Definition is impossible : The Man Who was Thursday
is not quite a political bad dream, nor a
metaphysical thriller, nor a cosmic joke in the
form of a spy novel, but it is something of all three.
What it has most of is a boys' adventure story,
which might help to explain my early excitement but
not so much my continuing devotion. And what
a title! I will not divulge its meaning here, but I
cannot resist saying that anybody who at the sight
of it does not feel a faint tingle of excitement and
a breath of wonder is not really a fit person to
be reading the book.
-Kingsley Amis, Introduction
to the Penguin
Twentieth-Century Classics version
G. K. Chesterton's classic novel manages to provide a thriller that
starts out like a Sherlock Holmes adventure and ends like Raiders of
the Lost Ark, while at the same time offering a profound contemplation
of the existence of evil in the world, the role of free will in the universe,
the willingness of God to allow Man to suffer, and various other vexing
metaphysical questions. Both the basic story and the religious philosophy
are exciting, and though generations of readers have complained that the
final chapter is too difficult to follow, the Annotated
version has explanatory essays by Martin Gardner and there's an excellent
essay of his available online, which do a great job of explaining just
what Chesterton is up to. It is very much a Christian fantasy (or
"Nightmare" to use Chesterton's own subtitle) but can be read with enjoyment
by anyone who loves a good adventure yarn and doesn't mind being made to
think.
(Reviewed:07-Jan-01)
Grade: (A-)
