Mr g

A Novel about the Creation

By: Alan Lightman

Narrated by: Ray Porter

With echoes of Calvino, Rushdie, and Saramago, this is a stunningly imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale.

“As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe.” So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr. g, the story of Creation as narrated by God. Bored with living in the shimmering Void with his bickering Uncle Deva and Aunt Penelope, Mr. g creates time, space, and matter - then moves on to stars, planets, consciousness, and finally intelligent beings with moral dilemmas.

But even the best-laid plans can go awry, and Mr. g discovers that with his creation of space and time come unforeseen consequences - especially in the form of the mysterious Belhor, a clever and devious rival. An intellectual equal to Mr. g, Belhor delights in provocation: he demands an explanation for the inexplicable, requests that intelligent creatures not be subject to rational laws, and maintains the necessity of evil. As Mr. g watches his favorite universe grow into maturity, he begins to understand how the act of creation can change the Creator himself.

©2012 Alan Lightman (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Here is the creation of the universe and the young creator who grapples with what he has made - and ultimately with responsibility and loss…A gem of a novel that is strange, witty, erudite, and alive with Lightman’s playful genius.” (Junot Díaz, New York Times best-selling author)

This was certainly different

This was not something I would normally read but I enjoyed it. I found myseld excited to listen to the next chapter. It was creative.

Good first half of the book

I quit listening about half way through the book. It started very well, but then I lost interest.

Clever and fun listen that will make you think.

The book is very clever and the narration is excellent. The Author obviously knows a ton about physics, cosmology, philosophy, morality, and theology. The blending of all the topics really gets you thinking about the actual nature of reality, creation, existence, etc. Very fun listen that should tease many into thinking deeply about the justification for their own particular beliefs.

Enjoyed very much

Not what I was expecting—so much more. Very thought-worthy. It could have been two or three times longer.

Ray Porter brings a fairly mediocre narrative to life

This had HUGE potential. I thought it would be an allegory on the level of The Great Divorce or The Screwtape Letters. Or heck, even The Good Place. But instead it's a bunch of rambling pseudo science passages peppered with character interactions that never quite make sense or give us enough of an inkling of who these figures even are so that we can feel like there's tension or stakes in the story. Ray Porter is the perfect narrator and he brings such verve and richness to the reading that he almost saves it from mediocrity. Alas, this could have been a 5 star book, and I will indeed give Ray Porter 5 stars, but the story itself is so poor that I have to give the book a mere 3 stars.