A TRAVEL GUIDE TO HEAVEN

This bizarre account of what heaven is "really" like embraces the best of religion and the worst of puerile, fatuous fantasy. It's hard to determine if DeStefano is toying with the listener as he recounts such promised heavenly events as art lessons from Michelangelo, tossing around a baseball with Joe DiMaggio, and banquets of spaghetti and chianti in the afterlife's version of Rome. The nasal New Yorker tries to support his feel-good Disneyesque theories with biblical quotations and vague ideas entwined with bouncy faith and optimism. But only the most gullible and childish will believe this Richard-Simmons-style pep talk about the afterlife. An oddity at best, this travel guide is best left in the motel drawer with Gideon's Bible--meant for the weary and, in this case, desperate traveler. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 03/JAN 04]