CBR Bingo: White Whale

I feel like I am going to catch some grief for having Good Omens as my White Whale but I purchased it in November of last year and started it three times before finally completing the whole thing while on the beach last week. Unfortunately I was also drinking rum cocktails while I read so I may be a little foggy on the complete story. Good Omens is quite the literary achievement; the two authors, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, have a seamless flow and you never get the sense that there is more than one cook in the kitchen. I can see why a lot of people love this book but it was a bit too absurdist for me. And all the rum.

Good Omens is about an angel, Aziraphale, and a demon, Crowley, who have spent all of human existence on Earth and become quite attached to the wold; now that the Apocalypse is near they are doing their best to stop it. Anathema Device, professional descendant of the titular Agnes Nutter, has the book of prophecies that says Armageddon is coming and the Four-horsemen of the Apocalypse are beginning to assemble. There is War, a war correspondent; Famine, a dietitian; Death and Pollution.

Crowley grabbed Aziraphale’s arm. “You know what happened?” he hissed excitedly. “He was left alone! He grew up human! He’s not Evil Incarnate or Good Incarnate, he’s just … a human incarnate.”

The Anti-Christ, Adam, is born at the beginning of the book but is switched at birth which leads to him being raised as a normal, human boy. He naively uses his powers at first but when he realizes his idyllic suburban life will end if the Apocalypse comes to pass his humanity inspires him to use his power to stop it. There is a lot of Nature vs Nurture, which is interesting, but I think I preferred Supernatural’s version of the Apocalypse better.