Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Man Who Was Thursday

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton is one of those books I'd been meaning to read for years but just had never come across. I know it's online, having been written in 1908, but I don't like reading books online. Maybe if I had a laptop I could take to bed with me, but that's not in the current financial plan.

When I saw it at the Goodwill Book Store for 2 bucks I felt like I had won a prize. The Younger Son got it first. When I started it I admit to a certain disappointment. It started off slow. I should have known what style to expect, since I've read all of the Father Brown stories, but it did seem to drag. After the first couple of chapters it picked up, and I loved the rest of it. It's a comedy of errors and a mystery.

from the back of the book:
This hilarious extravaganza presumes the existence of a secret society of revolutionaries sworn to destroy the world.

There are seven members of the Central Anarchist Council, who, for reasons of security, call themselves by the names of the days of the week - Sunday, Monday and so on. But events soon cast a doubt upon their real identities, for Thursday is not the passionate young poet he appears to be but a Scotland Yard detective. Who and what are the others? Chesterton unravels the fantasy in his own inventive and exuberant way and then uses this nightmare of paradox and surprise to probe the mysteries of human behaviour and belief.

Christianity Today examines the question of who Sunday is. The greatsfandf site claims it's clearly a work in that genre. The Wall Street Journal says it is
one of the most intriguing and enduring mystery-adventure stories ever written, a phantasmagorical spy story replete with secret identities, sword fights, and more chases than a James Bond movie. (My favorites involve elephants and hot-air balloons.)

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