Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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From the start one expects something impressive: written by a Romanian-born poet, essayist and English professor whose last novel,The Blood Countess,was a national bestseller, Messiah promises to stun the reader. The dust jacket insists that "mordant social commentary and incandescent characters" lie within. A short plot summary instantly intrigues. And so one has every reason to expect a marvel between the covers of Messiah. Unfortunately, one has just as many reasons to be disappointed...
...stories of Felicity and Andrea unfold in separate chapters, and it takes over 260 pages for the two plot lines to finally come together. Only upon finally encountering Andrea and experiencing her first orgasm does self-awareness come. One thing that is clear throughout the book is that the two women need each other to be complete; they are two halves of a single entity, the messiah, come to save the world from the apocalypse...
Linked by their shared orgasm, the two women charge headlong into the path of Rev. Mullen's evil plan to bring about mass destruction. As the confrontation between Mullen and the messianic duo unfolds, there is almost hope that the plot might come through after all. This hope is quickly shattered, however, by the entry of the spirit world into the picture...
...great minds converge on New Orleans, watched over by an angel named Zack who spends most of his time complaining about the democratization and bureaucratization of heaven in somewhat misplaced digressions from the action of the novel. And here the plot gets entirely silly. Not only do spirits manage to communicate with mortals through their own private adult website, but complete absurdity ensues when the great minds are reincarnated in the bodies of the city's residents. At one point the spirit of Nicola Tesla "screws" itself into the skull of a wino "like a genie into a bottle...
There is something sad about these plot twists, for in them one is exposed to an imagination that strives for credibility and falters. Codrescu's attempts to integrate supernatural images into the novel are neither fantastic nor interesting, but merely commonplace and uninventive. And while it is clear that he is trying to set a foundation for some interesting interactions between famous historical personas, he is completely unable to invent an interesting conversation between any of them...