Your Favorite Californication Star “Wrote” God Hates Us All. Now You Can Actually Read it.
When I started watching Californication I immediately identified with the struggling character that everyone hated to love: Hank Moody.
The washed-up writer had his best years behind him and he was riding the fame of his great literary opus magnus: God Hates Us All.
Interesting title for a book. Definitely intriguing.
So of course I remember thinking, back in 2008 when it first aired, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they actually wrote an adaptation of God Hates Us All?”
Somehow, I managed to watch every season of the Showtime hit and didn’t even realize that they did, indeed, do just that. Back in 2009.
In fact, I just found out in 2018 that they did after stumbling across it on Amazon! I was surprised, to say the least. I had totally missed it. Was there no advertisement for it whatsoever?
But I was also happy, because now I got the chance to take a look at it having the full Californication dogma under my belt. Bingo.
But the only thing was that it only had a rating of 4.2/5 stars based on 150 or so reviews. Really?!
How could this Hank Moody classic be given anything less than 4.9 stars?
Must be a bunch of haters. The comments said they had high hopes, but they fell short.
Too graphic. Gratuitous vulgarity and adult language (well duh, have you not seen the show?).
Bad comments be damned, I bought a physical copy of the book and it arrived on my doorstep two days later. Booyah, Prime!
I made a stiff drink and sat down to read. At a few hundred pages it is a quick and easy read. Finished it in a couple of sittings.
Here are my thoughts as a major fan of Californication and of Hank Moody:
First, set your expectations aside a little bit. The show does a great job of making Hank’s debut novel seem like he’s the next Salinger, albeit more of a drinker and womanizer.
That his literary genius is up there with Faulkner and Hemingway.
I don’t know who actually wrote the book God Hates Us All but it wasn’t even close to being the Hank Moody type caliber author we were led to believe he was in Californication.
Which makes sense. Cause of the actual author was capable of coming through then he would be his own well-renowned author pumping out literary box-busters and not be resorting to writing this literary drivel.
Ok, so the actual God Hates Us All novel was not a literary masterpiece. Should have figured that out, but it was hard to lower the expectations. After all, it does say Hank Moody on the cover.
Literary opus? No.
Entertaining? Oh yeah.
Especially if you are a major fan of the show. Hard not to be.
Basically, the book covers what we can only assume is Hank’s time in New York City. We hear a lot about this in the show, and there are multiple cut-scenes going back to when him and Karen met and were living together. The Happier Times.
Although not a true autobiography—as it differs from the show—it does do a good job of representing what we might think of as a young Hank Moody in a parallel universe.
The story was entertaining, but I found the writing prose a bit basic and it seemed as if the author was trying too hard to make it seem literary when it was not.
So if you are a fan of the show Californication, or you love the character Hank Moody, then this book is definability a great way to continue being entertained by the show. Highly recommend it to even the most casual fan.
But again, with one caveat: don’t expect it to be a solid representation of the fantastical literary genius of the show’s novel God Hates Us All. Cause then you’ll be disappointed.
Instead, take it for what it is: an entertaining and sometimes funny extension of the Californication universe.
And one more side note because I saw a few negative reviews on Amazon about this. Yes, this is a “Rated R” novel. F bombs and prurient language? Obviously. HAVE YOU NOT SEEN THE SHOW CALIFORNICATION?
What would you expect? Anything less?
Apparently, quite a few of the readers of the book had no idea that this was supposed to be an extension of the Californication show, and thought it was just some random book by some random author named “Hank Moody” and they were offended by the language.
If you account for those moron—I mean it says “As Featured on the hit Showtime series Californication” right on the cover—then the rating of the book would probably be higher at around 4.5 or so stars.
A little closer to that 4.9 it would have actually gotten if really written by Hank Moody.
Happy reading!