Kevin Smith’s first feature film, Clerks, was an instant hit, scoring high-profile awards at the prestigious Sundance and Cannes film festivals and earning Smith titles such as “the king of Gen-X cinema” and “the grunge Godot”. The mainstream success of last year’s Chasing Amy confirmed what his fans already knew — that Smith is a writer-director of wide appeal. His offbeat characters, bone-dry sense of humor, and jaded optimism signal nothing less than a new kind of American storytelling that is striking the right chord with audiences across the country — from the hippest to the most conventional.Now Kevin Smith turns his immense talents to his first novel, Dogma. In it, a pair of duped angels unwittingly orchestrate the unmaking of existence, thanks to a loophole in Catholic dogma, and it’s up to an unbelieving lapsed Catholic, the unsung thirteenth Apostle, a muse with writer’s block, and a pair of stoners — who may or may not be prophets — to stop them. Meanwhile, as an angst-ridden demon and his dim-witted minions plot behind the scenes and the Holy Mother Church reinvents herself for the next millennium under the aegis of a slick, publicity-savvy Cardinal, one can only wonder what happened to the Almighty Him- or Herself.

A literary novel to rival the best and sharpest new fiction, Dogma marks Smith’s venture into a medium that shows off his storytelling proficiency as much as film. His many fans and all enthusiasts of vibrant modern fiction will applaud this stunning debut.