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| Well, if I am not drunk, I am mad, replied Syme with perfect calm; but I trust I can behave like a gentleman in either condition. |
There has been plenty written over the 108 years since
publication of G. K. Chesterton’s most famous novel, a novel that has never once
been out of print in all those years, so to attempt to add to the weight of
critical acclaim is futile. In fact, rather than read the rest of this post why
not go and download it for free, read it yourself, and then check out The American
Chesterton Society. Go on!
However, for my own personal reasons I want to record my
reaction. The quick plot summary, if that’s even possible, sees rebel-against-rebelliousness
and poet Gabriel Syme inveigle his way into the supreme council of anarchists
ostensibly to uncover a murderous plot. He soon discovers that all is not as it
seems and there’s even a big surprise at the end (sign-posted clearly throughout).
It’s a spy novel, a detective novel, a novel filled with caricatures and
symbolism, but also a novel that I found to be supernal, in both senses of the
word (ironically but also coincidentally
flaunting one of Elmore Leonard’s rules
of writing - regularly talking about the weather).
The sky features heavily
throughout, and as skies do, mirrors the characters’ sombreness, gravity and
alarm, but also auguring doom and mocking their quotidian, mundane and humdrum anxieties
in places. As the backdrop to what has been described as a metaphysical
thriller, it has as large a part to play as the bomb-throwing anarchists and
undercover policemen. But in the other sense of the word, it is an amazing,
intelligent, sublime farce, encompassing philosophical debates and barbed
social commentary, Christian allegory, and filled with symbolic revelations.
And in the end, it was all just one long nightmare. Or was it?
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