Good News from Outer Space

It's a black comedy that tells the story of the final days of the previous century, combining dazzling elements of mystery, wild adventure, satire and menace. As a "theological mystery" it has some memorable elements, particularly those of people confronting their failures through a meeting with someone from their past.

I usually like dark social commentary and sharp wit but ultimately could not fully appreciate it here. Usually, at the heart of a good story, one finds a central conflict around which the plot resolves. If there were one, it wasn't clearly discernible nor compelling enough to grab my attention. What is evident, though, is the undertones of faith running amok, but within the trope of typical religious delusions without providing any clarity on the actual motivation why people do what they do. In addition, the characters were extremely unsympathetic, and often very stereotypical. Apart from Lucy, I actually did not care much about them.

Perhaps part of the reasons for the disconnect I felt reading Good News is because none of the alternatives Kessel offered materialized come the millennium - overall, that's a good thing. For the book is scattered with a few truly well-written and scary paragraphs in which some of the characters have encounters with aliens that reads like something out of the pages of a horror story. Kessel does succeed in creating an enormous amount of anticipation and expectation through this. In the final analysis, though, Kessel fails to deliver on these and the last couple of chapters become an extremely frustrating trudge.

This is a much underrated novel, even if a bit dated. And even if I wasn't fully taking in by it, I can understand its purported cult status. Sadly, this just wasn't my cup of tea.