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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Midwest Book Review - humorous, ironic, heartbreaking, human, January 30, 2003
Don't let the length of this book fool you, or the subject matter give you pause. What you will find between two covers is humorous, ironic, heartbreaking, and human. David Bulley tells his story in third person - with panache - but with an intimacy that made me feel a part of everything.
Eddy Licklighter is a common man, soft hearted and humorous. Friends and acquaintances can't help but like the man. Eddy has simple hopes and dreams. Those dreams include a firm belief in God's miracles and blessings. He's happy with his lot, and does his best to make the most of what he has. He loves his wife and adores his little girl. Something breaks in Eddy when his wife and daughter are burned up in a house fire before his eyes. Friends can't believe that Eddy can still smile and share his sense of humor after such a loss. But behind that smile lives fiery rage, rage against the God who allows all thing horrible and heart breaking to happen.
Eddy buys a bed and breakfast in the shadow of Mount Katahdin with his wife's insurance money. He hires Melinda, a Native American straight off the Reservation to run it for him. In and out of Eddy's life move his friends Dan and Chief of Police Bruce Telyawhig. Added into this odd mix are Paul, a Baptist minister, and Stephen, a young gay man in search of safety and acceptance. Paul has left his church in disgrace when he's discovered in a sexual situation with a teenage boy. Fate brings him to Eddy's bed and breakfast and enlightenment.
Eddy's plan is to destroy God fast and neat. The world, according to Eddy, would be a happier simpler place without God in it. The more Eddy blasphemes and rages in the face of God, the more things go his way. He figures God is trying to win him over after stealing everything Eddy holds dear. Still, everywhere he looks is death and poison in the world, awful misery that God allows to happen. Eddy says a resounding no to such a God, no to every question God ever asked and every suggestion He'd ever made. His friends love Eddy, believe in him, including Paul. Paul learns lessons of "pleasurable destruction" from Eddy - smoking, drinking beer, giving God the finger both literally and figuratively. He buys into Eddy's wry philosophy: "Just when things get from horrible to tolerable, just when you start to figure something out about life, God screws you over again."
Eddy's master plan is to kill God and then kill himself. How this plan plays out is both funny and heart rending. I don't want to give it all away. Let's just say that in the end, Eddy understands truths that humans this side of the veil cannot know and should not judge.
The premise is different than anything I ever read, and author Bulley masterful. Staunch Christians may not see beyond the blasphemy. The stark sexual and sometimes violent content are portrayed realistically, along with language some may find offensive. But the meat of the story itself is thought-provoking and sometimes beautiful. If you want something different, give Weapon in Heaven a try.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An original and clever idea., July 28, 2003
On the face of it, this should be a profound read, given that its core subject matter is God and the nature of `his' existence. That it doesn't quite make it does not take away from the fact that it is a brave book tackling major subjects in a decidedly quirky manner.
Having lost his beloved wife and child in a fire, Eddy Licklighter decides that he will take his revenge on God by killing him. He begins his campaign by daubing the sides of all the churches in Millinocket with bright red five foot high insults to God.
Alongside this central thread runs the story of Reverend Paul Peterson, who when me meet him, is struggling with the notion of his homosexuality. Paul is forced to flee the Houlton Maine First Baptist Church of our Saviour after being caught in the act, as it were, by a couple of young would-be marrieds. He happens upon Eddy's efforts with the paintbrush and decides that Millinocket looks like the place for him. Paul of course has his own conflicts with God, not least a degree of resentment about his sexuality and the inevitable responses to it from people around him.
The rest of the book sees Eddy in combat with a God determined to outwit him. Eddy eventually hatches a plan to smuggle a gun into heaven - the downside being of course that he'll have to die to do it.
In story terms, Weapon in Heaven is an original and clever idea, told with humour and pathos, although the rather grabbed-at ending fails to do it justice. At times also, the book cried out for a good hard edit. The writer has a tendency not to trust his readership, or on occasion, himself. Some passages are overwritten and over-explained, and at times, vernacular character voice nudges into narrative, with phrases such as: `would of' (for `would have') creeping in, to the bewilderment of this reader at least.
Another concern, from the viewpoint of a general reader picking up the book in response to its Fiction/Religion classification is that some of the homosexual scenes are overly graphic, with the `plumbing' rather too much in evidence. This fact alone may well work against what for me was a thought-provoking and memorable read.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great tale all the way down, June 27, 2003
I tore through Weapon in Heaven in only two days. Though the book was relatively short, about 150 pages, that's a feet for me. For that to happen a story has to move me along, interest me and make me beg for more when I put it down--and I couldn't. The characters are as strong as biblical heroes. They speak with a very real backwoods believable prose. I know these people Bulley writes about. He is truly a master of the craft and I applaud the challenge of taking on such an idea. Killing God--whoda' thunk it. Bulley, that's who.
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