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Any God Will Do, first published by Random House in 1966, is the sixth book by the American satirist and political novelist Richard Condon. After the almost unmitigated grimness of his previous book, ''An Infinity of Mirrors'', it was a return to his more usual light-heartedness as displayed in works such ''A Talent for Loving''. Although its theme is madness, unusually for Condon it has little of the almost gratuitous scenes of violence and sudden deaths that punctuate most of his books—the only notable instance being that of a haughty French ''sommelier'' who shoots himself at an aristocratic dinner party when he discovers that an American guest is indeed correct in asserting that a great white Burgundy can accompany young spring lamb. The story, which takes place from 1918 to 1922 in New York City, Switzerland, and London, is simple and straightforward by Condon's standards. Francis Vollmer, an orphan of unknown parentage, is raised by a wealthy New York banker and develops an overwhelming obsession with the notion that he is the offspring of noble parentage, possibly even an illicit union of Kaiser Wilhelm and Queen Mary. Flitting in and out of overt madness, he spends the course of the book trying to determine his parentage. Except for ''The Manchurian Candidate'', all of Condon's previous books had displayed a robust interest in food, menus, and gourmandizing; here that interest is carried to its highest level yet: Vollmer teaches himself to become a French chef of a professional level, and much of the book is concerned with the delights of the table.〔''Any God Will Do'', Richard Condon, Random House, New York, 1966, first hardback edition, pages 137—140, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-21462〕 ==Critical reception== ''Time'' magazine was distinctly lukewarm about the book: While there is meticulous method in (protagonist's ) madness, there is not nearly enough madness in the narrative methods of Richard Condon (The Manchurian Candidate). What the author intends is a black comedy on the peril of an obsessive delusion; what he achieves is a hybrid between bedroom-comedy pink and olive-drab boredom.... Kurt Vonnegut, who in 1966 had not yet reached international acclaim and was far less known than Condon, was more favorably disposed about it in the ''New York Times'':
Eight years later Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, the regular book reviewer of the ''Times'', began a long review of Condon's latest novel with a backward look at ''Any God Will Do'': I gave up bothering with Richard Condon's books about five novels ago when in "Any God Will Do" he led me all the way through his snobbish hero's search for royal forebears, only to reveal at the end that said hero was actually the offspring of dwarfs. It seemed to me that Mr. Condon was making his point through overkill, just as he had one in his previous novel, "An Infinity of Mirrors," a one-dimensional attempt to exploit our revulsion with Nazism. The verve and cleverness that produced "The Manchurian Candidate" seemed drained.〔"Books of the Times: Behind the Assassination", Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, the ''New York Times,'' May 24, 1974, at Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, Lehmann-Haupt went on to give a very favorable review to ''Winter Kills''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Any God Will Do」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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