Apocalypse Wow!: A Memoir for the End of Time

by James Finn Garner

The best-selling author of Politically Correct Bedtime Stories shares his trenchant observations on the New Age world, UFO conspiracies, the Internet, the apocalypse, commercialism, harmonic convergences, numerology, and other intriguing topics. 500,000 first printing. Tour.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Sociology

174 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 1997

About the author

James Finn Garner is an American writer and satirist based in Chicago.[1] He is the author of Politically Correct Bedtime Stories,[2] Tea Party Fairy Tales, and Honk Honk, My Darling.

Reviews

[Love of Hopeless Causes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hits the beats and is funny at times. However, dnf is an auto one star, and I skipped much of this book . Not enough laughs to carry the entire narrative. The border of this book is unsettling with it's clashing brown and purple. Seriously makes me want to hurl. Sorry Garner.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was pretty much what you'd expect from a writer whose previous book was Politically Correct Fairy Tales. Smug, silly and not nearly as funny as it thought it was.

But I gave it two stars for the throwaway comment about Martin Luther saying the Book of Revelation was not in any way a product of the Holy Spirit.

[Bryce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The politically correct fairy tales were excellent schtick, but this book is real comedy. I fear it's quite dated now.

Right before the big millennium switch, James Finn Garner decided to explore the end of the world and all the different beliefs behind it. Aliens, religious nuts, and Atlantians (the fish people, not the southerners)... they all get their say.

[Rian Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a comic non-fiction book about all the times in history that people thought the end of the world was coming. I didn't actually listen to the book on tape version, but that was the only version they had listed here. Great, funny, good info, lets you know just how stupid people are.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few bits of actual history intertwined with the humor. It seemed like it could have been better, and the Y2K stuff is dated now, but he had some legitimately funny things to say about Nostradamus and other purveyors of prophecy. The whole sequence with the radio doomsayer was way too forced, though, and a bit annoying.
I also found the Chinese restaurant sequence to be painful, especially the supposed punchline. Those things kept me from giving the book a 3rd star, but I did enjoy at least some of the book.
It is a quick read, even the awkward white-on-black parts.

[Sean Ozée · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first listened to this nearly 20 years ago. It’s a nostalgic piece more than anything else. The subjects aren’t especially contemporary and the predictions the author talks about seemed absurd at the time and seem just silly now. He spends some time on Nostradamus and eventually ends on Protestant end times craziness.

It has its moments and parts of it were still as entertaining as they were 2 decades ago, but it’s definitely past its time and reads like an antiquity.

[Geoffrey Greeley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be funny, but the humor sounds forced to me. Most of it is condescending, insulting and elitist. Some of the attempted humor is just mean, not blatantly mean, but enough so that one thinks the author believes the reader is a total buffoon. I guess so because I bought this book. Well actually that's not quite true, I inherited it from my uncle, who didn't read it. Oh well I will never get the time back that I wasted.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this around the time it first came out. I found it amusing at the time, but only one or two humorous bits stick in my mind now.

[Kaethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of his books. The joke is just getting really stale by this point. My favorite remains Politically Correct Holiday Stories: For an Enlightened Yuletide Season. Ah, well. It's hard to keep one's humor current: nothing ages more quickly.

Library copy
(The book store let us check out books to read, not an actual library in this case]

[Lorenjwm2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story( or should i say the author?) is kinda bizzare. At one times, you could find yourself pusing your mouth, or be twisted in amusement. Well, i do laugh a lot here..But i cannot finish the book..Too deep..haha

[Shauna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 2000. I laughed myself to stitches! No really! Maybe it was a sign of the times, but almost every line seemed hilarious in a sly, twisty(not twisted) kind of way.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny account of all the ways in which the apocalypse will happen.

[Victor Claar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laughed myself silly with this humorous take on the end of the world. Didn't know a thing about it when I spotted it in a Wal-Mart, but bought it and took it home.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

it wasn't that funny, overhyped book back in the day. I didnt even read further than half of the book