Good to be God Kindle Edition

A great sarcastic novel taking place in a surrealistic setting but it "smells like life".

A darkly funny, surprisingly wise, picaresque romp through a Hiassen-esque south Florida – where our middle-aged, dead-ending protagonist Tyndale Corbett reviews the failures and mishaps that make up a quietly misled life, while inching toward the faux divinity of Supreme Being impersonation. Some really great supporting characters in this one, particularly 'Dishonest Dave', who for reasons unknown gets mugged – in increasingly odd and unlikely style – once a week. When one mugger sidles up to Tyndale and Dave, who are out on a multi-day bender, Dave hits him – or Tyndale assumes he did, due to a loud cracking sound and the mugger being now horizontal. Dave then produces some papers from his pocket and says, "I want you to know that I'm not some knucklehead. That's my bank statement. See? That's my money. All that money's mine. And this is my doctorate in Caribbean studies. So not only can I kick the crap out of you, I'm way richer and smarter." Dave had me at "knucklehead". Fischer is sure to win you over somewhere along the way in this thoughtful and funny and entertainingly weird review of our ideas about ambition and success, and how we cope when both slip away.

It wasn't bad, but I think it's my least favorite of Tibor Fischer's novels (I would put Thought Gang at the top, fyi.) Without going into an in-depth analysis of giving much away: It is an interesting, tongue-in-cheek perspective on the modern immigrant experience as it relates to American consumerism and faith (doesn't that sound like the germ of a last-minute thesis statement?) It takes place in Miami, which threw me off, but it's hero is an on-the-run British lightbulb salesman, which seemed to be par for course. Good to be God lacks the weird, eyebrow-lifting happenings of most Fischer books despite dealing mostly with nogoodniks and religion (or creating religions) and I think this is part of what makes the book a tad flat. It is rather tame compared to his other books, lacking the delightful quirk.I read Thought Gang many years ago, have reread it many times, have indeed bought probably a dozen copies to give to people. So suffice to say I buy everything Tibor Fischer writes and I read it eagerly, but I will not re-read this. I will say that the book, which I read over a series of breakfasts, with its bright-blue cover and provocative title, brought more random "hey what's that is it good?" questions than any breakfasr-book to date. Not necessarily a selling point but you should know in case you dislike interruptions.

Next to impossible to describe, but funny as hell.

Yes my title for this review "There's better thngs to do with your life", that should be the foreword in this book, i am not often inspired to write reviews (condemnations) but this is one of those moments, the subject i thought could be quite entertaining. But the book never gets moving or goes anywhere, does not know where it should go or where it may have been, get my drift.Its a pointless rambling, of nothingness, and maybe that's the scam, not in pretending to be a preacher(as per the character in this book(did i say book i am too generous)), but us actually buying this book expecting something.What a stinker.

The first one of his i read, The Thought Gang, and that's the only other one so far, was far, far better than this. This reads like an early work in which he's starting to find his style but he's not there yet. Fun, but a bit diffuse.

The book is something of a mix. It starts out with a guy with no job and no life who's given a chance to go to Miami and while there figures out that he's been aiming low all his life and that's why hes failed - now he wants to aim higher, in fact highest: he will become God. Or at least that's what hes going to tell people and endeavour to become.So far so good. But the story never really takes off. Initially he tries to figure it out by becoming a sort of assistant preacher (sub-Heirophant is the title) in a church wonderfully titled The Church of the Heavily Armed Christ. Then after the leader of the church goes to take care of his ailing mum, our hero steps in and becomes leader of this church.I'll stop there because the story branches out into too many sub stories and the review'll go on forever. Suffice it to say each aspect of our hero's life is explored fully. He needs a place to sleep, we meet a new character and we meet the others who live there and their stories. He needs some money, we meet a new character and he becomes a drug dealer and we find out about that world. He gets sidetracked by slapstick goons, caricatures of "low lifes", a high class prostitute, a creepy flatmate, a slacker undertaker, some evil old women running a corrupt church, an immigrant with a heart of gold, a millionaire who pretended to be poor, I'm only remembering part of it but there are many more characters here usually with single names like Napalm and Sixto. Hmm.You're probably thinking "what's wrong with that, sounds like a ripping yarn!" and you're sort of right. Only, Fischer's style is skewed. Sometimes its trying too hard to be funny, sometimes its being too preachy for its own good ("life isnt worth trying, doing things is basically waiting speeded up, you never get anywhere planning" - I'm paraphrasing but the repetitiveness of some of our hero's thoughts are a bit dull), sometimes its being too kooky, sometimes its being too "noir". The whole becoming God thing is touched on toward the end but for the most of the book it's about a bloke who knocks around Miami meeting eccentrics and having an alright time of it while commenting heavily on "life".It's an alright book, I enjoyed it, it passes the time, and it's much better written and far more interesting than the average novel available today. But is it a classic or something I'd even remember 10 years, maybe even 1 year from now? Probably not. It had the potential to be more than it ended up being really. "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk is a better book if you're looking for a bloke who becomes a messiah story.

I've been a big fan of Fischer since I first read The Thought Gang and while this is no Thought Gang, it does find laugh out moments in the utterly mundane failures of Tyndale Nelson and his embarrassing medical problem. I suppose it helps that I identify with Mister Nelson more than I'm comfortable with. If you enjoyed The Thought Gang, you'll enjoy this.

Extraordinary wisdom, conveyed through the sharpest wit, topped off with the greatest punchline since Catch-22. Reminded me of The Sellout. My book of the year so far...

Article as stated, good quality arrived quickly. very very pleased with this supplier

I have enjoyed previous of his books > What this book made me realise is that ( for me at least) there is a limit to how much of this black humour I can take . The answer is 'none'- I abandoned the book .Sorry Tibor but I just did not care enough to finish it

Thanks