Raising Hell Plus...

Jimmy DiAngelo is in Hell, but he's faced worse situations as a disreputable union organizer, and he sets out to make conditions better for the demons in a satire that fails to make a point beyond a banal "life is hell." Spinrad (Osama the Gun) opens with distasteful references to anal penetration as he sets up the bleakness of Hell and how unfair it is to Lucifer and the others. When DiAngelo works with other union leaders to establish a new bargaining agreement between Heaven and Hell, he opens up a rebellion on a celestial scale and provides a opening for corporate monsters to exploit people in the afterlife. The futility of Lucifer's situation matches the oppressively cynical writing, which focuses heavily on Spinrad's disgust both for corporations and for the worst aspects of the labor movement. This feeling extends into the author interview and the more competently written essay about the current economic climate that complete this short, skippable set piece. (Oct.)