So here's the thing: in my mind I've been a fan of G.K. Chesterton for a long time. I put him up there with Lewis and Tolkien and think that I love him. But the truth is: I've never actually read any G.K. Chesterton. I know, I know. It's one of those cases of I just didn't know where to start. Well, a few years ago, my sister Caroline was all excited about this new book she had just gotten by Sarah Clarkson called Book Girl. I haven't read it, but I was flipping through Caroline's copy shortly after she got it, mainly wanting to peruse all the different book lists. I found one contributor who listed several of my favorite books in her (his?) list of recommended reads and The Man Who Was Thursday was one of her favorites so I thought, "Aha! Here's the G.K. Chesterton book I should read!" and then immediately ordered a copy off amazon. (I also started collecting the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers because of this same book list, but I haven't started reading any of those yet.) Naturally The Man Who Was Thursday sat on my shelf the last several years unread, but the magic of the TBR Jar put it into my hands and I finally ended up reading it in May.
And it was just okay. I don't know, you guys, it wasn't all that and a bag of chips for me. *shrugs* Maybe my timing was off or my expectations were out of line, but it didn't really do it for me. I mean, I enjoyed it for what it was. I thought it was funny. I thought the writing was good. But, I don't know, the ending was weird. I didn't really "get" it. The book has been called a metaphysical thriller, but I figured out the twists, and then the sharp allegorical left turn at the end left me scratching my head.
The Man Who Was Thursday subtitled "A Nightmare" by Gilbert Keith Chesterton was published in 1908. It's basically about a man called Gabriel Syme who has been recruited at Scotland Yard to be part of a mysterious anti-anarchist police corps. Through a series of events, he gets himself elected to the anarchist central council which is made up of seven men, each one a different day of the week. So, as is obvious by the book's title, Gabriel is elected to the Thursday position. The novel goes on to detail his efforts to stop the next anarchist plot of the council and his discoveries about the other six members.
The novelist Kingsley Amis said of The Man Who Was Thursday: "Definition remains impossible: [it] is not quite a political bad dream, nor a metaphysical thriller, nor a cosmic joke in the form of a spy novel, but it has something of all three. What it has most of is a boy's adventure story." And maybe that's my issue with it. I can't pinpoint what it is. It's all very madcap and zany, and it was a good time. I just don't see myself ever re-reading it, and I'm not sure that I'll ever go out of my way to read anything else by Chesterton.
What am I missing?
