Greek gods behaving badly, preparing for TV comedy series

Christianity got it all wrong. In Marie Phillips' first novel, "Gods Behaving Badly," there's no omnipotent God who steers the universe according to his or her purposes. There's no heaven for the virtuous, nor hell for the wicked. The whole Christian story, from Old Testament to New, is flatly false.

But this isn't another fashionable polemic against religious faith. As the title suggests, her book has gods aplenty; they're just of the ancient Greek variety.

Her main characters are Artemis, Aphrodite, Apollo, et al., but Phillips sets the gods in modern-day London. Come down in the world since their days on Mount Olympus, the gods are now crammed together in a run-down town house where they continue their eternal squabbles and plotting.

Phillips has given each of the gods appropriately modern -- and fairly unimaginative -- occupations: Aphrodite, goddess of love, works as a phone sex operator; Dionysus, god of wine, runs a nightclub; Artemis, goddess of the hunt, walks dogs for a living.

The setup alone seems an obvious vehicle for satire, a chance to make fun of the quotidian modern world, with its crummy town houses, crowded subway stations and dog walkers. But it never really gets there. "Gods Behaving Badly" has an erudite pedigree, but it never tries to be more than a well-told popcorn fantasy.

There is some decent writing here, particularly as the story gathers momentum in the second half, but "Gods Behaving Badly" isn't exactly a novel in the proper sense. It seems explicitly designed for a second life as a screenplay.

No surprise, then, when it was announced last month that Ben Stiller has optioned the novel to develop a comedy series for television. "Gods Behaving Badly" isn't a perfect book, but its best qualities -- light comedy and sexy deities -- might be perfect for prime-time TV.

-- The Associated Press