#BookshelfSpotlight-‘The Hurtle Of Hell’ by Simon Edge

Gay, pleasure-seeking Stefano Cartwright is almost killed by a wave on a holiday beach. His journey up a tunnel of light convinces him that God exists after all, and he may need to change his ways if he is not to end up in hell.

When God happens to look down his celestial telescope and see Stefano, he is obliged to pay unprecedented attention to an obscure planet in a distant galaxy, and ends up on the greatest adventure of his multi-aeon existence.

The Hurtle of Hell combines a tender, human story of rejection and reconnection with an utterly original and often very funny theological thought-experiment. It is an entrancing fable that is both mischievous and big-hearted.

God did not like the idea of any of the beings of his universe invading his privacy.he was particularly sensitive about this green-eyed hominid doing so,because these hominids had form in this matter.”

‘The Hurtle Of Hell’ is alternately told from the perspectives of humans and God, the prinicple protagonist being Steven Carter(reinvented as Stefano Cartwright) who sees, quite literally, the eye of God at the end of that tunnel of light which so many of those who experience almost dying,report.

Said tunnel is not so much like the black walled examination of your past life as you fly towards enlightenment and-hopefully-heaven, but rather a cement tunnel which is kind of God’s seeing tube which he uses to spy , randomly, on his creations. The news of this comes as a welcome surprise to Stefano’s boyfriend, Adam, who works as journalist for a cement magazine, but not such a delight for Stefano who finds himself re-examinng everything that has happened to him up to now in his life. The entire founations of his life shaken, he has further surprises in store as God has decided he is a little bit lonely and keeps his eye fixed on Stefano and Adam a little bit longer…

A very funny yet extremely adroit novel about the relationship we humans have with God-and vice versa-this is a existential crisis in the heart of a man who eschewed religion at a young age after realising it is all a bit of a con(for what it’s worth, I totally agree)With no room in the Bible or religion for anyone who is gay, further supported by the homophobic notions of his father which are not shot down hard enough by his mother, Steven runs away to London at 15 to find himself.

Without a word of warning he leaves and finds himself out of his depth, in the Big Smoke ,clueless, moneyless and in the late 80’s.Taken under the wing of a barman named Rook, he learns how to be his authentic self, and starts a relationship with Adam until everything falls down on that Atlantic Island where he nearly dies.

Taking in theories of God explored via art, particularly Hieronymous Bosch, this novel is extremely moving, questioning and absorbing, tackling as it does the social and religious attitudes towards gay men in the approach to the end of the Millennium. I enjoyed the notion of God as a great cosmic geologist, who randomly wanders the cosmos, keeping an eye on his per rocks and what they are doing.And the relationship between Stefano and Adam, how they relate their sense of self to being gay is shot with pathos, respect and sensitivity. I absolutely loved it and can highly recommend it to those who enjoyed the work of Marie Phillips