Pierce, Cameron. Shark Hunting in Paradise Garden. Erasherhead Press, 2008. 128 pp. $9.95 pb. ISBN 9781933929774.

His debut novel from Eraserhead Press, Cameron Pierce’s Shark Hunting in Paradise Garden delivers everything it promises. Pierce has found his niche within the vast twilight zone of the Bizarro genre, providing a stimulating and strikingly sharp commentary on the damaging effects of theology and sharks. In this clever satire, Pierce exposes man’s weakness. He juxtaposes religion’s desire for humility and control with man’s need to feel important in the spiritual spectrum. We cannot be "God," but at least we’re important enough to be made in his image. In this work, Pierce recognizes the main threat to man’s sound spirit: machines will make us obsolete.

A group of religious radicals travel back in time for a meet and greet with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately, this site is not the simple and innocent place as described in the Book of Genesis. These are shark-infested waters (except these sharks fly!), and our pious protagonists must find a way to survive.

Throughout the novel, there is an endless inquiry into God’s divine providence, reflecting a dichotomy set up between old and new religious values and opinions. Similar to the story of Job from the Hebrew bible, where he is constantly being tested for his piety, Pierce’s characters experience a similar test, with failing results. Job suffers many cruel hardships, yet his devotion is unwavering. The same is not as true for Pierce’s group of eccentrics. There is constant repetition of the line “God must be busy” (61, 62). Pierce’s characters constantly question God’s integrity at every corner, and never accept what Job would come to understand: God acts freely, and he is not necessarily subject to inquiry from his created life-forms. Here we see the dichotomy between traditional and modern religious thinking; the impression of conquest and prevalence counters such concepts as piousness, prayer, and devout submissiveness. At the heart of it all, man creates (the idea of) God, and rationalizes a systematic set of beliefs.

Pierce touches on the subject of man’s infallibility, his fear of losing the race to godhead. Mankind has built machines far more intelligent and superior to our own species. It is only natural to man’s inferior weakness that we fear losing favor with God. Pierce creates an ironic twist here, where humans reflect the machines they feel so alienated from. He displays man as a puppet or paper doll—we pretend to have identity, but we are truly defined by the belief systems and structures put in place to control our thoughts and actions.

If you enjoy strange yet insightful religious criticism mixed with madcap shark carnage, you will love this book.

—Richard Nicol