The Man Who Was Thursday : A Nightmare

Media:	Paperback
Author:	G. K. Chesterton, Kingsley Amis
Publisher:	Penguin Classics
Release date:	07 August, 1990
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The Man Who Was Thursday : A Nightmare

Average rating: Stars

A sick cloud upon the soul

Among the funny and realistic things G. K. Chesterton says in his "The Man who was Thursday" is the comment he makes about poor people and anarchism. He says that the poor are rebels but not anarchists; as a matter of fact, they have interest --more than anyone else -- in being governed. And this is so close to reality -- even more than 100 years after the first publication of this novel.

"The Man who was Thursday" is set in a strange world that bears a lot of resemblance with reality -- but somehow it is not the real world per se. Subtitled as "A Nightmare", this book is indeed a strange dream. Things that are supposed to be odd in the world outside of the book, in Chesterton's narrative are unique, strange and deeply funny. Gabriel Syme, the main character, is a poet disguised as policeman who enters into an anarchist group to uncover the boss identity and prevent a tragedy.

In these obscure times we live, Gabriel Syme is more real than ever. He is British police neurosis elevated to the nth. More or less something we're seeing the past few weeks, when, everybody is suspicious. However, Chesterton's characters a lighter and funnier -- what a relief. But with this novel the writer was criticizing the collective hysteria of his times that echoes in ours.

For this reason, and for exploiting and exposing human nature so bravely, "The Man who was Thursday" is one the essential readings of the XX century. The fear of the anarchist is over, but Western world will always have enemies -- their ideology may have changed through the years, but the average citizen must have always someone whom the government and the system will protect them from.

Throughout this "Nightmare" Chesterton depicts how people loose their sense of ridiculous and reality when under pressure. Nothing is to be what it seems to be. Like he says, `a man brain is a bomb', and he also states that bombs expand, they only destroy because they broaden. Chesterton opens the book with a poem for Edmund Clerihew Bentley, saying that a cloud was on the mind of men, a sick cloud upon the soul. Just like these times we are living.

The Man Who Was Thursday : A Nightmare - G. K. Chesterton, Kingsley Amis

A Who-Dunnit with God as the Answer

The first few chapters of "The Man Who Was Thursday" are quite thrilling - so much so that when I left the book in a cab, having caught the cab at the end of chapter 3, I was forced to go immediately to the nearest bookstore to buy a new copy. Up to that point, the story is a Victorian one of the poet Syme, recently employed by Scotland Yard, who is on the verge of infiltrating the secret inner circle of a gang of dynamiting anarchists, each named after a day of the week (hence, Syme himself is "The Man Who Was Thursday").

Eventually, the true identity of all the members of the inner circle is revealed, as Syme chases across England and then, somehow, France, purportedly trying to prevent one of their circle from assassinating the Czar. It's in this middle section that the books subtitle ("A Nightmare") seems almost poetically true - the narrative gets overwhelmed by strange details that, like a nightmare, do not follow upon one another.....a team of masked men approach Syme and his compatriots with threatening intent....then suddenly they are at a friend's mansion trying to start a car to escape.....then they can hear the masked men approach on horses....or perhaps its only one horse....or perhaps it's a car.....then the godlike head of the anarchists, Sunday, appears to escape via taxi....then firetruck....then he runs off on an elephant from the London Zoo.....then he escapes in a balloon. Here you will be scolding yourself for not having paid enough attention, because you won't follow all of it.

Then, perhaps, a little bell will go off in your head: G.K. Chesterton, wasn't he known for his conversion to Catholicism? Like C.S. Lewis? Could this perhaps be....allegory? Is Sunday the anarchist akin to Aslan the Lion? Well, in a word, yes.

It seems to me there are two possible reactions to this stunning resolution, assuming no other reader warned you it was coming: one, you can be a little ticked off. You put all this effort into working out the whodunit as though it were a typical spy novel, and it turns out that GOD dun it. Secondly, you can just stand back at admire Chesterton's skill in getting you to this unlikely point - he knows you might not have picked up the novel if you thought it was religious allegory.

My vote goes to the second - it's my first encounter with Chesterton's writings, and I found the book, at least the part up to the point where everything gets nightmarish, by turns thrilling and exceedingly funny. I am very much looking forward to reading more of his works. But non-religious people might put their guard up, rather as though you had an old aunt who tucks bible verses surreptitiously between the pages of your Agatha Christies or Ian Flemings.

G. K. Chesterton, Kingsley Amis - The Man Who Was Thursday : A Nightmare

Enlightening, puzzling, and humerous all at the same time

I recently read this book, and it was my first experience reading G.K. Chesterton since I read his Father Brown stories so long ago that I cannot remember anything about them. If those books are anything like this one, I will have to go back and read them again. This was possibly the best book I have read so far this year (and there have been a lot) because of all of the different things which Chesterton incoprorated into this book. There were many philosophical and theological truths tucked away in it, some in plain sight and some slightly hidden, there was mystery (the claim that it is easy to predict what would happen is both true and false. It was somewhat easy to predict what would happen, but it was impossibe to predict the details and the consequences of what would happen, so it retained the mystery aspect), and there was plenty of humor (if you love irony you will most likely love this book).

The only thing I did not like was that I did not completely understand the end of the book. I don't quite understand the "peace of God", and why it was involved in anarchy and killing people. However, this is most likely my fault for lacking in understanding rather than Chesterton's fault for lacking in clarity.

I give this book five full stars, and would gladly give it more if I could.

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