I took this book with me to read while we were away for a few days last week. It was first published in 1908 and has written on the front: “The most thrilling book I have ever read” Kingsley Amis.
Poor Kingsley, he led a dull reading life, going by this book. Of course, it could be that Chesterton and I just don’t get on, I remember being unimpressed by a Father Brown book of his which I read years ago.
I’ll leave it a while before trying another one of his, if it isn’t third time lucky then I’ll never darken his pages again. I can’t help thinking that Kingsley Amis must have been on the sauce when he wrote his comment!
Always sad when people are disappointed with Chesterton- because of his central focus- Christian faith, its like getting bored with Christ’s teachings themselves. Another blogger (http://platitudesundone.blogspot.com/)put this quote in his sermon this week which throws me right back to Mark 10 13-16:
“A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, Do it again; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough… It is possible that God says every morning, Do it again, to the sun; and every evening, Do it again, to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” –G. K. Chesterton
Surely this captures in ‘modern times’ quite exactly what Christ was saying?
Try reading Chesterton through the eyes of a child and I cannot see how he can disappoint- alternatively I can only say that the sun will rise and set every day and that is my unique daily adventure!
Hello Tim, Thanks for commenting. Unfortunately The Man Who was Thursday is supposed to be a vintage thriller, absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. As such, I found the book to be disappointing because it was in no way thrilling and was not what I expect of a classic crime book.
Sadly, the fact that a writer was a Christian does not mean that everything which they write is perfect. Have you read this book?