Resumo de The Songs Of Angels

Everything is going to hell! Lucifer can''t stand the overcrowding and God''s not all that pleased either. So this time He''s sending the devil to be incarnated as man (since His son''s earlier efforts have led to disappointing results). At times there''s a smugness to the conceit of this book but mostly it is fresh, lively, very well written and thought provoking. I loved it.
It is genuinely amusing. Since man is made in God''s image the angels, who used to scoot around heaven looking like bacteria, moss, fish and trees, now not only imitate men in appearance but operate in board rooms of Trump-like complexes with telephones, faxes and e-mails. Meanwhile here on earth, David Brookes, aka Lucifer, stripped of any extraordinary powers, when asked by angel Gabriel if he has a plan, muses: "Unfortunately, I do not. It was fine for God, two thousand years ago. Mankind wanted a God or a prophet?now man is more interested in profit than prophet." It''s then he falls in love and takes a job as a TV news broadcaster. Shortly after he finds himself held as a prisoner in Columbia of a renegade band of rebels, after which he becomes a non-religious healer who attracts the attention of the FBI (who may or may not be getting orders from the Lord).
But this is not just satire. There is gritty drama, a tense climax and an emotionally satisfying ending. The central character says of the book he eventually writes, "I do not mind if you don''t believe it all. But if one sentence registers in your mind, and makes you a better person, then I will have achieved something." This seems to be G.A. Weston''s goal too. And he know his Bible. Weston tells us that; Genesis was not even a Hebrew belief, it was added much later and appears to be based on the Babylonian creation myth. And it was a Greek mistranslation of the Hebrew that changed, "a young woman shall be with child" to "a virgin shall be with child."
However the genius of "The Songs of Angels" is how its thinking-outside-of-the-box approach gets us to find fresh depth in whatever religious beliefs we have, and does this within the context of a strong narrative in which we genuinely care what happens to the characters. It starts slowly and some of the dialogue between Gabriel and the now-human Lucifer seem a heavy handed way to focus the reader, but these are small quibbles compared to the originality of this very readable book. It may not be for everyone (some would count it ''blasphemous''), but for people who want a fresh take on good/evil, angels, God and our human condition, this is a gift of nearly Biblical proportions.

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