Review
WENDY GEORGE
What in
God’s Name
By Simon Rich
Reagan Arthur
Books
240 pages
August 7, 2012
Lucas Kavner
HUFFINGTON
09.23.12
novel — the first of which, Elliot
Allagash, was recently optioned
for film by director Jason Reitman — and he doesn’t seem to
be slowing down anytime soon.
Rich’s newest work, the novel What in God’s Name, continues with his brand of deceptively
simplistic, often laugh-out-loud
prose. The story focuses on
Craig, an overworked angel in the
Miracles Department of Heaven,
Inc., who loves his job more than
anyone. Craig is a master of small
miracles, like that time he anticipated that an elderly professor
at Oxford “was about to refer to
his only black student, Charles,
as ‘Jamal.’” To save the situation, Craig short-circuits the fire
alarm, which empties the classroom just in time. He also
helps people catch buses and avoid puddles.
In Rich’s world, Heaven is a sprawling campus of departments and buildings complete with sushi restaurants and
workout facilities for the staff, all under the watch of God -a bumbling, self-obsessed CEO with a predilection for televised NASCAR races, golfing and reuniting Lynyrd Skynyrd.
God doesn’t like working very much and hasn’t even touched
the overwhelming stack of unanswered prayers on his desk.
He’s tired of humans, and doesn’t feel like helping
them anymore.
“I’m gonna level with you,” God tells Craig at
one point. “With that whole mankind thing? I bit
off way more than I could chew.”
After a particularly overwhelming day, God decides to