(25/04/22)
Gaiman and Pratchett. Two legendary names that have been unread on my to-read list for ridiculously long, considering how much I wanted to get to know them. And as I was getting really frustrated with myself, I finally decided to move my ass by killing two birds (in my language it's flies, this seems drastic), with one stone and reach for Good Omens.
And it was a great reach, don't take me wrong. But I still hope that now, when I will start getting to know them separately, it will only get better. Because – for a change I will start with the slight negatives, so the fanbase can kill me first and become friends later – it was a bit messy, and although the mess was part of the charm for most of it, there were moments when it wasn't that much so.
I didn't particularly enjoy the kids and their parts, even though to say I disliked them would be too much. Same with the witch and witch hunter. I didn't create a deep bond with any character – i absolutely loved Aziraphale and Crowley, yes, but in a more of a “what-an-interesting-and-fun-character” then “i-would-die-if-something-happened-to-them” – and sometimes the fun was getting a little out of hand and maybe even went a little over my head. But look… does that even matter really? I don't know. A bit, but not much in this case, so I will take one star from it because there was a little piece of it that just didn't click with me during this first read as much as I would like it to, but that's fine. We're fine.
I still loved the book. And what I loved most about it was all that clever satire, presented especially during the angel-demon dialogues. I would underline the hell out of this book if it was mine (I had it borrowed from my bf and he is very, very careful with his books, so if I did, the things Hell would do to Crowley would be nothing in comparison). Some quotes will be forever stuck in my head and few of them I actually did manage to write down, when I overcome my laziness. Some were deep, some were both funny and deep and some were just so cleverly funny that it was actually ridiculous how someone can think of this. And most of it – at least it feels that way – happened during Aziraphale's and Crowley's parts. If ever there was just a book about those two and their past adventures on Earth, I would read the hell out of it (no pun intended).
Other parts that struck my interest were those with the four riders of the apocalypse. I loved the switch from Pestilence to Pollution, I loved how they looked, how they talked (Death was great) and I loved all that cleverly-funny-but-also-deep stuff around them.
What I can say about the humour is that it was the most british thing that you will meet this year, if you decide to pick this book. That can be great for some, less for others. For me personally it's the first choice. I usually don't laugh out loud, I don't know why, it's just that a little inside chuckle is enough for me for the most part, but a few times I did here and even more times I was just pleasantly amused for a long time, often just from one sentence, and that honestly was somehow a bigger achievement for me.
Especially because underneath all that chaos, burning Bentleys, clever jokes, quirky things, apocalypse and aliens, demons and tibetans, raining fish and satanic nuns, there was some beautiful philosophy, accurate take on dual-nature of humanity and things worth thinking about, when you stopped smirking like an idiot. But you can also think about them while smirking like an idiot, I won't stop you.
In the end, maybe that's the point – not only of this book, but also life in general. To not take things, us or, you know, the apocalypse, so seriously.
Post a Comment