The Man Who Was Thursday (edit title)

• Rated 5 stars

“A complete farce.
An absurdist's theophany.
A paradoxical metaphysical thriller.
A blistering page-turner; full of intrigue, suspense, terrorism and philosophical detectives. It's also just a GREAT, fun story. G.K. Chesterton is a writer I admire, and this is him at his blustery best. One thing I noticed: G.K's novels all include some kind of frantic chase; this book includes about five, and they're all brilliant. I'm not sure what kind of mass-appeal this book would have, but its one of my favorites.
Anyway, after the dust clears and all the romping has come to a climax, this book takes a turn for the more profound. It becomes a meditation on the nature of creation itself; personified by Sunday, one of the greatest characters EVER in literature, as far as I'm concerned. Whether you see Sunday as God, Nature or both, you will find ample grist here for prolonged reflection. This book would make a GREAT film; G.K. writes with a cinematic flare, even though he predates cinema. I could see this as a cross between Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, Monty Python and Vanilla Sky.”

• Rated 2 stars

“This was a book recommended to me by a co-worker years ago and I only recently stumbled on it. I read it quickly and, man, I have to wonder what John was thinking.

It's not bad, per se, but it's not great either. It's certainly a piece of Victorian England and the anxieties that society suffered. The main character is 'Thursday', a man who manages to sneak his way onto an Anarchists council...only to discover that there may well be no anarchists on the council at all. I figured out the "twist" pretty early on, though I was hoping that the good guys became the bad guys while trying to catch the bad guys. That didn't happen.

There are parts of the novella that are awsome, dog-eared little sections where the writing lilts towards greatness and the social commentary, never heavy-handed, sings. But it doesn't quite work itself into a lather, with Chesterton keeping the moral world starkly black and white. This is not an investigation into how police and criminals are connected, nor is it a mediation on the nature of societal paranoia. It could have been, but Chesterton seems content to weave a cute little tale full of hooks and spin and darling little police men who are never properly put through hell, though they complain a lot.

In other words, the characters are not fully challenged. Hence, neither are we.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Awesome. Hilarious, profound, and highly recommended. But I didn't consider myself to have read it until I'd read it twice.”

• Rated 4 stars

“This is a crazy novella - literally crazy. Thankfully most of it is hilarious as well. It's not easy reading but well worth your time; before his death Chesterton encouraged people to consider the subtitle if they were confused at the end. ”

• Rated 2 stars

“This book started as a suspenseful mystery as a detective joined an anarchist group to try to derail and destroy it. Each of the other members of the anarchist council turned out to also be detectives and then the story unraveled into a weird and almost hallucinatory allegory. I guess it's supposed to be an allegory, but what does it mean? It was frustrating and unfulfilling in the end.”