Johnnie Aucamp
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
Odd literature seems very popular these days, but THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY is one of those odd gems from before everyone was trying to write abstract books. The Full title is "The Man who was Thursday: A Nightmare", emphassis on the nightmare. This is one of the few novels that might leave one's head spinning as if you are trying to remember an old dream, because basically it is one.<br><br>It tells the story of Syme, a poet and policeman who infiltrates an Anarchist rings and gets elected to the Council of Days that same night. The Council of Days are all of Europe's top Anarchists who are plotting to toss all of the World into a gigantic state of chaos. They aren't real anarchists who are trying to 'free themselves from tyrany', they are evil men who kill because they like it and find it fun. In other words, they are psychopaths controlling the Anarchists.<br><br>The Leader of the Council is known as Sunday, who turns out to be nameless and gigantic, beautiful and terrible at the same time. As Syme and a few allies he meets along the way try to stop the newest plot of the Council a lot of strange and surreal things happen; it is snowing in London yet in France the flowers are blooming in Spring. There's a hot-air balloon chase, an elephants and the bizarre meeting at the end of the story. Even Syme succombs to the dream delerium by attempting to start a duel between him and a Council member by conversation. He even wrote out his adversary's replies beforehand and made them all quite witty, he brags.<br><br>There is also a chilling parts as well, if you can get into the story, that is.<br><br>By the end, though, one might find out that Chesterton is aiming very high with this novel. In all the sillyness he has incorporated a complex Christian metaphor, that may put off non-Christian readers who might fail to understand it, but they should not dispair. Even the most clear-thinking Christian has been floored by the metaphor, never been fully able to comprehend it. CS Lewis has made the most sense of the novel, saying that it has to do with the sense of alienation an individual feels within the world, but that does not explain it entirely.<br><br>But still the MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY: A NIGHTMARE is a fun ride and I would recommend it to all!