Good News From Outer Space By

Part I of Essay
The key ingredients that make the society in the book “Good News from Outer Space” by John Kessel seem so full of mordant farce are chaos, technology, belief and faith run amok. The book is set in our present year of 1999, and it seems that all of the convention ....

Part II of Essay
.... simply because of the huge percentage of Christian followers who also believe in a “Second Coming.” The Reverend Jimmy-Don Gilray, a major character in the book, is convinced that God will send a messenger to arrive on earth on January 1, 2000 in a spaceship. Using television, the smooth preaching Gilray manages to herd the followers in like cattle by the thousands. The words roll off of his tongue like honey and his followers are easily convinced that the perilous times of their last days have come Gilray’s prophecie ....