After life : a divine comedy

When the Archangel Gabriel recognises a problem in the Afterlife, he engages a management consultant. Geoffrey Kingston is amazed that his atheism and his adulteries matter less than his expertise in down-sizing. This commission will cap his meteoric rise from provincial Queensland to the corridors of power in Canberra - if he can understand the structure, the personnel and the residents of the Afterlife, and the implications of disembodiment. Meanwhile Geoffrey's family and his mistress are consoled by a Visiting Medical Officer. As he comforts the bereaved, Dr. Angel Milan discovers a great deal about Geoffrey's affairs - and the consequences of embodiment. Gabriel is still puzzled by the apple incident in Eden. While the meaning of Life eludes him, he reveals the meaning of the Afterlife and explains to Geoffrey the paradox that he knows all about Life but simply cannot understand it. When Geoffrey submits his advice therefore, he is offered his ultimate commission. As he ponders Gabriel's agenda, however, he resolves to take the ultimate risk and double-cross the CEO of the Afterlife. acknowledgements......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 An Ending......Page 10 A Beginning......Page 18 Terminal......Page 26 Preliminary Report......Page 34 Class Struggles......Page 40 Kingdom Come......Page 48 Althea and Winifred......Page 56 Promises......Page 64 Exegesis......Page 70 Progress Report: Making Contact......Page 78 Celia......Page 84 The Meanings of Lives......Page 92 Which Art in Heaven......Page 98 You Have to Love Them......Page 104 Into Temptation......Page 112 Progress Report: Winifred......Page 120 As it Is in Heaven......Page 126 Kate......Page 134 Call Me Gabriel......Page 140 Crispin......Page 148 Progress Report: Crispin......Page 154 Our Father in Heaven?......Page 162 Heaven on Earth......Page 168 Chosen People......Page 176 Resignation......Page 182 Submission......Page 188 Progress Report: Althea......Page 196 Thine Eyes Only......Page 202 The Judgment of Heaven......Page 212 A Further Proposal......Page 218 Progress Report: Penelope......Page 224 Genetic Modification......Page 230 Progress Report: Kate......Page 240 Deliver Us From Ennui......Page 248 Mine is The Kingdom......Page 254 So Be It......Page 260 A comic novel set in the hereafter, in which the management suffers a crisis of determining entry criteria and employs a management consultant