Back to Eden, The Eco-Adventures of Adam and Eve
Reviewed By: Avraham Azrieli
Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. His website is: www.AzrieliBooks.com
“Back to Eden, The Eco-Adventures of Adam and Eve” by Luigi Enrico Pietra d’Oro is a unique book of rambunctious satire, whose humor interweaves biblical characters and Genesis-to-Exodus myths with sharp, contemporary humor.
With a farcically brilliant sense of staging, reminiscent of the immortal Monty Python and the recently departed yet deeply beloved Terry Prachett, “Back to Eden” makes us believe in almost anything. We time-travel with Adam and Eve, John and Jesus (and a few other familiar biblical heavyweights), and engage in an epic battle across centuries and continents against the all familiar (and greedy) perpetrators of our current (and coming soon) ecological disasters. If you ever prayed to visit the Garden of Eden, the vividly colorful and outright hilarious characters in “Back to Eden” are here to make your trip possible—and you won’t even have to travel.
We have in the past praised the author’s pervious two books (“The Second Coming, The Last Parable of Jesus” and “Of Fleas and Fleadom, A Tale of Two Vermin). In what is becoming a consistent theme of sharp, realistic-yet-absurdist fiction, “Back to Eden, The Eco-Adventures of Adam and Eve” adds to the author’s portfolio of thought-provoking, laughter-inducing, and cleverly provocative works.
The author’s particularly skilled pen excels at deftly combining the ancient with the contemporary, especially in having biblical characters morph into contemporary lingo and context. Take, for example, the following piece of unforgettable dialogue:
John sighed, “I’m so tired and confused. I need some of my meds, my herbs. Do you know where I can get some herbs that will calm me down?”
Jesus’ eyes lit up. “Herb! Now you’re talking. Medical Marijuana, just what the doctor ordered. Some sweet green stuff for the old fella.”
In summary, “Back to Eden” is a superb book of humor fiction that will provide readers with a great deal of deep-seated laughter and lasting, indelible impressions from scenes that are never short of explosive creativity and incisive commentary on today’s most controversial and possibly disastrous human issues. Highly recommended!