Book Review: The Man Who Was Thursday

am more than a devil; I am a man. I can do the one thing which Satan himself cannot do— I can die

Where on earth do I begin with this novel it is unlike anything I have ever read before. A somewhat Alice in Wonderland but for grown-ups. The book, according to G.K Chesterton is a ‘Nightmare’ a horrible affair where anarchists will soon overrun the world, and all will go to hell.

We meet our man Syme – a poet, in London and he comes across a man called Gregory who is a self-professed anarchist determined to change the world as we know it in deeply dark and explosive ways. Syme manages to convince Gregory to take him to an anarchist meeting where a new council member is to be elected. A man who will become ‘Thursday’. Syme is a police officer who has promised Gregory that he will not report him to the police and Gregory has promised not to oust Syme to the anarchists. However, the eloquence of Syme greatly outmatches the dreamer, Gregory and, as a result, Syme becomes the new Thursday. Everything is not as it seems, for Syme must meet with the elusive, terrifying and unpredictable ‘Sunday’ – the mastermind of the anarchists. It leads to a mad and desperate dash around Europe to prevent a terrible plot and unmask the man who is Sunday.

 Nothing is what it seems in this book. It is almost farcical – you never know what to expect next. It is a book that investigates and exploits the pessimism of man. There is much debate as to whether this book is a Christian allegory as the book refers a lot to the Book of Genesis,  the creation of the world and the suffering of man. Yet it is almost too farcical to be true – it is Kafka-esque before Kafka was even a writer, Orwellian in its fantastical dystopian pessimism and probably a better spy novel than Ian Fleming could ever imagine.

It made the morning commute much more enjoyable – I will probably never read anything like this again.