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lexlinguaThe Man Who Was Thursday, the title alone makes you want to grab the book. It definitely helps that since its publication in 1908, the book has gone through a series of covers, each better than the next.
The book begins with a poem called the ‘Nightmare’, which I posted on my blog recently, and seems to suggest that the entire book was just a horrid old dream. The first chapter too paints a psychedelic imagery of red brick houses and red sunset and a red haired man, i.e. the Saffron Park. It does all feel like a dream, till two poets begin to debate on whether order or chaos is the true spirit of poetry. I kid you not, one of these poets is a man of law (an underclothes policeman called Gabriel Syme) and the other poet is an anarchist named Gregory.
I have read that Anarchists in the early 1900s regularly shot people and Presidents and caused ‘reigns of terror’. (That is an exaggeration, no, it isn't.) They may not call themselves that anymore, but every secessionist movement and every terrorist outfit is definitely a manifestation of anarchism?
Anyway, to cut a long story short, the debate gets really heated, and Gabriel Syme outwits Gregory to reveal some unsavoury secrets. With some quick and clever thinking, our genius and poetic hero, Syme, manages to infiltrate a band of anarchists, called the Council. Each member of this Council is named after a day of the week (here lies a hint), and Syme is appointed to the post of Thursday. Syme’s real goal is to flout the plans of the Council, save the world, and expose the notorious head of the gang, the man everyone calls Bloody Sunday. Will Syme succeed?
Stop here, if you don’t want me to ruin the book for you with my spoilers.
You see, G.K. Chesterton wrote this book as a spy novel over a century back (and let me say that the book does not feel out-dated at all), but it is in fact, an allegory of The Book of Job! Now, I don’t know much about Job, except what I read on Wikipedia. The important point is that the Book of Job asks a question that several human civilizations/ thinkers have asked over time, “If God exists, why does he let men suffer in pain? What is the point of all this human suffering and pain?”
In the Book of Job, we are told not to question God’s grand scheme of things. Even pain is necessary, because without pain, human beings would never understand the value of victory and happiness. The point of suffering is to make salvation all the sweeter.
Not sure if I agree with that philosophy, but I do understand how Chesterton turned the spy book into a biblical mouthpiece. For it turns out that Sunday was both anarchist and the head of police, and Sunday was both a terror and a guide. (Read, Sunday = God ) When Syme started on his chase to expose Sunday, he ended up exposing himself, like a merry-go-round. Thus, Syme asked, as did the other men on the Council, what was the point of the chase? What was the point of sending policemen to spy on a Council which was already made of policemen? What was the point of all their pain?
If the hallmark of a spy novel is to leave the reader in the lurch, guessing about the ending for hours afterwards, thinking about the various possible interpretations and nuances of meaning— then The Man Who Was Thursday succeeds brilliantly. I highly recommend the beginning two-thirds of the book.
The ending? I’m still losing my sleep over it.
Rating: 9/10 (I wanted to make this 8 and 3/4 out of sheer spite, though.)
The book begins with a poem called the ‘Nightmare’, which I posted on my blog recently, and seems to suggest that the entire book was just a horrid old dream. The first chapter too paints a psychedelic imagery of red brick houses and red sunset and a red haired man, i.e. the Saffron Park. It does all feel like a dream, till two poets begin to debate on whether order or chaos is the true spirit of poetry. I kid you not, one of these poets is a man of law (an underclothes policeman called Gabriel Syme) and the other poet is an anarchist named Gregory.
I have read that Anarchists in the early 1900s regularly shot people and Presidents and caused ‘reigns of terror’. (That is an exaggeration, no, it isn't.) They may not call themselves that anymore, but every secessionist movement and every terrorist outfit is definitely a manifestation of anarchism?
Anyway, to cut a long story short, the debate gets really heated, and Gabriel Syme outwits Gregory to reveal some unsavoury secrets. With some quick and clever thinking, our genius and poetic hero, Syme, manages to infiltrate a band of anarchists, called the Council. Each member of this Council is named after a day of the week (here lies a hint), and Syme is appointed to the post of Thursday. Syme’s real goal is to flout the plans of the Council, save the world, and expose the notorious head of the gang, the man everyone calls Bloody Sunday. Will Syme succeed?
Stop here, if you don’t want me to ruin the book for you with my spoilers.
You see, G.K. Chesterton wrote this book as a spy novel over a century back (and let me say that the book does not feel out-dated at all), but it is in fact, an allegory of The Book of Job! Now, I don’t know much about Job, except what I read on Wikipedia. The important point is that the Book of Job asks a question that several human civilizations/ thinkers have asked over time, “If God exists, why does he let men suffer in pain? What is the point of all this human suffering and pain?”
In the Book of Job, we are told not to question God’s grand scheme of things. Even pain is necessary, because without pain, human beings would never understand the value of victory and happiness. The point of suffering is to make salvation all the sweeter.
Not sure if I agree with that philosophy, but I do understand how Chesterton turned the spy book into a biblical mouthpiece. For it turns out that Sunday was both anarchist and the head of police, and Sunday was both a terror and a guide. (
If the hallmark of a spy novel is to leave the reader in the lurch, guessing about the ending for hours afterwards, thinking about the various possible interpretations and nuances of meaning— then The Man Who Was Thursday succeeds brilliantly. I highly recommend the beginning two-thirds of the book.
The ending? I’m still losing my sleep over it.
Rating: 9/10 (I wanted to make this 8 and 3/4 out of sheer spite, though.)
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Links I found interesting for 19-05-2013
Date: 2013-05-19 08:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-19 04:58 pm (UTC)Spoiler
Date: 2013-05-20 08:35 am (UTC)