Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton - Book Review

I have heard that I should read some G.K. Chesterton.  So I did.  I read Manalive and The Man Who Was Thursday.  I also read another one of his fictitious works, it might have been Lilith. But I have heard that I shouldn't just read his fiction, but one of his other works.  Recently I saw on a blog an encouragement to read Orthodoxy with a link to a free version on Amazon.

Orthodoxy is almost autobiographical, but not really.  It is a collection of thoughts that tell the story of Chesterton's journey away from Orthodox Christianity into truth, only to find that at the center of truth was Orthodox Christianity.

His writing style is fairly unique, and reminds me of C. S. Lewis.  There are references to names and ideas that are time-period specific, quaint little comments that I didn't understand, but gathered that his audience would have understood completely what he was talking about.  There is a whimsical edge to his words, but there is also a deep and profound logic to what he is saying.

I don't think that I could write a review that does this book justice, so I am going to share one of my favorite sections with you:

The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.  

The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his 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 to exult in monotony. 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. The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. 

I think he may be right.

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton - Book Review

Until a few months ago, I did not realize that G. K. Chesterton was a writer of fiction.  I knew of his books on such topics as orthodoxy and heresy, but was unacquainted with the fictional works that had an impact on such authors as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.  The first book I read was Manalive.  I wrote a review of that book not too long ago.

The Man Who Was Thursday was described by C. S. Lewis as, "A powerful picture of the loneliness and bewilderment which each of us encounters in his single-handed struggle with the universe."  It is about a man named Syme, who is employed in the service of the British Police, in a special department, by a special man, to fight against the anarchists of the world.  As he infiltrates the inner circle of anarchy, taking the name of Thursday, as each member of the inner ring has a name of a day of the week, he is left wondering, and fighting to determine, who is this man named Sunday?

I've really enjoyed reading Chesterton's stories.  There is a certain whimsicalness to his writing as he attempts to discuss serious topics through the use of story, but he does it in a way that the belief system that he is discussing plays a part in the story the way a tent plays a role in the circus.

If you haven't read any Chesterton, this one would be a good place to start.  A mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and socio-political drama-comedy!

Manalive by G.K. Chesterton - Review

I just finished reading Manalive by G. K. Chesterton a few weeks ago.  It wasn't until about a month ago that I learned that G.K. Chesterton wrote fiction.  To be honest, I didn't know much about Chesterton, but I always thought that his writing was limited to books like Orthodoxy and Heretics.  When I purchased my Kindle, I started looking at the free books on Amazon, that's when I found there was a broader scope to his writing.  I wasn't sure where to start, so I picked the first one that I saw and added it to my kindle.

Because I wasn't sure of the exact genre of Manalive, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect as I began to read this book. It kept me on my toes as it brought new little surprises and twists as the story began to unfold.

It is about a man who is, well, alive.  He has become, in many ways, like a child.  You first meet the main character chasing a hat and climbing a tree.  He expounds on the need for more hat-chasing type games in life.  The more you learn of the character, the more unsure you become as to whether he is insane, or the most sane of the bunch.  The rest of the entourage of characters come to either love him or completely misunderstand him by taking his actions in the most straight-forward and sensible way.

I really liked this book.  I think that I would've liked it better if I had known what to expect, but my unsurety as to the focus of the story kept me wondering at some potential scifi or fantasy tie-ins.  It had neither, and ended up being more akin to an allegorical tale than to anything else.

I recommend this to anyone that is looking for a good piece of reading.  I don't want to give anything away, but the reality of death is one of the factors that stirs up life in this book.  If you are looking for a book that isn't too heavy, but also isn't too light and you would also like to get a taste of Chesterton's writing, then this is the book for you.

From the links above, you can get the paperback book through Amazon, but you can also find the kindle version for free.