Gods Without Men

Written by: Hari Kunzru












The book begins with a unique myth about Coyote the trickster, and takes off from there.  The book jumps around between several characters and time periods, all of which revolve around mysterious events surrounding a strange arrangement of rocks in the Mojave desert.

The central story follows of Jaz, a computer engineer wrapped up developing a program which can compile random bits of unrelated information to predict future economic trends.  When Jaz begins to worry about the implications of this model, he takes his wife and son out to California where, in the middle of the day, his son mysteriously disappears near a strange formation of rocks.  A long time later, the boy is found, but Jaz struggles to bond with the boy and wonders what exactly happened out in the desert.

Interspersed between chapters are two other major sub-stories.  The first tells of a researcher in the 1920s who loses the love of his life to another man.  In an act of revenge, he frames the man as a kidnapper and rounds up a posse to track him down.  A shootout occurs and the man is killed at the same odd rock formation.  The other major sub-story describes the rise and fall of a cult whose leaders claim to be able to communicate with aliens life forms of a higher civilization.  Where does this cult base their operations?  At the finger-like outcropping of rocks which has been featured in all the other stories.

There are a few other characters and sections which add to the overall mystique of the book.

As a novel with a jumping structure, it does all right.  It's not as good as "Cloud Atlas," but it does hold its own.  The comparison between "Gods Without Men" and "Cloud Atlas" is easy to make.  They both track vaguely interrelated stories over multiple time periods, showing how certain themes and human behaviors repeat themselves.  The problem with "Gods Without Men" is that the characters - with the exception of the cuckolded man - fall very flat, and without them there is no reason for the reader to consider the larger implications of the book.  By the end of the novel, the twists become predictable and cliche.

Still, it is neat to read a modern day "trickster" story, even if it's not a perfect novel.