Chats with God in Underwear – Eduardo Chapunoff
(2019)
What a weird little book! Recently, I received a request from this
author to review his book, Chats with God in Underwear (translated from the
Spanish, “Charlas con Dios en
Calzoncillos”), explaining its themes and topics. I was told this book concerned a trip that
God makes to Earth, and his thoughtful conversations with the people he
meets. I was immediately intrigued,
especially after I saw that the author is an eminent cardiologist and prominent
member of some very serious medical boards.
There are not too many cardiologists out there writing books exploring
the nature of man, death, the Universe, and its creator.
This was a quick and lively
read. The book is structured almost like
a screenplay or stage play, consisting mainly of dialogue between God (who goes
by the name Rogelio), and John, a man he meets upon arriving on the shores of
Brazil unharmed in the middle of a hurricane.
John takes Rogelio to his beach-side home, where he is informed that
Rogelio is God, and that he is interested in talking to learned people of
various faiths, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Agnostic.
The story proceeds to detail the
various conversations that God/Rogelio engages in, each of them polite, but
intense questions regarding their faith, their specific beliefs, and the way
they view the Divine, without avoiding the pain and horror that humans suffer
through and must come to grips with if they chose to believe in an
all-powerful, all-good deity. No one but
John is aware of the fact that Rogelio is God, although they react to him in a
way that lets you know they can sense his innate goodness and kindness.
These conversations are great, and
likely the type of self-analysis that many devout people do regularly, as they
try to understand their god, their beliefs, and how it all applies to the world
around us, so full of evil and pain and hate.
Many of the people that God interacts with admit as much.
There are sections of this book
where the author goes into the personal life of John, and his marital troubles,
children troubles, etc. God/Rogelio
offers advice to help John in these matters, even though John is not very
receptive to it. Several asides are
included which try to show the relationship John has with his three children
and they are not very successful, apart from being plot devices that allow God
and John to continue their conversations.
I would have preferred that these sections were omitted.
Other than that quibble, I really
enjoyed reading this, and seeing how Chapunoff imagines God would interact with
the humans he meets. Many of the
questions that God poses to the people he meets are things that all of us
should think about, especially the religious among us, for they can help us
understand the complexity and mystery that is the world we live in, and our
daily existence. Very cool stuff.
(This book can be purchased (Kindle Edition) here: https://www.amazon.com/CHATS-GOD-UNDERWEAR-Eduardo-Chapunoff-ebook/dp/B07RD8Q4YM )
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