God Went Fishing is a religious satire that looks to expose all the negative things that modern culture has come to represent.
Review copies of this book are available for media contacts and bloggers upon request. Contact www.askthepublishingguru.com.
Dennis Shields' God Went Fishing is a religious satire that looks to expose all the negative things that modern culture has come to represent. Sigmund, the main character of the book, is born to a psychiatrist couple whose last name is Freud-or so he thinks. Interestingly, he is introduced as, "The boy, whose name was Sigmund, had a beautiful face, which was the expression of his mind and his soul. He looked nothing like his parents, and shared neither their cynicism nor their mordant wit. He was kind and gentle and delighted in helping others." Unlike the world around him, Sigmund was a kind and caring individual, who always wished the best unto everyone. Taking every word that his mentor Bernie imparted to him, he fully believed "that this was a rational universe and that all was for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Throughout God Went Fishing, characters turn a blind eye away from all the evil in world, ignoring it-as if everything were perfect. Sigmund, however, is different. Even at the young age of eight, Sigmund's mind is trained to help. As he is skipping rocks in the lake behind his house, he sees a man drowning. Though he acknowledges that he has just learned how to swim, he also realizes that there is no one else around to save the man. The narrator states, "So he jumped into the water and dogpaddled out to the man flailing around, splashing, and yelling." There are numerous elements that hint at the nature of Sigmund's character. While the association to Jesus Christ is subtle, the fact that he is born on Christmas is a deliberate allusion to the goodness of his character. In fact, Sigmund not only finds out that he is born on Christmas, not August 8th, but that his mother stole him because she had given birth to an African child, who is the byproduct of her affair with a man on death row. Sigmund's mother reveals, "You were born at 12:00 midnight. My child came out three minutes later. It was with great surprise that my first offspring was African American, the progeny of a dalliance with a fabulous man I met on death row as part of a study of violent killers." When Sigmund finds out the truth of his origins, he states, ""That's why I never felt like I belonged. Who are my parents?" This is in fact an overarching statement of his entire existence. Sigmund is so good and has such a strong will that he feels that he does not belong in this world of weak-willed, miserable evildoers. He ultimately wades through many of these scenarios, trying to find who he really is. The quote that captures the essence of Sigmund's being belongs to Jim Crow, the farmer: "Sigmund, you're a good man, a kind man, but you're always talking about other people. It's impossible to achieve anything in this world while staring up at someone else's shoes."
Review copies of this book are available for media contacts and bloggers upon request. Contact www.askthepublishingguru.com.
Dennis Shields' God Went Fishing is a religious satire that looks to expose all the negative things that modern culture has come to represent. Sigmund, the main character of the book, is born to a psychiatrist couple whose last name is Freud-or so he thinks. Interestingly, he is introduced as, "The boy, whose name was Sigmund, had a beautiful face, which was the expression of his mind and his soul. He looked nothing like his parents, and shared neither their cynicism nor their mordant wit. He was kind and gentle and delighted in helping others." Unlike the world around him, Sigmund was a kind and caring individual, who always wished the best unto everyone. Taking every word that his mentor Bernie imparted to him, he fully believed "that this was a rational universe and that all was for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Throughout God Went Fishing, characters turn a blind eye away from all the evil in world, ignoring it-as if everything were perfect. Sigmund, however, is different. Even at the young age of eight, Sigmund's mind is trained to help. As he is skipping rocks in the lake behind his house, he sees a man drowning. Though he acknowledges that he has just learned how to swim, he also realizes that there is no one else around to save the man. The narrator states, "So he jumped into the water and dogpaddled out to the man flailing around, splashing, and yelling." There are numerous elements that hint at the nature of Sigmund's character. While the association to Jesus Christ is subtle, the fact that he is born on Christmas is a deliberate allusion to the goodness of his character. In fact, Sigmund not only finds out that he is born on Christmas, not August 8th, but that his mother stole him because she had given birth to an African child, who is the byproduct of her affair with a man on death row. Sigmund's mother reveals, "You were born at 12:00 midnight. My child came out three minutes later. It was with great surprise that my first offspring was African American, the progeny of a dalliance with a fabulous man I met on death row as part of a study of violent killers." When Sigmund finds out the truth of his origins, he states, ""That's why I never felt like I belonged. Who are my parents?" This is in fact an overarching statement of his entire existence. Sigmund is so good and has such a strong will that he feels that he does not belong in this world of weak-willed, miserable evildoers. He ultimately wades through many of these scenarios, trying to find who he really is. The quote that captures the essence of Sigmund's being belongs to Jim Crow, the farmer: "Sigmund, you're a good man, a kind man, but you're always talking about other people. It's impossible to achieve anything in this world while staring up at someone else's shoes."
SHARE
