The Second Coming - Softcover

Niven, John

3.96

8,723 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0434019569 ISBN 13: 9780434019564

Publisher: William Heinemann, 2011

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'GOD'S COMING - LOOK BUSY!'

God really is coming, and he is going to be pissed. Having left his son in charge, God treated himself to a well-earned break around the height of the Renaissance. A good time to go fishing. He returns in 2011 to find things on Earth haven't gone quite to plan...

The world has been rendered a human toilet: genocide; starvation; people obsessed with vacuous celebrity culture, 'and', God points out, 'there are fucking Christians everywhere'. God hates Christians. There's only one thing for it. They're sending the kid back.

JC, reborn, is a struggling musician in New York City, helping people as best he can and trying to teach the one true commandment: Be Nice! Gathering disciples along the way - a motley collection of basket cases, stoners and alcoholics - he realises his best chance to win hearts and minds may lie in a TV talent contest. American Pop Star is the number one show in America, the unholy creation of English record executive Steven Stelfox...a man who's more than a match for the Son of God.

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Review:

"Believe me, this book is going to cause one almighty stink...Deeply, intelligently satirical. In lesser hands it could easily have become a crass rant. Yet Niven provides hilarious, perceptive entertainment, not at the expense of religion, but at the expense of bigoted, fundamental zealots whether they be Christians, Muslims or whatever....Amazingly, and despite the hipster stance and the brilliantly foul language, The Second Coming is surprisingly on message. Only the truly ignorant will take offence. But then they usually do." (Henry Sutton The Mirror, Book of the Week ****)

"John Niven leads the field with The Second Coming...Father and Son are both West Coast pothead potty mouths, effing and blinding in a way that is confrontational, tasteless and blasphemous. And works well, in an entertaining novel...In the midst of it all, there is compassion, and insight into the way the impulse for truth can lead to dark acts indeed. Plus, it's bloody funny." (Independent on Sunday)

"John Niven's The Second Coming offers sweeter Easter food for thought...Niven has a consistently entertaining take on traditional Christian iconography...Behind all the curses and the gags, orthodoxy reigns in Niven's MTV-style gospel as Jesus battles oppression, hypocrisy and the satanic forces of Simon Cowell - sorry, "Steven Stelfox". Consistently funny and smart...Trendy vicars might even consider distributing it after their Easter sermons." (Boyd Tonkin Independent)

Book Description:

An outrageous, irreverent look at faith, religion, modern culture and what might happen to the Son of God if he ever came back to Earth...

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