Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #971961 in Books
• Published on: 1983-11-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 499 pages

Synopsis
Satan returns to earth in the form of a computer and chooses psychoanalyst Sy Kassler to cure him of an unhappiness caused by his eternal competition with God.

Customer Reviews

An epic, rollercoaster of a novel...
I first read this book as a naive teenager, with a ferocious greed for all things weird and freaky, that reeked of sex, violence and intrigue .... well, I was only 14!! This book satisfied all my newly depraved cravings back then, and coming to the book again 15 years later, it's still as refreshingly funny and compulsive as it ever was. Sy Kassler, the main protaganist, is quite possibly the unluckiest, stupidest and most gullible fictional character I've ever come across! The letters after his name are not an indication of his medical and intellectual prowess - J.S.P.S stands for Just Some Poor Schmuck! The events that take Kassler up to the main crux of the book - his treatment of Satan - are superb in their sheer incredulous and audacious wonder. The reader never stops rooting for Kassler, despite knowing he's a total dumb-ass! The best part of the book is ofcourse the psychotherapy of Satan himself. Why does Satan require treatment? Turns out he was pretty hacked off at God for casting him out of heaven. But, there's so much more besides. Of continuing amusement is the way that Satan manifests himself to Kassler and, more freakily, to his wife! I wouldn't be spoiling things if I said that Satan is eventually cured by Kassler - its why he needs to be cured that makes for the most interesting reading. And what is Kassler's reward for the cure...? The answer to THE question...the meaning of life, anyone? Well, you'll just have to read the book for that, but suffice to say it would explain a lot! Leven has created an epic, rollercoaster of a novel - funny, thoroughly inventive and totally compulsive reading. Read it now!