Book Review: Gods of Glenhaven by Stephen Statler

Reviewed by Nick Rees Gardner

A family drama with a mythological twist, Stephen Statler’s Gods of Glenhaven transcends the humor of sex jokes to imbue everyman’s life with meaning.

Christian Orr, a high school counselor with a failed PhD, is in crisis. His wife Sloan has cheated on him, and as they discuss their impending divorce with their daughter Francesca caught in the middle, Christian begins struggling with erectile dysfunction. Everything changes, though, when a seductive woman named Ari presents Christian with her son, Maron, a high school football star who wants to start over at Glenhaven High.

Enter the Greek Gods. While Ari flirts with Christian, bringing the anxiety-ridden, weak man new confidence, Sloan begins courting her new neighbor Dee, who seems to hold some mystical, sexual power over all the women of their small town. At the same time, Francesca and Maron try to figure each other out, unsure of where to start their relationship while first the cheerleaders, then the football players and students’ mothers are driven to wild orgies in the background.

In a wise move, Stephen Statler doesn’t disguise the fact that Dee is actually Dionysus and Ari is Ariadne. He allows the reader to play along with the gods of Glenhaven as they fool and play with the weakling human characters. Of course Ariadne, the powerful Greek god, falls for Christian, the aptly named failure of a human. And of course, Maron, the son of two gods, falls for Francesca, the virgin nerd who feels awkward inside her own body.

But as Christian and Francesca miss the signs of otherworldly intervention into their lives, the plot evolves with plenty of humor at the humans’ expense. While Francesca attempts to intervene in the gods’ unhealthy relationship, Christian stumbles through his own virility.

To add to the humor, Statler inserts single panel cartoons between chapters which, aside from egging the reader on to scan the scene that the drawing references, draw laughs of their own. Images like a urologist with his hands beneath Christian’s gown or Christian flying off a balcony are not only exciting, but funny to see. Not to mention that these scenes add to the characters themselves, making them more real.

While Gods of Glenhaven is fairly predictable overall, there are some outlying scenes that add nuance, even if they are a bit disturbing. One such scene involves sexual conduct between the high school football team and the mothers of students. While much of the sexual conduct in the book is consensual and appropriate, if not at times laughable, this scene of inappropriate sexual conduct feels a bit awkward to read, stretching beyond the joke into an area that feels, frankly, icky.

Gods of Glenhaven is, without a doubt, an adult novel. An extended sex joke. But it is also the story of a weak and impotent man finding his meaning and succeeding in life. While Christian lacks strength and resolve, he endeavors to be caring and appropriate, a genuinely good guy in spite of the powerful people around him always getting what they want. To see the good guy succeed isn’t just a comedy trope in Statler’s book, but also a call to kindness. Gods of Glenhaven is a fun, fast-paced, even hilarious read, but it is also filled with heart, kindness, and model human behavior. It’s a good book that just happens to leave the reader chuckling to themself as much as rolling their eyes.

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