One of Marian’s birthday books is Douglas Coupland’s Life After God. At first Coupland’s style in this book–the first of his I’ve read–amused me. I laughed out loud at his character’s description of human history, basically 5,000 years spoiling the planet. Then I found the rest rather depressing and hopeless. Too many expectations laid at the door of relationships, too much early-life hopelessness and all lived out in the knowledge that God doesn’t exist and humans don’t need God anyway. Ultimately there is a glimmer of hope, in an enigmatic kind of open-ended, what is that about, kind of manner. For Marian and me, having spent April this year dealing with her dangerous heart condition, its treatment and the physical and emotional consequences, knowing God is there in all the turmoil has kept us sane and, almost above all, hopeful. I’d say there is God After Life.
30 June, 2009