Doctor Ambrose And The Skeletons From Hell: Heath N Johnson (Bloody-Bones and the Skeletons from Hell)

Doctor Ambrose and the Skeletons from Hell is a book for our times. It is a Prankster story. A traditional prankster story is one in which the protagonist dies, goes into the world of the Gods and returns with a lesson for the people. Professor Ambrose, an Anthropologist, atheist and cultural curmudgeon dies in a poorly staffed run down austerity era hospital somewhere in the US. He is a very old man and he has spent his life in a sincere struggle to improve the lot of the human race. Death however, presents him with new and deeper problems. The afterlife, he discovers, is more exploitative than life on earth. The Lord rules over all and owns everything. The wealthy are the tiny minority, the poor are thoroughly exploited, oppressed and hurled into Hell where their exploitation continues. The afterlife, he learns, is devoted to producing revenue for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is all about the wealth of the Gods. Purgatory is a string of gaudy casinos whose purported object is to give apostate souls a shot at entering the kingdom of God but is clearly abject exploitation pure and simple. Ruthless neo-liberal and neo classical economics serve only God and the elites. It is a frightful continuation of the human condition. Dr. Ambrose, who had been an outspoken critic of religion and capitalism knows that he is not in a good place. He lies and claims he was a big time preacher and consequently finds his status elevated from the bottom to the top. From Purgatory he gains entrance into Heaven (by surreptitious methods). Heaven, he learns is worse than Purgatory, in order to survive he must learn to adapt to being someone he cannot in good conscience become. To survive in Heaven he must sacrifice his intellect and basic humanity in order to serve God. All who live in Heaven must serve God with all their hearts and minds; if they slack they are punished. He must choose between serving God and surviving in the City of God with roads paved in solid gold, or, as his lover Violet asked, "Find out how to make us free. Free for real!"
The book does contains bit of graphic sex, scenes of torture and vulgar language, but it also contains a great deal of sagacious commentary on contemporary issues. Nothing is sacred. From the core Christian dogmas to predatory capitalism to endless American war mongering the book suffers no foolishness. It has a darkness to be sure but the bonds of friendship and adventure is enlightening and amusing. Humans, it turns out, have the ability to be sublime creatures, we just need to learn how to overcome our worst tendencies. This is part one of a three part series.