The Old Man and Mr. Smith
A Fable
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the late and great Peter Ustinov comes a story full of wit, satire and insight.
An increasingly decrepit God and a merely ill-tempered Satan are reconciled and attempt a mission to Earth, where their misadventures point up the comedy and tragedy of modern life, as they travel to a variety of countries in the guise of the Old Man (God) and Mr. Smith (Satan), with the FBI and Interpol in hot pursuit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actor-author Ustinov's fable about God and Satan on an inspection tour of planet Earth is offbeat, witty, touching, profound and frequently hilarious. God--irascible, world-weary, pontificating--is the Old Man, or Godfrey; Satan poses as a Mr. Smith. But the otherworldly duo often change disguises as they traipse around the U.S., where ``absurd optimism'' prevails, and visit England, a fast-crumbling Soviet Union, strife-torn Israel, India, China (``The Dictatorship of the Geriatric Ward''caps ok ) and Japan, where efficiency has been elevated to a new religion. Thrown in jail for counterfeiting, able to disappear and reappear at will, constantly avoiding arrest by FBI agents who suspect they're Soviet spies or extraterrestrials, God and Satan measure the fall of humanity through encounters with the American president, the Soviet First Secretary, a whore, a drug-addicted hobo, an evangelist preacher and sundry others. Within this loquacious novel's cosmic banter, Ustinov offers priceless philosophical nuggets, as well as scathing satirical barbs, which, though sometimes arch or high-handed, are more often on target.
