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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Godless is Awesome, June 2, 2004
By A Customer
First, I loved the characters. It was great to hang out with them. Second, I loved what it was about. Godless shows you how a religion could come to be--how it could actually be created. Pete Hautman always takes on big issues in his books: Sweetblood--vampires and diabetes, Mr. Was--abuse and time travel, Stone Cold--gambling. In this new book, he decides to take on a huge issue--what and how we believe God to be. Godless is serious and funny at the same time, at the same moment. You can be laughing about what a character is saying and yet it can be painful and true.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Allowing tweens and young teens to fairly consider the issues in challenges to and rebellions against faith and religion, March 3, 2006
This review is from: Godless (Paperback)
How often is it you find a book for young adults that objectively discusses things like agnosticism and faith? The answer is not often and that is perhaps one reason Pete Hautman's Godless won the the 2004 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Another reason is more straightforward -- it's well written, particularly for its target audience.
Godless tells the story of 16-year-old Jason Bock. Bock is the imaginative type and is beginning to doubt his Catholic faith. In part because he is toying with his religious youth group, Jason concocts his own religion. Its god is the town's 207-foot water tower. After all, Jason reasons, "Water is Life." Coming up with much of its doctrine off the top of his head, Jason names it Chutengodianism, the Church of the Ten-legged God.
Jason's best friend, Peter "Shin" Shinner, is there from the outset. As the religion's Head Kahuna, Jason names Shin First Keeper of the Sacred Text. Shin even begins writing Chutengodianism's scripture, excerpts of which preface each chapter. Most subsequent members of the religion also are granted a title, although their admission to the religion often is based as much on ulterior motives as their expressing an interest in joining, which is equally likely to be for a lark. For example, Jason's attraction to pretty Magda Price leads him to name her High Priestess and bully Henry Stagg becomes High Priest because he knows how to climb to the top of the water tower.
As far-fetched as it may seem, Hautman pulls off most of it. While you could nitpick about how Henry's character vacillates between bully and buddy and Shin's total infatuation with the made-up cult, what makes Godless so worthwhile is that it is neither pro-religion nor anti-religion. That fact may make a few evangelicals and book-banners howl if it ends up in a school library or curriculum. Yet the book reveals the ramifications inherent with virtually any religion or faith. We see the ease with which some people will join something that gives them a feeling they fit in a bit better. We see those who go off the deep end and become zealots. We see those who are swayed by personality. We see schisms in leadership and doctrine. We see there are consequences to actions taken on the basis of presumed faith alone.
Unlike what one might assume from the title, Godless is not a critique of whether a supreme being exists or a broadside on any religion. Granted, Jason does have some issues with and criticisms of Catholicism and its rites. Still, that largely serves to frame the context. The book's overall tone makes even that part of the exploration in which anyone confronting a question of faith might engage. Godless actually allows young adults -- or anyone -- to think about such issues without advocating any one position and in a context relatively unhindered by the ardor or emotions that tend to accompany most discussions of this sort if a particular religion or faith is involved.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Constitutional Rite, August 11, 2005
In a brilliantly authored book for young adults, Schmidt introduces a basic American Concept. Freedom of religion! The right is protected, but for one young man it is not being honored.
As an atheist, the protagonist holds the view that all religion was "all made up." So, he decides to invent his own. It does not matter that the object of their religious fervor is a water tower. It is specifically chosen because it is so unGodlike.
Yet, the story develops as all religious stories develop; with a concept, and a following. Jason does build a small following for his religion, yet it gets him virtually nothing but trouble. Yet he insists on going forward, despite the pressure from those who are not interested in his creation of a new religion.
Perhaps one of the most interesting characters of all is Shin. Shin, a close friend of Jason, becomes enamoured with the religion to the point that he starts writing a gospel of the religion. He actually hears the water tower speak to him and has recorded it. He has many, many pages of the gospel of the new religion transcribed, as he says, the "Tower speaks to me, I hear it inside my head."
Yet through all the troubles and travails, there is a persistence that Jason displays and in his mind; and the minds of most of his followers, he has prevailed. Even if it has to be sub rosa, as those around do not accept even the discussion of the topic, it is still his rite. He is still entitled to do it, in America.
The book is highly recommended for all people over the age of 13. It is especially illustrative of a phenomenon repeated all over the world many times. The book cites Joseph Smith's Church of Latter Day Saints and L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology, but does not dwell at all on their philosophies, just mentions them as new religions. And in how many places aside from America, are citizens free to do this? Not many at all.
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