the world's great theodicies, Martin embarks on an astonishing odyssey through the mind of the Creator, where Lot's wife proves a most convenient way of adding salt to a margarita glass, early hominids vigorously debate Augustinian doctrine over jasmine tea, and Martin's alter ego, Job, keeps an eternal vigil atop his dung heap. Once the Trial of the Millennium has begun, Martin will understand why Abaddon is another name for Hell. God hunting simply is not a sport for amateurs.

God isn't dead after all. He's just in a coma. The angel who announced the Creator's demise in Morrow's World Fantasy Award-winning Towing Jehovah (1994) was simply wrong. God's body is no longer controlled by the Catholic Church, either. Strapped for funds, the Vatican has sold the Corpus Dei to the Baptists, who (shades of Stanley Elkin's The Living End, 1979) have turned the body into the central attraction at a religious theme park. Then a Pennsylvania justice of the peace named Martin Candle gets prostate cancer and loses his beloved wife in a freak automobile accident. Outraged, Job-like Martin decides to put God on trial before the World Court in The Hague. As in Towing Jehovah, Morrow combines black comedy with theological speculation in an often painful examination of God's possible responsibility for human suffering. There are some powerful and surreal scenes here, as when Martin, gathering information for the prosecution, enters God's brain and finds himself on a packet steamer captained by Saint Augustine, their destination the Garden of Eden. Along the way, they run into various biblical characters, many of whom applaud Martin's actions. Much of the narrative is heavy going, consisting of detailed discussions of "theodicy," the "attempt to reconcile the fact of evil with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent Creator." Equally hard to deal with, though for emotional reasons, are the extended descriptions of human suffering, ranging from the gas chambers of Auschwitz to Martin's cancer. Ultimately, this is a dark and powerful sequel, but one lacking subtlety as well as the surprise and adventurousness of the original.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sequel to Towing Jehovah (1994), Morrow's satirical fantasy recounting the towing of God's two-mile-long body to its last resting place in the Arctic ice. Debate as to the body's true nature continues--is it just a cast-off shell? is He merely comatose?--even after an earthquake frees the body and it winds up in Florida as the centerpiece of a theme park. Meanwhile, honest Judge Martin Candle of Abaddon Township, Pennsylvania, develops prostate cancer. His prognosis is poor. Not only that, but just after returning from a trip to God's theme park--during which Martin was vouchsafed no miraculous cure--his beloved wife, Corinne, dies in a grotesque accident. Enraged and full of grief, Martin announces the formation of the Job Society, dedicated to prosecuting God before the International Court of Justice at the Hague for His crimes against humanity. Poor Martin, constantly popping painkillers, his prostate full of radioactive particles, his breasts swelling from hormone therapy, learns that the defense counsel will be the formidable G.F. Lovett, theologian and wealthy bestselling children's author. After a wild safari through God's brain in a desperate search for evidence and witnesses, Martin learns that his cancer is winning. A powerful new experimental drug might keep him alive through the trial. Unfortunately, the drug turns his brain to mush, rendering him incapable of refuting the religious opinions arrayed against him. A clever, thought-provoking, and well-informed yarn that boldly and wittily tackles the imposing issues raised in Towing Jehovah; still, it's hard to absorb, and--well, heavy. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In Morrow's Towing Jehovah, a 1995 World Fantasy Award winner, God's corpse was found floating in the Atlantic. Now it appears that He is merely comatose, and efforts are made to revive Him so that He can stand trial for the world's evils.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Morrow's Towing Jehovah (1994) deliciously skewered religion and modern society by recounting the discovery of God's two-mile-long corpse in the mid-Atlantic and its delivery by a disgraced supertanker captain to an icy crypt above the arctic circle. Now an earthquake has rent open God's tomb, revealing the Creator's cadaver to the world at large, and the American Baptist Church has paid the Vatican $1.3 billion to make God the feature attraction at its Celestial City theme park. When speculation grows that the Almighty is merely comatose, God is hooked to the world's largest life-support system, and Martin Candle, a small-time judge from Abaddon, Pennsylvania, turns his outrage over learning he has prostate cancer into a personal mission to try the Creator in world court at The Hague. With God's reputation at stake and more news coverage than the O. J. trial, Candle and God's defenders square off for the greatest moral debate of all time. Morrow's trenchant wit shimmers in every sentence of this keenly executed religious lampoon. Not to be missed. Carl Hays