I don’t often post book reviews here on my blog … but then, I don’t often post much of anything here on my blog. (Buh-dum-bum-ching!) I’ve been reading several books a week lately and figured I’d highlight some of my favorites here.
I read The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare earlier this year and while I enjoyed it, at the end I was left scratching my head. The plot centers on a Scotland Yard detective who acts as a double agent in a secret anarchist society bent on destroying the world. It sounds straight-forward enough, but the story progresses from somewhat typical mystery (although much better written) to straight-up bizarre. Upon my last reading, I surmised that it had gone over my head and I’d need to re-read it.
Enter: The Southern Pines Literary Society. I convinced (/commanded) my book club to read it for our November meeting in hopes that a second read-through and some scintillating discussion would enlighten me to the true meaning of this book. I’m happy to say that after both of the above, I am changing my review to five stars (from four) and GLOWING PRAISE (from bewildered admiration).
You don’t need me to tell you Chesterton was a genius — but I’m going to anyway. I’ve dog-eared practically every other page of my copy, because peppered throughout the story (which is intriguing and often hilarious) are poignant observations on life and human character.
One of my favorite quotes (from when a certain character discovers he is not as alone as he supposed himself to be): “But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.”
And perhaps even better: “‘Listen to me,’ cried Syme with extraordinary emphasis, ‘Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front–’”
The Man Who Was Thursday changed the way I see the world — and is there anything more we can ask from a book? I’ll be re-reading it often.