AUTHOR: HIMARA JAYASEKERA-PEIRIS
Rating: 4.25/5 stars
Synopsis:
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman follows many characters but mainly the events that follow is an angel, Aziraphale, and a devil, Crowley. They take it upon themselves to stop Armageddon from happening because if Hell wins it’s endless Hell and if Heaven wins… well endless Heaven which isn’t much more fun. And above all that the two characters actually quite enjoy the human company (and each other’s although they would never admit it). They decide to be equal forces on the Antichrist in order to raise him completely neutral to the forces of good and evil–except they swapped the wrong child and the Antichrist is an 11-year-old boy in the British country called Adam.
Thoughts:
I think that Good Omens has been the only book I have had to read for school and actually enjoyed for both its complexity and for the pleasure of reading. The book is just so… fun – the premise itself is hilarious. The relationships in the books are all almost entirely different twists on opposites attract, with everything from an angel and a devil to a witch and a witch hunter. The writing is stellar and the humour is incredibly wry and tongue in cheek. Crowley’s rather hilarious statements about humanity made me laugh at the absurdity of how true it all was. The cultural criticism felt so natural and hardly in your face, and under so many layers of nuance that are introduced, it truly has been one of the best pieces of satire I have ever read.
I think that what this book is satirising: the human blame game along with its argument for responsibility for actions made from free will, has not just been something that I have appreciated and then never applied like many a philosophy article. The book has made me more aware of my own actions, I have found myself less inclined to blame someone else for my emotions or feelings and take responsibility of them as my own. Also the more I think about it, it’s sort of embarrassing to allow someone to have that harsh of a hold on you, you consider them to be in control of you.