Divine Comedy
A review of "Milton in Purgatory" by Edward Vass
A Fairlight Modern novella
"I'm not mad - just dead..."
What does Life have in store for us after
Death? Or, let me rephrase that… What
does Death have in store for us after Life?
It is a question which the world’s greatest
religions have grappled with, which the earliest myths and foremost
philosophers have pondered upon, and which has inspired great art, music and
literature. It is also an enigma which is unexpectedly thrust upon twenty-six
year old Milton Pitt, hit by a car on his way to the work.
Milton leads quite a boring life, alternating
between days at the office and boozy nights out. He has no important relationships and no short-term
goals (nor long-term ones, for that matter) apart from a vague, unrequited appetite
for travel inspired by a picture book about Cuba, a childhood gift from an émigré
uncle. This wanderlust will soon be
rewarded with the strangest trip ever, as Milton is unexpectedly catapulted into the
Afterlife.
Edward Vass’s novella is an inventive, hilarious
romp which turns many tropes about Heaven, Purgatory and Hell on their
head. Milton makes for an entertaining narrator
as he navigates the cartoonish stations of the world beyond. There’s a degree of irreverence and no doubt
a couple of conservative eyebrows will be raised at the portrayal of Jesus as one
Barry Davis, a bossy official of the Innovation of Religion Department. Yet the humour is so good-natured, elicits laughter
so naturally and is ultimately so warm-hearted that I cannot imagine anyone
seriously taking offence.
At the same time, Milton in Purgatory
should not be dismissed as “mere” comic entertainment. The best comedy tends to
have a moralistic element. And Vass’s
novella is as much about the world we live in as it is about the crazy otherworldly
kingdom it portrays. Throughout there are witty, well-aimed barbs which satirize
the (un)comfortably numb existence cultivated by contemporary society.
This is another winner in the latest clutch of Fairlight Moderns. The novella is often viewed as the “Cinderella” sister between the
short story and the novel. This series
is doing much to right that wrong.
Paperback
Expected publication: September 26th 2019 by Fairlight Books
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