I, Lucifer : Finally, the Other Side of the Story

In Paradise Lost, Milton set out to "justifie the wayes of God to men." In this novel, British author Duncan (Hope; Love Remains) attempts to justify the ways of Satan to the hip. God gives his evil subaltern a month in a human body, with an option to own, thus permanently casting off his pain-racked cosmological being. The grim alternative for Lucifer is to subsist in eternal nothingness. The vacant body belongs to Declan Gunn, a writer on the brink of suicide. Lucifer narrates his romps through escort service dates, cocaine-laced nights and, mostly, the thrills of the wondrous human sensorium. Lucifer options his life story-from his starring role with Adam and Eve to his struggles with an autocratic God-to a film producer and torments Declan’s lover, Viola, with the promise of a juicy part in the upcoming movie. But for all his jauntiness, Lucifer must unexpectedly wrestle with Gunn’s conscience, including Gunn’s memories of Penelope, his alternately loathed and longed-for ex. When Lucifer makes the disastrous decision to see Penelope and forgive her for dumping him, he confronts the goodness of mercy, a battle that leaves him sick with nausea and cognitive disorientation. Lucifer tosses wisecracks around as if they were hand grenades. On the wickedness of a rival of Gunn’s, he quips, "There’s no murder in him, and only a very predictable dribble of lust. His soul, and billions like it, provide the cosmos with its muzak." Alas, Lucifer’s wit doesn’t often rise to this sharply satiric level: it’s more like a series of outtakes from Bedazzled. This is the archetypal promising novel-the author’s talent with words eclipses the substance of his story.� Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Duncan’s last novel, Hope (1998), was about pornography addiction. Since then, he’s apparently found God, or rather, the Devil. His latest novel features the Prince of Darkness incarnate in the body of down-and-out writer Declan Gunn (anagram, anyone?), just about to slit his wrists. The apocalypse looms, and God has offered fallen angel Lucifer a second chance at redemption by enticing him with a month of earthly embodiment--an offer he can’t refuse, given his taste for cocaine, sexual mischief, and other evil earthly pleasures. In between acts of debauchery, however, Lucifer/Gunn resurrects his literary career and revels childlike in the Earth’s simple offerings: tastes, smells, sunsets, London. He muses theological, contemplating free will and the Fall and thinks about--just maybe--getting back on God’s good side. Seduced by our diabolical narrator’s wicked humor and Duncan’s clever conceit, the novel’s Christian redemption moral may catch some readers off guard (wasn’t this book supposed to be about evil pleasures?), but they likely won’t want to put it down. Duncan’s witty and perverse, yet somehow life-affirming, Lucifer is powerful indeed. Brendan Driscoll Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved

The end is nigh and the Prince of Darkness has just been offered one hell of a deal: reentry into Heaven for eternity—if he can live out a well-behaved life in a human body on earth. It’s the ultimate case of trying without buying and, despite the limitations of the human body in question (previous owner one suicidally unsuccessful writer, Deelan Gunn), Luce seizes the opportunity to run riot through the realm of the senses. This is his chance to straighten the biblical record (Adam, it’s hinted, was a misguided variation on the Eve design), to celebrate his favorite achievements (everything from the Inquisition to Elton John), and, most important, to get Julia Roberts attached to his screenplay. But the experience of walking among us isn’t what His Majesty expected: instead of teaching us what it’s like to be him, Lucifer finds himself understanding what it’s like to be us.
By an author hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as one of Britain’s top twenty young novelists, I, Lucifer is “a masterpiece…startlingly witty, original and beautifully written” (Good Book Guide).

The Washington Post

What really makes this novel sensational is not the bacchanalian word revelry or its hilarious biblical revisionism. Rather, it's the seemingly implausible story of the devil's awakening to his latent humanity. Duncan just blew me away with his conceit that the devil was so overcome with Blakean awe in his discovery of our sensory world -- "The sky. For Heaven's sake the sky … the blueness of it threatened to swallow my brand-new consciousness whole" -- that he would ask, "This can't be what it's like for them. If this is what it's like for them how do they … how on earth can they … get anything done?" — Tom Paine

“A fiendishly sharp, intelligent examination of modern human life that is as funny as hell.” —The Times (London) The end is nigh and the Prince of Darkness has just been offered one hell of a deal: reentry into Heaven for eternity—if he can live out a well-behaved life in a human body on earth. It's the ultimate case of trying without buying and, despite the limitations of the human body in question (previous owner one suicidally unsuccessful writer, Declan Gunn), Luce seizes the opportunity to run riot through the realm of the senses. This is his chance to straighten the biblical record (Adam, it's hinted, was a misguided variation on the Eve design), to celebrate his favorite achievements (everything from the Inquisition to Elton John), and, most important, to get Julia Roberts attached to his screenplay. But the experience of walking among us isn't what His Majesty expected: instead of teaching us what it's like to be him, Lucifer finds himself understanding what it's like to be us. By an author hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as one of Britain's top twenty young novelists, I, Lucifer is “a masterpiece... startlingly witty, original and beautifully written” (Good Book Guide). “Duncan's witty and perverse, yet somehow life-affirming, Lucifer is powerful indeed.” —Booklist The Prince of Darkness has been given one last shot at redemption, provided he can live out a reasonably blameless life on earth. Highly sceptical, naturally, the Old Dealmaker negotiates a trial period - a summer holiday in a human body, with all the delights of the flesh. The body, however, turns out to be that of Declan Gunn, a depressed writer living in Clerkenwell, interrupted in his bath mid-suicide. Ever the opportunist, and with his main scheme bubbling in the background, Luce takes the chance to tap out a few thoughts - to straighten the biblical record, to celebrate his favourite achievements, to let us know just what it's like being him. Neither living nor explaining turns out to be as easy as it looks. Beset by distractions, miscalculations and all the natural shocks that flesh is heir to, the Father of Lies slowly begins to learn what it's like being us. I, Lucifer, Fallen Angel, Prince of Darkness, Bringer of Light, Ruler of Hell, Lord of the Flies, Father of Lies, Apostate Supreme, Tempter of Mankind, Old Serpent, Prince of This World, Seducer, Accuser, Tormentor, Blasphemer, and without doubt Best Fuck in the Seen and Unseen Universe (ask Eve, that minx) have decided - oo-la-la! - to tell all. Based on a true story, this film concerns Adèle, the younger daughter of the famous author Victor Hugo, who follows her lover, Lt. Pinson, to Nova Scotia in 1863. Refusing to acknowledge his rejection of her, Adèle continues to pursue Pinson for years, until her obsession gives way to madness Offered a chance to redeem himself by living a good life in human form, Lucifer inhabits the body of a suicidal writer and intends to set the world straight on everything from Adam and Eve to the Inquisition and Elton John