This week I’m looking at books that I think are worth rereading – and that I’ve reread more than once. These stand up to my tests, and I’ll try to articulate what it is I like about them. If any of them intrigue you, I hope you’ll give them a shot. I envy you the first-time experience.
I once saw a program on forensic science that showed a six-foot tall granite wheel, perfectly shaped, perfectly balanced, and perfectly placed so that each revolution sliced a tissue sample thin enough to put on a microscope slide. At his best, Joseph Heller is like that wheel, as carved by Dali. His stories revolve easily on the axle of a single weighty incident, but in mad loops and twirls that randomly, inexorably peel thin layers until he lays bare an awful truth.
Heller is best known for his signature work, Catch-22 (which is probably #1 on my “most reread” list), but in my humble opinion he missed the unique voice and structure of that groundbreaking novel in his other books. Except for God Knows. A first-person omniscient narrator who is both deeply spiritual and worldly, details that are anachronistic yet incredibly accurate, and characters who defy every expectation combine to throw light on the biblical story of King David.
As everyone who ever went to Sunday School knows, David slew Goliath, played the harp and wrote Psalms, and became King. More advanced readers might know that he married Bathsheba under suspicious circumstances. Even more knowledgeable people might know that he was a rebel, was in turn rebelled against by his son Absalom, and survived palace intrigues over the succession to his throne. Heller incorporates all these stories, going to the books of Samuel, Chronicles, Psalms, and Kings to reconstruct the timeline of David’s life. Of course, being Joseph Heller, he develops that timeline in his own order, following themes and whims to convey David’s story.
David also has full knowledge of his future representation in art and literature – Michelangelo, Shakespeare, the controversy over his relationship with Jonathan – and mocks or defends himself against those interpretations. Heller’s dark humor suffuses the story, but it’s filtered through a layer of tragedy and self-pity, even as Yossarian’s was.
I reread this for Heller’s sympathetic but unyielding portrait of “a man after God’s own heart” whose very humanity loses him the relationship he wants the most. His secondary characters – the nearly idiotic Solomon, the menopausal Bathsheba, David’s vain sons, and the half-mad Saul – are caricatures, but memorable in their own right. Most of all, I read this for the devastating impact of the last line, which is the effective climax of the story. Don’t read that last line first – savor the experience of Heller’s incredible writing and David’s violent and tragic life.
Check the WRL catalog for God Knows
Wow! I read this book 28 years ago! I haven’t even read your review yet, but I’m excited because now that I’ve seen the title, I will read it again. It is an amazing book. Okay, I’m going to read your review now. But yeah… this is a very good book.
Your first paragraph is spot on. And to this day, that last line reverberates. Yes!
Oh wow, I’m so excited now, anticipating re-reading this book. Thanks for the review!
I hope you enjoy the re-read. I remember sitting at a bus station and having a woman approach to ask if I was reading the Bible. When I told her the story she lost interest right away. I would add this to Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal as the most moving spiritual novels I’ve read – accessible, funny, and iconoclastic. Every religious person I’ve ever introduced them to has avoided me from then on.
when was the last time you rode the bus?
[…] Heller wrote a novel about David a few years ago called ”God Knows“. The story seems to turn on this event, this David getting up off his knees and washing his […]
I just finished reading the book right now for the first time, and I cannot agree more on your comment about the last line; it’s gonna linger! :)
It is the first book I have ever read by Heller, but undoubtedly the last one. “Catch 22”, here I come :D
Hi Anonymous – have I read your posts on other websites? : } With the 50th anniversary of Catch-22’s publication, there’s been a lot of revisiting of Heller’s work, and the immediate critical reaction to it. You’d be surprised how universally it was panned, and then how it grew into acceptance, then was adopted as the embodiment of the Vietnam War’s insanity. In many way reading God Knows first is a great preparation for Catch-22 – it’s a familiar (more or less) story, the screwy timeline sounds like an old man recalling his life in bits and pieces, and the moment when you realize the novel’s central purpose has a visceral impact. The details of Yossarian’s story aren’t familiar, yand you ou aren’t sure where the timeline is going, but you’ve gained trust in Heller’s ability to get you there.
I hope you enjoy Catch-22 – write back and let us know.