There is a fine line between farce and simply being absurd, between making a point and clobbering the reader over the head with it. At times those lines, particularly the latter, blur for Matthew Moses in Anti-Christ: A Satirical End of Days. There are probably many in its intended audience who will view it all as a reflection of the renowned mantra from Network, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!"

Moses is mad about two things in particular: religion, especially the Roman Catholic Church, and the current state of politics and government. At the outset of the novel, his protagonist probably could care less about either. Matthew Ford is, quite simply, a pathetic loser for whom nothing goes right. In his fourth year of college, he still lives with his parents - a phobic mother and a father who retreats to the basement to watch porn.

Matthew isn’t a model human being either. He's "a man whose mouth proved the asshole of his mind." Thus, Matthew is an unlikely fulcrum for the eruption of open warfare between Heaven and Hell, which have been in a lengthy Cold War. When Matthew throws a ghost out of his bedroom, he sets off a chain of events that not only brings him face to face with God, Jesus, Satan, and Buddha, but also ultimately brings about Armageddon.

Along the way, there’s plenty to offend most religionists. For example, the story of Jesus and his role in Heaven will appall most Christians. Roman Catholics will certainly object to the portrayal of their clergy and its institutions. Islam arises only as the result of an angelic coup attempt against Jesus. While Satan at first comes off as a relatively rational fellow, he reverts to character and demonstrates that certain struggles for power, particularly religious ones, can do nothing but harm man.

Matthew unwillingly and unwittingly becomes the focus of the book's religious and political struggles. His eviction of the ghost leads to him being taken to Heaven to meet with Jesus. Heaven is populated exclusively by Caucasians and angels are relegated to border patrol officers trying to prevent Mexicans from sneaking in. Even then, it is an overcrowded and minimalist place of "enforced serenity," where the message, "Independent thought only confuses and blinds you from the truth" plays in the background on an endless loop.