Rereading: JOB, A COMEDY OF JUSTICE by Robert A. Heinlein

Cover art by Michael Whelan

The third of five novels written by Heinlein in the 1980s near the end of his life, this one owes a debt to James Branch Cabell’s book Jurgen, including the subtitle. There are similar story elements, including visits to heaven and hell, though many differences too. And there are also many references to the Bible, particularly the story of Job.

Alec Hergensheimer is an American on holiday in the Polynesian Islands, where he and fellow cruise passengers are about to witness a ritual of fire walking. Alec takes a bet that he can also walk across the hot coals, and he does with little pain, but faints on the other side. When he wakes up, only the islanders remain, and they’re calling him Mr. Graham. Something is wrong somewhere, but when he gets back to his cruise ship, he realizes everything has changed. It’s a different ship, and he soon finds he’s in a different reality than the one he grew up in. With no better option, he continues in the role of Mr. Graham with help from a beautiful female attendant, Margrethe, who Mr. Graham seems to have had a passionate relationship with. Eventually Alec confesses his confusion, and Margrethe agrees to try to help him. Things seem to be going okay when suddenly the ship hits an iceberg, and Alec and Margrethe are thrown out into the ocean. When they wake up, they’re drifting on a raft in the darkness, and when they’re rescued by a seaplane (something that did not exist in either of their worlds), Alec realizes they’ve switched worlds again. At least Margrethe is still with him. When they are brought to land in Mexico, they begin life over, but throughout the book, just when things are improving, they are again switched to a new world with new rules and history, and usually with no assets but the clothes on their backs. Is this some kind of cosmic game? Could Alec be another Job, like in the Bible, tormented by Satan with the approval of God? When he finally meets Satan, he begins to find out.

I enjoyed rereading this, though the characters’ frustrations are also the readers, as it takes most of the book to find out exactly what’s really happening. Still, the journey is interesting. Recommended.

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