Only Human: A Divine Comedy

by Jenny Diski

'This is Jenny Diski's best novel yet' LITERARY REVIEW

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Jenny Diski was a British writer. Diski was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction articles, reviews and books. She was awarded the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America With Interruptions.

Reviews

[Brian K · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was assigned this dreck for a class and figured that since it's written by a feminist under the pretense of historical fiction from Genesis, I should read it to at least be able to comment if it came up in discussion (it didn't...at least I didn't waste much time blitzing through it). Diski writes a novel of the life of Abram from Sarai's point of view, interpolated with God's point of view (haha, yes, I typed that). Besides being pathetic and weakly blasphemous (Diski can't imagine deity as anything other than a petulant android wishing it were human too), the book is a prime example of the failure that occurs when a novelist hates every character they're trying to write about, and so undermines them with (depressing) bathos at every moment, and is writing the book for an ulterior purpose only. The reviews all say that it's funny, but a more accurate subtitle than "a divine comedy" -- I assume Dante was rolling over in his grave every time he reads the subtitle -- would be "a pedestrian farce." Let's see, what else was there... Oh haha I forgot to mention the part where Abram's brother commits suicide at the beginning. (It's so hokey I'm embarrassed I allowed this book to make me even a little bit mad at parts.) Well, I suppose I suppose I should mention that the author probably liked Sarai a bit -- but even poor Sarai was only there as a feminist hobbyhorse about repressive and patriarchal the 2000s BC were...just like today! almost no differences! none!

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lovely interpretation of the Abraham/Sarah story with wry comments by God, a 3.5.

[Selina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn’t really call this book a comedy, but it was definitely an interesting retelling of a Bible story I wasn’t very familiar with. I liked how complex the characters were. The book is a bit dark and twisted, but that feels true to many biblical stories. The author promised a love triangle with God, and she definitely delivered on that.

[JoAnna May · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the end none of it matters, including this book

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consistently amusing and periodically insightful. A few weeks ago, I read Nothing Natural, an uneven 1987 Diski title about a BDSM affair. While I thought she had talent, I probably wouldn't have read her again if she hadn't written a brace of novels about the patriarchs and matriarchs of Genesis, a story cycle of endless fascination for me. In the intervening fourteen years between Nothing Natural and this title, Diski definitely upped her game. The writing here is much tighter, only occasionally lapsing into breezy, chick-litty relationship-speak, and much more often managing a wry perspective and an almost aphoristic polish.
Only Human is the story of the first love triangle, which develops between God and his human creatures. Bored by the perfect stasis of I am, God interrupts (Diski's verb) the non-flow of non-time with the mirror of his creation. But Diski's God is far from omniscient, and is unable to envision the unfolding consequences of this interruption, particularly that the humans, made in his image, would become creators themselves, and would introduce the destabilizing elements of love and us to God's perfect system. Jealous of the bond that humans have with each other, God the Homewrecker tries to horn in on the action and steal the heart of a chosen human beloved, Abram of Ur, by means of Revelation and Covenant. The story is told in two voices: a first-person narration by I am Himself, and an omniscient narrator (I love that God's is the voice expressing limited narrative vision) who maintains for most, but not all, of the novel, the point of view of Sarai - Abram's sister/wife, God's rival for Abram's love and the embodiment and champion of the temporal, the contingent, and the corporeal. "What could I do," God says of her at one point, "but block his route to contentment? Yes, I hated Sarai. She chose the world, when, like Abram, she might have chosen me out of her need...She chose the world as her meaning." Blake said Milton, avowed intent to justify God notwithstanding, was "of the Devil's party without knowing it." Diski, likewise, is clearly of Sarai's party in this tawdry tale. Sarai has gravitas and existential courage and heroic stature. God, in contrast, seems calculating, spiteful, and appallingly weak for an Omnipotent Being - Only Human, in fact. As Sarai says to Abram, "He tells you he loves you and transforms your human life, your only life, into arid waiting. This lord fears humanity, fears its capacity to make connection. He is a separator, a baffled angry solitary who cannot bear the results of his thoughtless creating. He is an infant who gave birth to parents whose interest in each other he cannot tolerate."

[Sally Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one came to close to getting another star. Admittedly, I am a fan of historical fiction and when I can find a good Bible story that makes sense, so much the better. Diski's characters, including god, are strong, fallible, funny, and believable. Diski's writing is spare, clear, and cuts like a knife. I could find a lot of aphorisms and epigrams about the human condition in Only Human, but I think I will save it for the next read through. And I will read it again.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A witty and intelligent take on the book of Genesis. Very entertaining!

[AnnMarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75