Dov Ivry

No Smoking? Up Yours -- Take Heaven and Stuff It Dov Ivry

Someone once said, and I wish I could remember who it was so I could give credit, that the best satire is if the reader can?t tell if it is a satire or the author is trying to be serious. There are a lot of books about the near-death experience. Most are trying to be inspirational. All are serious. There is one drawback with all these books. We never find out what happens next. "No Smoking? Up Yours -- Take Heaven And Stuff It" recounts my near-death experience. And I kept going. If Lucian of Samosata, who has always been a hero of mine, dare I say an inspiration, actually went up to heaven and lived to tell about it, why couldn?t I? Of course he was only a lowly satirist with no special theological training in these matters. I retraced his steps, written between the lines, and voila! I got to the next level. I?m even farther down on the totem pole than he was being a journalist, but my trade does endow my report with some gravitas which his did not have. I might even be taken seriously. I am not sure if that would be a good idea, but then only readers can make that call. This book scrapes 40,000 words which would put in the class of a novella.