The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

[2008-05-15]
Alright so I actually probably started this book a couple of weeks ago at least. It’s Laura Wong’s book, and she lent it to me saying that it was a worthwhile novel.

The book starts off with the main character Gabriel Syme interacting as a poet (even though he’s actually a special anarchy-fighting policeman) with another poet by the name of Lucian Gregory. They get into a little tiff, which Gregory soon turns into a matter of utmost importance. Gregory is claiming to be an anarchist, and Syme is saying that he is not. This discussion soon ends up in the street with Gregory challenging Syme to come with him. Syme follows and is soon in the midst of an anarchist group challenging Gregory while standing in a room full of bombs and other mechanisms of terror. In a scene that reminds me of the face-off between Westley and Vizzini in The Princess Bride where Vizzini tries to outwit Westley. In this book’s scene, though, it is Syme and Gregory jousting with words for the prize of gaining admittance into the supreme anarchy council. Eventually, Syme wins out and is whisked away to go to the council.

What follows is a wild series of events in which Syme tries to uncover the situation and overthrow the anarchy council. Through twists and turns he slowly realizes how convoluted the entire situation is (where anarchists turn out to be policemen and common, supposedly good folk will turn on perfectly reasonable people).

[2008-05-23]
This is just a guess as to when I finished this book. Because…I’m writing this update much after the fact. Oops.

Anyways it was a pretty interesting book strictly from a plot standpoint. The storytelling was a little bit slow at first (when it was more realistic), but it steadily picked up as the story got more and more ridiculous. Chesterton, a devout Christian, wrote this book as a Christian allegory. And while I do see some of the issues that he raises (anarchy or evil not making sense at all, a grand plan behind it all), I think that there is so much that I don’t get about the book. So really I’m still trying to digest it. I might even have to go back at it for another read. It wasn’t too long, and I’ll definitely have some more interesting things to say on another go around.