The Living End

This short novel exhibits the author's sardonic fatalism, a kind of humor so dark that, before the work closes, it's more sad--or angry--than funny. A basically good man dies in a stickup, finds himself in hell, whence proceed comic misadventures. Elkin gives his dramatis personae an endearing quality--except for God, who is a petulant, willful despot. George Guidall, one of the best audiobook narrators, misses none of the beats. Wisely, he reads with a comic tone, but without the comic timing of gags that would turn satire into the Three Stooges. He stints on none of the drama, yet pulls back on the bigger moments to keep them from turning bathetic. His interpretation conjures up a phantasmagoria by Hieronymus Bosch in a prankish mood. If he errs, it's in his inability to give Joseph, a minor character here as in the New Testament, the Yiddish inflections the author wrote for him. There is something of Dostoyevsky as much as of Elkin in Guidall's horrifically funny afterlife, something bigger than the text he reads from. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

July 1, 1998
George Guidall provides a perfectly timed performance of author Elkin's comic vision of the afterlife. It chronicles the hapless adventures of several human souls as they make their way through the underworld and paradise. God is portrayed as a vain, childish dilettante unhappily seeking appreciation for and from his creation. The various suffering humans are portrayed with wry sympathy, but none of the souls are particularly memorable. The ironies are obvious--a decent hardworking character is damned while an amoral schemer is accidentally sent to heaven. The scenes of hell are horrific, but Dante's Inferno (Audio Reviews, LJ 10/15/97) is more so, and it is hard to see what new insights Elkin brings to his subject. Guidall's reading is full of dry and melancholy wit, but the book itself consistently falls short. Not recommended.--John Owen, Advanced Micro Devices, Santa Clara, CA

Copyright 1998 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.