Cultural Writing. Philosophy and Religion. Poetry. Christopher Spranger describes THE COMEDY OF AGONY: A BOOK OF POISONOUS CONTEMPLATIONS as an attempt to rewrite Dante's Divine Comedy while leaving out the word "God." The result is a series of short, aphorism-like pieces that become as humorous as they are dismal. "A life without suffering belongs to the same order of ideas as a soup without broth.We are accustomed to talk about catastrophe as if it were an unwelcome guest and not a secretly wished-for deliverance from the tedium of life." Spranger's first book, THE EFFORT TO FALL, is also available from SPD.