 "The Milk of Human Blindness" | 2008-03-22 |
| - Reviewed By djjohnson11 |
Not a book for anyone whose religious beliefs won't allow questions or alternatives. In fact, it's not for anyone who can't suspend belief for 300+ pages. Not really science fiction or fantasy, Only Begotten Daughter is more of a "what if".
It's impossible to describe much without using spoilers. Amazon's description and other reviews give away more than they should. Since I presume you have read them, I will add that Morrow's effort will both amuse you and scare you.
This is one of his early books and not as accomplished as his later ones. However, it is a good place to start reading Morrow. |
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 "A Joy to Read" | 2007-11-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2E2WKNIABNKFS |
This book beautifully combines biting satire with wonderful prose. I truly enjoyed reading every page and I would have to rank this book among my favorites.
Several other reviewers have remarked that pace through the middle third of the book "sagged" a bit and I agree with that but, on the other hand, I was grateful that the author gave me a little time to catch my breath before diving into the ending.
Reading a book like this, I always feel a little nervous as the end approaches like watching figure skaters near the end of a flawless routine... will they blow it right at the end? Well, Morrow makes it through the final act without a wobble and I can't wait to pick up more books by him. |
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| "Know the true nature of God when you read this book!" | 2007-03-08 |
| - Reviewed By jerseydevs2000 |
All right, perhaps you won't, but didn't that catch your attention? It's actually the book's title character, Julie Katz, who tries to fathom the nature and will of God. But despite her own semi-divine parentage, this Jewish girl from South Jersey has no clue what the eternal Mom wants her to do on this Earth.
Julie does get a lot of advice and ideas from others, however. That sets forth a chain of events which sometimes parallels Julie's more famous half-brother, who coincidentally is one of the main characters of the all-time best selling book.
Instead of dwelling on "the power & the glory" - though there is that aspect to the book as well - Morrow mostly focuses on how an average woman with divine powers gets on in life. Julie's attempts to seek the truth lead to a miracle-filled ministry, a trip to a fascinatingly-devised Hell and her returning to a warped future Jersey where the Revelationist sect holds sway but an underground Church of Uncertainty holds her words quite literally as "gospel." (By the way, as a one-time New Jerseyan, I can appreciate the irony of Morrow's turning my former home state into an autonomous right-wing fundamentalist theocracy in the latter part of the book.)
Morrow's novel hits home on multiple levels. In particular, he boldly satirizes religion as practiced by various denominations of Christians. If you are easily offended by religious satire (especially those who believe The Rapture may be imminent), this is probably not the book for you. Those who are somewhat more open-minded will appreciate Morrow's biting wit in this well-paced novel. |
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| "Top-notch satire" | 2006-08-17 |
| - Reviewed By misterck |
| I thoroughly enjoyed this novel! The satire was spot-on and very prescient. The baroquely grotesque dystopia built by the Revelationists in this novel is perhaps more frightening (and less hyperbolic) now than when Morrow wrote it, given the gradual mainstreaming in the U.S. of fanatical evangelical perspectives on "the End Times." If the loud intolerance of many modern fundamentalist Christians keeps you from comfortably embracing Christianity, this may be the book for you. I found it at turns laugh-out-loud funny and heart-breakingly poignant. Morrow's prose is rich and eminently quotable; I couldn't stop reading choice bits and pieces to my family. This is my first Morrow novel, after having read many of his short stories (I recommend "Bible Stories for Adults"), and I was fully satisfied with the expansion of Morrow's narrative powers into the novel form. Enjoy and be enlightened! |
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| "Not for the easily offended" | 2006-02-06 |
| - Reviewed By dhalgren99 |
| Now that's a cliched review title but that's about as good as we're going to get tonight. It is true, to some extent, but it's not like Morrow sets out to offend everyone in creation, mostly just people who take religion too seriously and the majority of his "offenses" are simply pointing out contradictions or other illogical facets of said religion. The premise of this is that Murray Katz, a single Jewish fellow, winds up with an immaculate conception when one of his donated sperm suddenly fertilize and eventually gives birth to his daughter Julie, who right away exhibits powers that are similar to a guy who lived two thousand years ago, leading family and friends to believe that she's the daughter of God. Right then starts her journey as she tries to contact her heavenly mother and get some word out of her, while resisting all impulses to use her powers to fix everything in the world, knowing that it really won't solve anything. Along the way she encounters some extreme Christian fundamentalists (and wait until you see what they do to Atlantic City), and the devil, and goes to a lot of places that she really didn't expect to go. Morrow tends to stick to the genre of religious satire and when he's on (this novel, Towing Jehovah) he's fantastic, and when he's not on (This is the Way the World Ends) it just comes across as heavy handed. Fortunately in this novel he's firing on all cylinders, the premise is sound and the characters are sometimes prisoner to their own archetypes but he manages to wring some actual emotional content out of all of this. It works because he doesn't get too silly, the way he does in some of his other books. Julie is the daughter of God and she has powers and he actually plays it straight from there, with everyone having basically believable reactions in the context of the book. Even the devil makes sense and the scenes later when they visit, er, another plane of existence seem to have some kind of solid grounding. Julie's quest to get some kind of acknowledgement from God and to basically figure out what the heck her purpose is on Earth is touching at times. Some things start to get odd toward the third part of the novel, when New Jersey decides to secede from the rest of the country (another reason I like the book, it's my home state, although we're not really too flattering there . . . but then who likes Atlantic City anyway) and Julie has to deal with a whole new set of problems. But even that makes sense, again you have to suspend a little bit of disbelief but Morrow doesn't take himself totally seriously. But things aren't played totally for laughs either, when people get killed, it's horrifying and brutal and Morrow spares us nothing. It's black humor, in the Vonnegut sense, and he's trying to prove a point and entertain us at the same time. Sometimes he goes a bit over the top, while I do appreciate the noting where the church (or Christian teaching) deviates from what the Bible actually says, I've never seen anybody do it in a way that doesn't come across as someone lecturing at me and proving that they've done their research. Fortunately he only does it once, but it's still one too many times. But I'm nit-picking really. This is probably tied with Towing Jehovah as his best novel (and I think this also won the World Fantasy Award) and well worth the time to read if you want an examination of religion that doesn't get too serious. Devoutists of any religion may want to steer clear, but I don't think this book is for you anyway. Just a hunch. |
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| "Absolutely fantastic." | 2006-01-26 |
| - Reviewed By ljrl |
| Funny, irreverent, and thought-provoking, Morrow's book is a joy to read. His wiring sucks the reader in as his daughter Julie grows up. I won't write a description of it because Amazon already has, but I will say that I'd recommend this book to anyone. (Well, unless you're a conservative christian. Then this book will probably piss you off.) But for the rest of us, it's a fantastic read. |
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| "Hard to define." | 2003-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By tomrhymer |
| It's a comedy. It's a drama. It's a social commentary on religion, sexuality and tabloid journalism. It's a heartwarming inspiration. It's a knee-slapping satire. The story is riveting, with plenty of unexpected turns to keep the reader guessing what Morrow has up his sleeve. But the real hallmark here is in characterization; the author has created incredibly believable people here despite the incredible premise. |
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 "A second coming story without a purpose" | 2002-06-10 |
| - Reviewed By rawdon |
| Much like Neal Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, Only Begotten Daughter left me nonplussed. The sense of humor (other than some assorted wordplay) didn't work for me, and what could have been a wry and subtle story about a divine young woman trying to find her purpose in life takes a horribly wrong turn when the devil himself shows up and proves to be working to use her for his own purposes. Morrow uses the set-up to poke some fun at Christianity, and is sometimes entertaining when he does so, but often the story is muddled. The first third of the book is best, with child-of-god Julie Katz growing up in New Jersey with her Jewish father, lesbian almost-stepmother, and best friend. Thing go downhill in the middle third, when the adult Julie tries to figure out how to help people, and gets caught up in a web spun by Satan to create a new church. Julie makes some decisions which I just didn't buy about her character, and spends the last third of the book trying to make sense of what her earlier actions created: A fairly standard religious dystopia. Though Morrow has clearly researched his source material deeply, he has trouble getting to the heart of his characters (Julie is, at best, something of a cipher), and his story isn't particularly effective. The strange "moral" of the story seems to be: If people are chastising you for not reaching your full potential, then lower your potential. Morrow doesn't seem to grasp the irony of this lesson, and the book ends up feeling profoundly unfulfilling. |
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| "Delightfully Irreverant" | 2002-05-17 |
| - Reviewed By schwabra |
| The power of this book comes in the decisions made by the author about how to express his "facts" and those things that had been changed over the course of history. The interactons with the devil are both hilarious and intriguing. They give a glimpse into the idea of holy and profane that are held by the author. The laughs are genuine to those that are sufficiently secure in their beliefs to allow for them. I would recommend the book to anyone. Enjoy the laughs just for themselves, or use them as a jumping off point to look at your beliefs in a more light hearted way. |
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| "The Second Coming - with quite a twist" | 2001-02-16 |
| - Reviewed By safety-queen |
| A story about the Second Coming - similarly to the First one, God's child arrives with a virgin birth to a Jew. However, this time a daughter is born to a Jewish man, who is a lighthouse keeper in New Jersey, and the "Babylon" of this story is Atlantic City, NJ. This has the best depiction of Hell I've ever found. This story looks at the time period of this second Messiah's life where the Gospels left Christ's life blank - you're a normal teenager, you find out you're the Messiah, and then what do you do? This is not some boring re-telling of the same old tale. The portrayal of the second messiah, God, Jesus Christ, Satan, etc. are quite thought-provoking. This should sincerely make you think about your pre-conceived notions of what heaven/hell & God's relationship with man is all about. It should also re-affirm that the principles and morals you learned as a Christian are right-on - but how they should be implemented isn't necessarily what gets popularly preached. [Then again, that's just what Christ said, the first time around, wasn't it?] |
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