Beware of God : Stories
"... (an) extraordinary collection, which has an energy, a precision and a deep black humour I haven't seen in a long time. I suggest you read it, in order, in one go. It won't take long; the stories are short. It's like drinking 14 shots of vodka. The effect is similarly disorienting... They read as though they have, in the writer's dream formulation, written themselves. I found myself asking, again and again, "why hasn't this been done already?" That's a good sign - a sign, almost, of genius; or at least of something pretty close to it. You will not get these out of your head once they're in there."
-- Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian
"Let us now praise satirical Jews... In his debut collection of short stories, "Beware of God," Auslander takes his knife to the pious veneer of modern-day religious Jewish life and makes sport of exposing its underbelly. For the Gen-X and Gen-Y Jews who wear "Moses is my homeboy" t-shirts and read Heeb Magazine, a poet laureate may be in the making.... There is little fear in this generation of American Jews, and there is none in Auslander's writing."
-- The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review
"There is a serious point to Auslander's fictional games. He wants us to be careful of taking any figure of authority too seriously; God is just the prime example... It's author's Jewishness is hardly the most important thing about Beware of God. It's real heroes are literary: writers such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett who use prose to get at something more mysterious and mystical than any religion - our love of and trust in language, to amuse and distract us from death."
-- Jonathan Ellis, Times Literary Supplement
"Beware of God is a fearlessly entertaining book, riffing on sex, death and shame as well as some of the more solipsistic elements of Judaism."
-- Hephzibah Anderson, The Observer
"The stories in Beware of God mark the debut of the freshest voice in Jewish Literature since Phillip Roth arrived on the scene. Youthful, energetic, wholly original--never has orthodox Judaism been so appealing. Auslander captures the ecstatic melancholy and perverse confusion that makes for a comedy of divine intervention. Beware of God charts the collision of the modern world with ancient superstition, belief rubbing up against desire. In these stories not only does God speak--He does it in Dolby Surround sound."
-- AM Homes
"Witty, shocking, satirical short stories. A bold view of his God. Essential reading for the tolerant and, especially, the intolerant."
-- Maureen Lipman, The Guardian
"Heretical. Hysterical."
-- Esquire Magazine
"In his theatrically deadpan moments, humor writer Auslander revisits Beckett, most notably, while a fear-and-loathing urban sensibility a la Woody Allen also springs to mind, along with Kafka, in these grim, seemingly silly pieces that possess a direct comic hit. "Holocaust Tips for Kids" is a marvelously twisted catalogue of grisly historical facts mixed with juvenile naivete and fear: "Anne Frank hid in her attic for two years./ Maybe I should pack more food." Too brief by far, but with enough sparks to give an idea of the author's irreverent revelations... A fresh voice, and wonderfully fearless."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"Hilarious, curious, possibly scandalous, keenly observed, and bleeding fresh."
-- Augusten Burroughs
"The comedy jump-starting Shalom Auslander's short stories in Beware of God employs, like all the best Jewish jokes, absurd juxtapositions, deadpan delivery and wryly sharp observations... These lovingly blasphemous stories, crackling with irreverence, pay homage, with terse humour, to the human need to make sense of death, and therefore of life, through making rules."
-- The London Times
"Must Read: The title of Shalom Auslander's story collection "Beware of God" only thinly veils a savagely anarchic religious sensibility... Auslander works his theme and variations like a pro, judging the tensile strength of his short, angular riffs as instinctively as any sharp-elbowed jazzman... he can take us from shtick to the sublime-always a deceptive distance-in a few terse words."
-- Ben Dickinson, Elle Magazine
"Auslander's style is light and brief and his stories in Beware of God are all glinting surfaces, a form that fits perfectly his most imaginative ideas.. no topic is too precious for Auslander"
-- Zoe Strimpel, Financial Times
"They're all clever stories but they are more than clever. They send up the human demand for a God in our own image, a God that will explain all the pain and misery and injustice and self-servingness and cruelty. They satirise religion by using literary modes ranging from the road movie to Snoopy to animal documentaries to Kafka . . . They are short, fun, digestible, yet strangely deep - and brilliant - stories."
-- Lucille Redmond, Sunday Business Post
"Heretical, hilarious and fantastically sharp."
-- Marina Mcintyre, The List
"With his book Beware of God, Shalom Auslander is following the footsteps of writers like Woody Allen or Phillip Roth ... Unlike the angst-ridden, often cynical work of Roth or Allen, Auslander's stories are more observational, sometimes magical and always humorous."
-- from Small Spiral Notebook
"(Auslander's) stories aren't just about God, they're about how people relate to Him as an entity and a concept, and how their hopes, fears, and especially shame warp their beliefs beyond recognition... Auslander is a clever, sharp writer, and while his cynicism ranges from refreshing to overbearing, it can be enlightening in either mode. But in his better stories, he clearly illustrates how people let beliefs get in the way of understanding, and at his absolute best, he shows how much emotional harm that lack of understanding can cause."
-- from The Onion
"In Beware of God, Auslander's book of short stories, the pages fly by, kicking against the Torah, driven by rage, scabrous anecdotes, spiritual investigation, surreal twists, talmudic debate, absurdist climaxes and realist flurries... Auslander's wild imagination is a key ingredient throughout this book, with highlights including the fabulous Kafka parody "The Metamorphosis" ... the dream vision satire "God Is A Big Happy Chicken"... and "Startling Revelations From The Lost Book Of Stan" ... In the end, whether funny, serious, surreal or all three, these unforgettable stories are all in some way preoccupied with tests of faith, as heavenly powers throw (mostly) fallen Orthodox Jewish men a divine incident, re-awakening their faith in the process."
-- The Jerusalem Post
