Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. Short summary

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A novel of reasoning about earthly and «other» higher powers. The hero is 81 years old, and he tries to understand the laws of the world through the prism of his own existence.

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The protagonist of the novel is a scandalously famous writer in the past. Now he is 81 years old, and it is a good time to analyze his life. The hero ponders how earthly and heavenly powers relate. He recalls events from the first decades of the 20th century to the mid-1970s. He reconstructs everything that happened during that time.

He sets as an example his own fate and the life of the priest who later became pope. The narrative vividly illustrates the unpredictability of the consequences of human actions. Everything that appears to be accidental is in fact subject to other forces and laws. It is independent of human will and proves the lopsidedness of Western systems.

The bad consequences of good deeds are explained by the author as the transformation of God into his own opposite.