The Book of Eli by Sam Moffie
By Eric Jones

Sam Moffie has created a rogue version of Heaven that satirizes everything that we hold falsely important in America. The angels are all movie stars, the chief pastime is conversation, sex is sinful, and everyone suffers from an eternity's worth of sexual frustration. Although the novel uses religion as a metaphor, it is far from religious in nature. It is a blue comedy on an epic scale, with continuous references to oral sex, racial slants, and sexist commentary, with all the religious pomposity of a George Carlin routine. It's a concoction that manages to be funny, theatrical, and unnerving at the same time.

It begins with Eli Canaan's conversations with God after he's been stricken dead of a heart attack while cheating on his wife. Afterward he is taken by Julius, who spontaneous dresses up like Groucho and talks like a New York City cab driver, through a gauntlet of historical figures who argue their own philosophies with Eli in an effort to decide what his ultimate fate will be. Naturally, the conversation sidetracks to characters defending their own infamous views. Ayn Rand, for instance, is less of a character than she is a sounding board for objectivism. Jesus Christ reiterates the Ten Commandments. And Sigmund Freud talks about sexual repression. These encounters make Eli's journey feel more like a voyage through his own conscience then through Heaven, and this seems more reasonable given the outcome of his experience.

Where the book is hilarious is in Eli's desperate struggle to comprehend his own meaning in the face of historical greatness, and his inability to put his actions into a greater social context. He is a constant wind pipe of excuses and bonehead theories that put himself in greater proportion than his somewhat automated opponents. Eli seems determined to make himself right, and each attempt makes him more of a buffoon. Moffie has a wonderful sense of comedic timing for Eli's hopeless wit, which puts him somewhere in league with Ricky Gervais' character from The Office, David Brent. And while there are quite a few typos in "The Book of Eli", they only add to the numbskullery of it all.

"The Book of Eli" is a savage novel of grandiose naivety up against a massive metaphor for man's struggle toward enlightenment. It reaches a profound conclusion, but takes the L-train through Hooterville to get there. And Moffie, the conductor of this metal phallus of idiocy, is quick to remind us that it isn't the destination that's important. But the journey.

back to top