Gods Behaving Badly

An Entertaining Novel by Marie Phillips

Feb 12, 2009 Natalia Heilke

Ever wonder what the Greek gods would be like if they were still around, living in modern day London? Marie Phillips has based her debut novel on this quirky idea.

Author Marie Phillips has a degree in anthropology from Cambridge, and has worked for the BBC and in a small London bookshop. Her first novel, Gods Behaving Badly, was published in December of 2007, and has since appeared on the “favourites” and “staff picks” tables of countless bookstores. The novel has received favourable judgments from individuals and official book reviews alike.

Plot Summary

The story begins with Artemis, goddess of chastity and the hunt. Once a powerful deity, Artemis now walks dogs through London parks. Her twin brother Apollo, god of the sun, has become a TV psychic (and a pretty poor one, at that). Aphrodite is a phone sex operator, Dionysus runs a seedy nightclub, and as for Zeus and Hera, no one has seen them for decades.

All the Greek gods are crammed together in a run-down flat overflowing with garbage and rats. They dream of the good old days on Olympus as their powers fade and none of them can figure out why or what to do about it. Except wise Athena, but her vocabulary is beyond the comprehension of her family members, who never understand what she’s going on about with her flowcharts and projector presentations.

Then the fate of two mortals, Alice and Neil, gets tangled up with the lives of the gods, none of whom foresee what trouble this will cause.

Old Style, New Story

Phillips has essentially taken the old Greek myths as an example and written a new one of her own, set in the modern era. She is true to the formula of the traditional tales of the gods, while throwing in enough freshness and mystery to keep readers from predicting every plot turn.

Gods Behaving Badly is by no means a great and serious work of fiction, nor does it present any deep and meaningful thoughts about the world – though it does have a few things to say about love. However, this is a charming read, light and entertaining, perfect for an airplane ride or a break between exhaustive studies of great classics. The writing is good and the story is solid – nothing here to distract the reader from 291 pages of good fun.

Phillips pits the gods’ unbendingly arrogant personalities, their self-absorbed natures and careless, self-serving habits, against the people and practicalities of modern London. This is a predictable source of humour, but its obviousness does not diminish the effect: an entertaining story that will illicit chuckles.

Gods Behaving Badly is written by Marie Phillips. It is published in Canada by Vintage Canada (ISBN: 9780307355935), in the US by Little Brown and Company (ISBN: 9780316067621) and in the UK by Random House (ISBN: 0099513021).

The copyright of the article Gods Behaving Badly in British/UK Fiction is owned by Natalia Heilke. Permission to republish Gods Behaving Badly in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips