Review: Highly engaging and fun piece of social commentary/satire
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 6, 2011
On its surface, "Doodling" is a surreal and rather silly story about a man named Neville who, upon losing his grip on the ever-more-rapidly spinning Earth, falls off and winds up in an asteroid field.  After meeting several very strange people on different asteroids - and a failed attempt to set up his own country, which he calls Bolivia, on his own asteroid with the large rock 27 meters to his right as president - he stumbles across the lovely Helen.  Helen has created a garden on her asteroid, which she tends constantly in order to maintain it against the effects of outer space.  She also warns him that the Earth, which continues to increase its insane pace, is about to snap free of gravity and will go through the asteroid field like a bowling ball through pins - but with a much more serious effect, since the Earth will disintegrate everything in its path.  Neville must come up with a way to stop this disaster.I said "on its surface," because underneath, "Doodling" is anything but silly - there are deeper meanings here.  There are messages about the dangers of the ever-increasing pace of life; about the need to cease the sort of divisiveness that currently has caused so many wars based upon ridiculous things like who has the better deity; about how the need to constantly win brings nothing but wheel-spinning; about the need for people to learn to put aside their differences, embrace the unique abilities of others, and work together for the common good.  And Mr. Gould has squeezed all of these ideas into a very entertaining and well-written novella.  My hat is off to this most talented writer, and I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone - if you like to read, you will love this book.  BUY IT - NOW!  You will not regret your decision.