Paradise: A Divine Comedy

by Glenn Trevor Myers

Overview

You think you've got problems.

My favourite Afghan restaurant closed down. My girlfriend left.

A bad-tempered lawyer named Keziah crashed her car into mine. And we couldn't even die properly.

Paradise turned out to be a cage in the heavens where evil spirits market-tested new temptations, where everyone could see our memories, and where we were stuck forever.

A snake with a personality disorder offered us a way out. The trouble was, it meant facing up to the worst problem of all:

Myself.

Paradise - a divine comedy is a disorderly romp through death, life, Afghan food and redemption.

'Paradise - A divine comedy' shows what happens when what's hidden inside us, comes out.

Reviews:

''Hitchhikers Guide meets Screwtape meets Pilgrims Progress meets the Discworld!' (Phil Grasham)

'...absolutely loved it. A hysterical surrealist take on what is out there after life on earth, or next to life on earth, or simultaneous with life on earth, or whatever. A story of Gods in kilts, crystal clear memories, and walls made of our pixelated fears. Delightful. (Jeannette M, Goodreads.com)

Sometimes you want to hit the main character on the back of the head and tell him to stop being a wuss, but how would you react if you had to build a paradise controlled by some used-car-salesman-style gods? If you like quirky and surreal stories about the afterlife, then I would highly recommend Paradise. (Katie Webb, Goodreads.com)

What a great book! Loved the characters, the creativity, the dialogue, the imaginative idea of evil spirits keeping humans as pets .... a delightfully comic but definitely insightful look into the human psyche and soul. It's a mark of a good book (for me, at least) when I look forward to picking it up again to read and am slow to put it down. I loved every aspect of it. (Susan Sutton, author)

An interview with Glenn Myers

Q. So what is this book like and what books do you like the most?

A. Off-beat, quirky. British humour I guess. About the afterlife or at least about near-death experiences and the soul.

Q. Why this subject?

A. We spend loads of time grooming our appearance, because that's what people see. But what are we like on the inside? If your soul was like a landscape, what would it look like? How would it change? What would be attacking it or wearing it down? I thought it would be a lot of fun to picture that.

Q. And you get to ask big questions?

A. I think the best comedy does. Life, death, love, redemption: all those, but handled lightly. I see comic fiction like a ridge walk on a mountain range -- scary drops each side, but a carefree stroll on the top.

Q. With two warring characters at the heart?

A. Three actually. The main protagonist Jamie is at war with Keziah the girl who crashed into him and so sent them both to the afterlife. If he's smug, laid-back and bone idle, she's spiky, focussed and driven. They just don't get on. There's no possible world, living or dead, where they could ever get on. Yet they have to work together. And hovering in the background is Jamie's ex-girlfriend Caroline, who he's completely failed to love and she's left him. So they're all struggling. They're all lost souls. And of course the stress of being dead, of your soul exposed, and of being experimented on by evil spirits, all that tends to crank up the conflict. So there's missed love and disappointment and secret goodness and slow discovery. Such wonderful fun to write!

Q. There's a lot of food mentioned in the books: Afghan (murtabak), Indian (for example, roti prata), Singaporean Chinese (Hainanese Chicken Rice) and Malay (Mee Goreng, Laksa, Nasi Lemak). Have you eaten all these foods?

A. Yes. It's important -- vital research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780956501004
Publisher:	Glenn Myers
Publication date:	06/03/2010
Series:	Jamie's Myth , #1
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	405,378
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Prize-winning writer Glenn Myers has been a full-time journalist and author nearly all his life. For most of that time he has wanted to write fiction that is funny, quirky, redemptive, original and entertaining.

So here it is.

'Paradise' and the follow-up books in the series, 'The Wheels of the World' and 'The Sump of Lost Dreams' are comedies about all the invisible things in our lives--our souls, the spiritual sea in which they swim, the fights they get into and the ways they get rescued.

In a curious case of fiction imitating life, after writing comic fiction about experiences of near-death and coma, Glenn's heart stopped in 2011 and had to be rebooted. Then he spent most of May 2013 in a medically-induced coma, hallucinating wildly and often quite entertainingly. It took some weeks to recover a steady grip on what currently passes for reality.

He made a full recovery.

Brought up in West Yorkshire, Glenn has lived in Los Angeles, Singapore, London and Cote d'Ivoire, but has settled with his wife in Cambridge, UK. They have two grown-up children. Glenn has degrees in physics and theology. Unlike the rest of his family, none of his degrees are from Cambridge University and so he is considered a slow learner. He and his wife are members of their local Anglican church. He enjoys cafes and his hammock.

Table of Contents

1: The bonbon that was just out of reach
2: Induction Day
3: Everything you believe is wrong
4: The snake
5: Almighty Toad
6: Jamie's Myth
7: Every Spirit's Guide to Keeping Humans as Pets
8: Pride and Treachery
9: Nope
10: Keziah-land
11: The patchwork god
12: Back to the Dome
Thanks

Editorial Reviews

I won this book from the site and absolutely loved it. A hysterical surrealist take on what is out there after life on earth, or next to life on earth, or simultaneous with life on earth, or whatever. A story of Gods in kilts, crystal clear memories, and walls made of our pixelated fears. Delightful. Jeannette M, Goodreads

I also won Paradise in the goodreads competition...and I am really glad that I did ... Sometimes you want to hit the main character on the back of the head and tell him to stop being a wuss, but how would you react if you had to build a paradise controlled by some used-car-salesman-style gods? If you like quirky and surreal stories about the afterlife, then I would highly recommend Paradise. Katie Webb, Goodreads

A superb rollercoaster of a story; loved every minute! Phil Groom of the Christian Bookshops Blog

So hilariously funny! I've already started reading the next one. I would highly recommend this to just about anyone.' Stewartc85 on Goodreads

Myers is a great writer and his style is terrific... this was a great book Martin Gibbs Amazon.com, Goodreads.

What a great book! Loved the characters, the creativity, the dialogue, the imaginative idea of evil spirits keeping humans as pets .... There is much to think about beyond the story itself and the book gives a delightfully comic but definitely insightful look into the human psyche and soul ... Susan Sutton, author

Just read "Paradise" by Glenn Myers. Outstanding! A modern take on Danté that approaches C.S. Lewis in its joyful, inventive, insightful allegory. Strongly recommended to reading friends.
Stephen March

There's lots going on in this book, with big and profound themes, all cleverly dressed up as comedy.

There's much that I enjoyed about it. The surrealism, the fantastic scenarios, the comic characters, the dialogue, and the humour. I laughed a lot, usually at Jamie - the pitifully and helplessly shallow Jamie.

I like the way the reality of what has happened to Jamie and Keziah after their accident is gradually introduced and builds up to a satisfying conclusion as the other plot, the finale of Gaston and Leopold's efforts also builds up to a fantastic and somewhat surprising end.
But what was really good was the treatment of Keziah. Keziah had landed up in this surreal world with a load of unresolved issues and pain from her earthly existence. While Jamie is recreating lighthouses, The Space Shuttle, and Thai Red Curry for his enjoyment in his part of the new world, Keziah's world is a mix of giant syringes and bonfires with various people on them. Not wanting to say too much and spoil it, but the image of her bravely standing under the onslaught of those giant memory blobs that crash on her from a height, sending rocks and dust all over the place, is just terrific. As is the image of the water... and I won't say any more except that the treatment of Keziah is deeply compassionate and quite beautiful.

The book reminded me a little of Kurt Vonnegut and also a little of the magic realist Angela Carter. It is well written and has a good use of metaphor that is always natural and never seems contrived. It was an enjoyable read and makes you think.

I'm ordering the sequel and looking forward to reading it. Kenny Parker, Amazon.co.uk

A comic novel (the author's own words), but with a depth to it, so that the reader gets to laugh and to think, often at the same time. Shades of Kurt Vonnegut, which is high praise if you like Kurt Vonnegut! It's a book which needs to be re-read. The writer uses words well, and it's easy to miss a few gems the first time around. It takes a few pages to get into it, but sticking with it pays off. Whatever genre you favour, you can enjoy this. DCO, Amazon.co.uk

From the Publisher