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James Morrow
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Towing Jehovah (Harvest Book) Paperback – April 24, 1995

by James Morrow (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 174 ratings
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  1. World Fantasy AwardWinner, 1995
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God is dead, and Anthony Van Horne must tow the corpse to the Arctic (to preserve Him from sharks and decomposition). En route Van Horne must also contend with ecological guilt, a militant girlfriend, sabotage both natural and spiritual, and greedy hucksters of oil, condoms, and doubtful ideas. Winner of a 1995 World Fantasy Award.
Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 3
    The Godhead Trilogy
  2. Print length
    384 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    April 24, 1995
  5. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.91 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0156002108
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0156002103
  8. See all details
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All the Little Raindrops: A Novel
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

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Editorial Reviews

Review

God is dead. "Died and fell into the sea. " That's what Raphael, a despondent angel with luminous white wings and a blinking halo, tells Anthony Van Horne on his fiftieth birthday. Soon Van Horne is chared with captaining the supertanker Carpco Valparaiso (flying the colors of the Vatican) as it tows the two-mile-long corpse through the Atlantic toward the Arctic, in order to preserve Him from sharks and decomposition. Van Horne must also contend with ecological guilt, a militant girlfriend, an estranged father, sabotage both natural and spiritual, a crew on (and sometimes past) the brink of mutiny, and greedy hucksters of oil, condoms, and doubtful ideas. As he rings his wild, Vonnegutian changes on everything from male chauvinism to the Catholic Church, James Morrow proves himself to be one of the premier satirists of our time while still managing to capture some of the beauty and sorrow of the world. With Towing Jehovah, the Denver Post declared, Morrow solidifies his position as Christianity's Salman Rushdie, only funnier and more sacrilegious. -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author

James Morrow was born in Philadelphia in 1947. Besides writing, he plays with Lionel electric trains and collects videocassettes of vulgar biblical spectacles.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager (April 24, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0156002108
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0156002103
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.91 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 174 ratings

About the author

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James Morrow

James Morrow

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Born in 1947, James Morrow has been writing fiction ever since, as a seven-year-old living in the Philadelphia suburbs, he dictated “The Story of the Dog Family” to his mother, who dutifully typed it up and bound the pages with yarn. This three-page, six-chapter fantasy is still in the author’s private archives. Upon reaching adulthood, Morrow produced nine novels of speculative fiction, including the critically acclaimed Godhead Trilogy. He has won the World Fantasy Award (for Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah), the Nebula Award (for “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge” and the novella City of Truth), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for the novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima). A full-time fiction writer, Morrow makes his home in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife, his son, an enigmatic sheepdog, and a loopy beagle.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
174 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Serai
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book. James Morrow is an underappreciated treasure
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2016
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Beautiful book. James Morrow is an underappreciated treasure. Few writers can weave tales as complex and fascinating as Morrow, combining science, philosophy, religion, history, psychology, and other disciplines to form stories of real depth and interest. The rest of the trilogy is also wonderful. Highly recommended!
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B. Merritt
4.0 out of 5 stars At Odds with our Moral Compass
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2004
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The intellects have spoken! Nietzsche, Darwin, and Kant's names have all been invoked here at Amazon.com, vainly trying to encapsulate TOWING JEHOVAH: a world/book that knows no god.

So what's this TOWING JEHOVAH stuff all about?

We have the Catholic Church, Angels (Raphael, etc.), Theologians, and a smattering of other religious people and symbols trying to battle against the sinful concept that God doesn't exist. Well what would happen if God's two mile long body was found floating at 0 degrees Latitude and 0 degrees Longitude? Who would be right? Uh-oh. A conundrum.

What the author of TOWING JEHOVAH (James Morrow) does is show us the conflict that would ensue in light of such a discovery. The devout would like to say, "Ah-hah! See! God does exist. Or ...um ...he DID exist." While the atheists and agnostics would be saying, "Ah-hah! See! God is dead! Um ...but I guess he did exist."

But now that God IS dead, what do you do? How do you prove your points about God (be you an atheist or a believer), if his corpse has been found lifelessly floating in the Atlantic? Maybe we should just sweep this under the rug ...

And to that effect, God's angels recommend that His body be entombed in the arctic in a special cave that the angels have dug out for Him. Is this what God really wanted? Hmm. And how do we get His body up to the icy cave?

Enter Anthony Van Horne, an able sea captain in the Merchant Marines who's had a bit of bad luck recently. A supertanker he was captaining, the Carpco Valparaiso, ran aground and spilled crude over a beautiful section of the sea. He's also got an old sea-dog father who's none too happy with the way his son has turned out. But the Carpco Valparaiso was saved and her hull repaired. She now flies the colors of the Vatican and they have a plan to get God's body to His final resting place; thus TOWING JEHOVAH.

Once they've hooked up to God and begin towing Him, the story really starts to pick up. Believers and non-believers are at odds as to the significance of God's death, and as to WHY they're TOWING JEHOVAH to an icy grave without letting the world know of His demise (There's also a side plot involving women's rights and how the evidence of a truly male deity might destroy all the work that women have done to improve their standings in society; but this isn't what holds the book together).

Getting God's body to His grave becomes the challenge of a lifetime for Anthony Van Horne. He has to battle his own past, atheists who want the body destroyed because it shows the truth of God's existence (even though He's dead now), the Catholic Church who want to keep this all hush-hush ("What would happen if people found out that God had died? Would they have any sort of moral compass to guide them?"), and an island of Pagan symbolism that sprouts from the sea like an angry mound of cr@p!

Against all odds, and opposition from both sides of the religious theocratic discussion, Captain Van Horne delivers his "cargo" to its destination.

The comedy in TOWING JEHOVAH isn't a `slap your leg and laugh-out-loud' style. It's subtle and satirical and biting and the type that will invite discussions on what James Morrow has dropped in our laps. Some have gone so far as to call this author "the Salmon Rushdie of Christianity." Maybe. But his jabs at both sides of the spiritual issues are what draw you into this book, not its pretext that God is dead. Because, let's face it, for those that truly believe in God, how COULD He die?

Also, if you're looking for a "final answer" to the question of God's existence or what we should do if He is ever discovered (dead or alive), you won't find it in these pages. Mr. Morrow sets up the pins, but he purposely doesn't knock them down. I mean, come on! He's not stupid!
7 people found this helpful
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S.
3.0 out of 5 stars Derivative but entertaining
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2024
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I'd rather re-read Another Roadside Attraction, but it was okay
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Hubert H. Byron III
5.0 out of 5 stars odd but excellent
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2015
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I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book and as I kept reading, I felt the same way throughout. In the end, I decided what I expected and it was that I likely will not find anything quite like it again.

I don't think it's a book for everyone, but if you like odd, interesting, and the sometimes ridiculous, silly and even cerebral, then this just might be the book for you.
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John Tomasi
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent look into morality and a world without God, literally.
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2017
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I really enjoyed this book. As an agnostic who leans toward atheism I found the material to be excellent. That said, it points and proceeds to laugh at the cultural divide between those who who are either militant in their theism or atheism. It struck a fair balance in poking fun at both sides, without ever feeling preachy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is even remotely interested in the idea of God, even if that interest is purely academic.
2 people found this helpful
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cassdog
4.0 out of 5 stars An appetizing dissection of our morality
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2010
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God is dead. No literally, the giant, physical body of god is dead and it is floating in the ocean. This premise is used by the author to poke at the readers sensitive beliefs, to tease apart the sacred in order to get the reader out of their comfort zone. By the time the starving characters find a divine solution to their sustenance, the reader will be completely desensitized. The author uses these tools to remove our preconceived notions in order to examine the source of our morality. In a world where you can literally walk on the rotting carcass of god, where does our morality come from? This is something that challenged Nietzsche, who famously pronounced the death of the deity. He felt that although modern rationality had rendered the death of god, he feared that the christian ethos was necessary for the stable functioning of society and the loss of this organizing principle would be devastating. Nietzsche's pessimistic view is countered in the book by a catholic priest/quantum physicist who has made it his life's work to wed science and religion, the rational and the divine. I appreciate the author's inclusion of such a paradoxical character. This priest hopes that Immanuel Kant is correct in his assertion that we have an internal moral compass and that the loss of god won't lead to a loss of morals. In addition to the priest, we are introduced to a biology professor who gets stranded when her ship sinks on a re-enactment of Darwin's famous voyage to Galapagos on the Beagle. This character is a feminist, skeptic who is determined to literally sink god in to the bottom of the ocean to prevent the world from the old testament, misogynistic, anti-rational onslaught that would occur if god was proven real. Through this character, the author pokes a great deal of fun at the skeptic's societies, staunch feminists and atheists that was extremely amusing. All these forces collide in to a blasphemously hilarious seafaring journey that most readers will enjoy.
6 people found this helpful
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Cappsmo
3.0 out of 5 stars Funny but self serving.
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2013
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It has its funny moments but this is a rather silly story for the most part. This coming from someone with a strong and justified disdain for our religious brethren.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars What if god was one of us, but not, and dead?
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2019
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Where to start!? This book messed me up! I mean god dies and life goes on. And things happen and things don’t happen and then the book ends but then there are more books and omg what is going on???
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Bish
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite books
Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2022
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I was lucky to get a 1st edition in good nick (not a sci-fi book club edition) from Thriftbooks. It's a unique book that is at times preposterous, outrageous, and sacrilegious, but is also heartfelt, thought-provoking, hilarious and moving. I can't recommend it highly enough. A modern classic from 1994.
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Paul Scanlan
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2017
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very interesting book. Will read more books of the same author.
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Elly
4.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings
Reviewed in Canada on July 19, 2022
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It was an interesting plot, funny, and some good philosophy. Still, I found mocking Corpus Dei was too much sometimes, even for a non-believer.
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tj57
4.0 out of 5 stars crazy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2014
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Summarising the plot just wouldn't do it justice. It is however thought provoking and mind bogglingly crazy. A great read!
2 people found this helpful
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Joel T.
5.0 out of 5 stars So good!
Reviewed in Canada on May 7, 2016
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This book is so good and absurd at the same time.
I read the sequel, Blameless in Abbadon first. But I wish I had read this first.
I am going to read BiA again with fresh eyes!
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