TOWING JEHOVAH

God, ecology, WW II, chauvinism, the Vatican, and what-all are all thrown into another unclassifiable work from the author of Nebula Award-winner City of Truth (1992), etc. When sea captain Anthony Van Horne left the bridge of his oil tanker, the vessel ran aground and a major spillage occurred. Now a dying angel, Raphael, appears to Anthony, announcing that God has died, that His two- mile-long body is floating in the sea off Africa...and will Anthony please entomb the body in an iceberg according to His last wishes? Anthony, promised absolution from his oil-spill guilt, accepts. Aboard the tanker are various folks, including scientist Cassie Fowler, a militant atheist who believes the feminist cause is threatened by the body's very existence. The crew mutiny (God is dead, so there's no possibility of divine retribution). Eventually, the starving crew are reduced to eating the divine corpse. Many adventures later, the body is at last laid to rest. Witty, entertaining, and provocative—in some measure. But the plot makes little sense, and Morrow makes no serious attempt to grapple with the large issues he raises.