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was a meandering and unfinished work, That style makes sense given Tom's our main character's inability to finish his PhD, but, ultimately, the story did not hang together for me and felt like too brief a snapshot into a listless life.
I so wanted to believe in someone or something throughout the book, but Tom is too selfish and self invloved to see others clearly.
I felt like I was reading the characters in the book through frosted glass, If your life starts to fall apart, take steps toward gathering the pieces, Tom just chose to stay in bed,

If you don't mind apage pontification, then pick this one up, Otherwise, you might give it a miss, A hard book to assess from the wise and articulate book critic for The New Republic, Preoccupied with religion amp religious arguments mostly against, with quite a bit about music as well the main character's wife is a professional pianist, by one of my favorite critics, it's a book that ought to have been intensely interesting.
Unfortunately, the main character is so incredibly and I use this much overusedamp misusedword advisedly selfish amp immature that it was hard to care much about what happened to him or what he thought or believed, a critical flaw for this book.
And despite some very interesting passages, similar religious arguments were handled with much more depthand, at the same time, better integrated into an engaging narrativeby Jill Paton Walsh, in Knowledge of Angels.
I had such high hopes because I LOVE Wood's book reviews, This book, which was sort of interesting at first, just went on and on and on, and I just gave up after pageor so.
. . and skippedpages at a time, Yes, it was clever and "well written" except that it was boring, I give three just because it is "well written" by a good writer, and I don't want to discourage Wood's followers too much.



Linda Campbell Franklin Thomas Bunting while neglecting his philosophy Ph, D. , still unfinished after seven years, is secretly writing what he hopes will be his masterworka vast atheistic project to be titled The Book Against God.
In

despair over his failed academic career and failing marriage, Bunting is also enraged to the point of near lunacy by his parents' religiousness.
When his father, a beloved parish priest, suddenly falls ill, Bunting returns to the Northern village of his childhood.
Bunting's hopes that this visit might enable him to finally talk honestly with his parents and sort out his wayward life, are soon destroyed.


Comic, edgy, lyrical, and indignant Bunting gives the term unreliable narrator a new twist with his irrepressible incapacity to tell the truth.
springrecommended by becki l, and thoroughly enjoyed by me, smartly written, with the theme of compulsive lying frequently providing its own plot twists, and the lies themselves at times practically characters of their own.
In a attempt to write a book against God James Wood, or rather the main character in the book, writes a theological masterpiece.
But the thing is . this book is not The book against God, it is merely the river on which this book floats, I thought it was a very good read, Kad jedan od najvećih živih književnih kritičara napiše knjigu, sve oči su uperene u njega.
Ali kad se pokaže da je taj roman zapravo sjajan, trebalo bi da se sva usta začepe.
Ipak, ova knjiga nije dobila sjajne recenzije, niti je previše čitana, A trebalo bi da bude, U pitanju je sjajna vivisekcija porodičnih odnosa, religije i uopšte raznoraznih kriza kroz koje ljudi prolaze u životu.
Stil je vrhunski, ali opet i nenametljiv, Lost interest in this book, Quit halfway through. Main character is unappealing lazy, loser PhD candidate living off his girlfriend pace too slow, plot without sufficient conflict.
After slogging through this point, I still don't know what the point was, Better than Id expected, and yet it was lacking something, The writing was good, and Woods handling of ideas was excellent, What seemed to throw a blanket over it all was the protagonist, Why did he have to portray an atheist as so unappealing, so lacking in everything: personality, courage, energy, cleanliness It was sort of like loading the dice.

I'll begin by saying I really enjoyed this book, I found it generally amusing and quite funny at points, I can't say I was incredibly attached to the characters, but the basic plot line was well done, What makes this book better than an "amusing read," in my opinion, is how it goes beyond simply being funny or being a novel of ideas.
There are complexities within the simplicities, First of all, it's a book by an atheist in which the protagonist, an atheist, is writing a book "against God," i.
e. for atheism. And the man's father is an Anglican priest, Sounds simplistic or even poor, but that's only the surface, The protagonist is a selfish, selfserving, lazy liar, without too many redeemable qualities, The father, in my opinion, was far and away the "best" character in the story, the most loving, selfless, and genuinely happy person.
Wood's attempt to avoid easy simplicity pays off, I am enjoying this so much! It's like reading my husband's mind, with the bonus of being able to put it down when I'm tired.
. Tom, the narrator is theyear old intellectual son of a vicar, a professional student and also a militant atheist.
His long drawn out PHD in philosophy has been delayed by a secret writing project leading up to a spiritual crisis which he chronicles in a deadpan, unintentionally comic way.
His project is a debate about the existence and nature of God and the insoluble 'problem of evil'
i.
e. if God is omnipotent and benevolent, how can he allow evil to exist in the world

This is a thought provoking and witty approach to difficult concepts, full of literary and philosophical allusions, but enlivened by Tom's overdramatic style, rendering his existential angst too comic to be tragic.


This was Woods first novel and as gamekeeper turned poacher, he was given a rough reception by fellow reviewers due to his own reputation as the Guardian's unforgiving literary critic in the late's

ed for Whichbook.
net Great read. The main character was one of the most insufferable people, but you also kinda wanted it to work out for him Definitely an introspective novel.
James Wood is probably as successful as a "literary critic" gets having become a staff writer for the New Yorker, and released a few wellreceived books of essays.
The Book Against God is the Brit's only novel and it kind of reads like it's written by someone who has studied the craft of literature very, very hard.
While not quite laborious, Wood's prose is certainly studious, and his story of an intellectual failure struggling to come out from his father's shadow hearkens back to the comedies of manners popular in the Victorian Age.
Admittedly, I'm talking out of my ass here a little bit with these references in actuality, all I know is that Wood's book feels distinctly "British," and when I think of writings that feel British I think of either Jane Austen or Shakespeare, and since this certainly ain't Shakespeare I'll compare it to Austen and call it a Comedy of Manners.
What did Austen write again

Wood positions his protagonist, Thomas Bunting, an overeducated slacker who can't seem to finish his PhD, against Bunting's father, an overeducated lovably pompous priest involved in what seems like a perfect marriage.
In doing so, he manages to communicate a lot of interesting ideas about faith and atheism without making his characters into talking heads.
Thomas, a nonbeliever, simply has to show up at his father's house and argue with all of his friends and close family.
Viola: interesting points emerge. Thomas is also a chronic liar, apparently though Wood tells us this fact repeatedly he never really demonstrates it very clearly with actual action, and this flaw has cost him his beloved wife, Jane.
The book doesn't reach for much, plotwise, but simply depicts him struggling to recover from his separation with Jane, his failure as a true intellectual, and the death of his father.
In it's own quiet way it's a very strong piece of writing, and yet also not all that memorable, I think because it's very, VERY quiet with almost zero explosions throughout.
I'm getting bored right now as I write about it, and yet I liked it, Though I'm not sure I'd recommend it, Enjoyable and interesting. It has a sort of Nick Hornby sensibility in the nature of the main protagonist particularly his dishonesty, But it has loftier aspirations than Hornby's work with a serious and earnest discussion as to the existence of God.

I think it slightly fails on both counts it is not as likable or funny as Hornby but nor does it go deep enough into the existential questions.
It is understandably not an easy dichotomy with which to wrangle which is why I maintain that it is a good read and worthy ofstars.


Notes on first reading,

An excellent bit of counterpoint after Marilynne Robinsons highly Episcopalian sitelinkHome, which Ive just finished, In writing his own novel, Wood has done what it is said a critic cannot do, He is disproving what sitelinkJohn Updike called “hugging the shore, ” The critic hugs the shore, stays close to the particulars of someone elses work, compares and contrasts them, because he or she is constitutionally incapable of seeking the depths.
That doesnt appear to be a problem for Wood, The prose reminds me in its ranging some would say elliptical discursiveness of Vladimir Nabokovs superb sitelinkDespair, It really is a charming book though, with pointed humor, deftat times strikingturns of phrase, It would be wrong to look at it wholly as a vehicle for critical religious discourse, Its too clever to be that dull, The characterizations crackle.

The narrator is a young Englishman, Thomas, living in London hes a procrastinator who hasnt yet properly launched himself in life.
His father is an Anglican vicar who lives somewhere in the north, Thomas has married a concert pianist of considerable gifts, Yet he wont work on his PhD, which hell need if he is to pursue an academic career and keep his wife happy.
Instead he spends his days at home dressed in his pajamas filling his notebooks with his Book Against God, a commentary on theological and philosophical readings.
One gets the feeling that the book against God is actually a book against his father, the vicar, whos competent in many ways.
As his childhood friend Max puts it,

“You had something, then you lost it, At fourteen or fifteen. I remember you telling me about it, Most of all you had your parents faith, and that had to be fought, ” p.

Max has recently become a popular columnist with The Times, So Thomas is surrounded with excellence, his father, his wife, and Max, Tellingly all of these relationships become stressed as he spins his wheels,

If I have a problem quibble with the novel its that when I want to double down on character it turns to the abstractions of faith.
Thomas has a fine life if he would only engage with it, Instead he seems to want to live a permanent childhood, Hes separated from a beautiful wife he claims to love, but whom he faults for not giving him enough praise.
Thomas is “stuck,” in shrink speak, He needs something to snap him awake, Bland and gave up. pointless. Didnt really care about the characters An Educated Failure

I have no idea what to make of this book.
It is apparently pointless, written in deadeningly tedious prose about marriage, religion, and the neuroses of the English middle class.
Woolfs introspection without insight and Murdochs thought reduced to triviality, Yet James Wood is a brilliant literary critic whose nuanced understanding of texts matches anyones, How can that person have written and published this book

The protagonist, Tom, is a neurotic, hapless, puerile slob with poor personal hygiene.
He also lies as impulsively as Donald Trump, particularly to his wife, until she gives him the boot, His response is to complain in the manner of Harry Enfields petulant teenager, Kevin, about her unfairness,

Characters pop in and quickly out of the narrative with no apparent purpose, The dialogue is stifling in the extreme:
“Are you all right, Tommy You know we all care about you.
The words fell like instantly evaporating rain, Oh good, its nice to know that you all care about me, I said, with excessive bitterness, Youre being unpleasant again. And you are being less than sensitive, This isnt the place for this, ” It goes on for pages like this,

The story is held together by an undisclosed horrid and lifechanging event on Christmas Eve, Turns out the effort of getting to the reveal is entirely wasted, The big event is about as trivial as a weather report in the New Testament, Toms spiritual journey, implied in the title, is equally trivial and the book leaves him exactly where he started.


There is much philosophical and theological namedropping throughout, to no point whatsoever, Silly opinions flow constantly at pub meetings, dinner parties, and family gettogethers, “No, replied Max. Im not going to church, But I think as I get older that no one is really ever an atheist, Everyone believes. ” And “My intellectual hero is Martin Luther, I dont think that needs further justification, My spiritual hero well there are so awfully many, but I will nominate Father Brown, in the marvellous old Chesterton stories.
And my moral hero: Winston Churchill, ” Yes, and

So, a mystery wrapped in an enigma, Clearly fiction is not Woods metier, But this book is so bad I find it difficult to judge his other work with my former enthusiasm See: sitelink goodreads. com/review/show .