I have just finished reading this book. It is one of those books which weigh on your mind once they are done. Too many questions, too many thoughts whirling around in my head. Which just means that it was an excellent book. I won't give out any spoilers since I won't talk too much about it right now, for I haven't figured it out yet, but I will say this: go and read it. If you have read it, perhaps you could tell me what you thought of it.
In a sense it's a spy novel, or a detective novel (or perhaps an undercover detective novel). But that is only the surface plot. The plot is a vehicle for something which I haven't had time to think through yet, and which is very...well, adjectives fail me right now. To say it is confusing has too negative a spin to it. To say that it is thought-provoking is to bland, and doesn't do this work justice. They just don't write books like this anymore, I don't think. In a sense, it's like reading Dostoevsky or Kierkegaard, authors who have much in their writings, but do not simply spell it out for the reader, but they make whoever reads their books work for the meaning--they cannot simply be read at face value and taken as simple explanations or philosophical views. There is a process, there is meaning veiled, but you can rest assured that there is meaning.
I have also been reading the Father Brown mysteries by Chesterton. Even there, although the stories are much simpler and with less depth, I think that there is something more behind them. Once I have read them all, I will perhaps work through them again to see if my hypothesis bears out. I think, with the Father Brown mysteries, that Chesterton is not simply writing interesting stories, but is making a point through the story, a point about people. Not a general point either, but something specific about human nature. Each story perhaps reveals something else about human nature and how people live, work, etc. Perhaps they are kind of 'parables.' But I don't know if this can be proven--it's just a hunch so far.
Now I want to read more Chesterton. Good thing I have his biographies of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas upstairs, as well as Heretics and Orthodoxy (in one volume). And good thing I have more time than I did during school.
In a sense it's a spy novel, or a detective novel (or perhaps an undercover detective novel). But that is only the surface plot. The plot is a vehicle for something which I haven't had time to think through yet, and which is very...well, adjectives fail me right now. To say it is confusing has too negative a spin to it. To say that it is thought-provoking is to bland, and doesn't do this work justice. They just don't write books like this anymore, I don't think. In a sense, it's like reading Dostoevsky or Kierkegaard, authors who have much in their writings, but do not simply spell it out for the reader, but they make whoever reads their books work for the meaning--they cannot simply be read at face value and taken as simple explanations or philosophical views. There is a process, there is meaning veiled, but you can rest assured that there is meaning.
I have also been reading the Father Brown mysteries by Chesterton. Even there, although the stories are much simpler and with less depth, I think that there is something more behind them. Once I have read them all, I will perhaps work through them again to see if my hypothesis bears out. I think, with the Father Brown mysteries, that Chesterton is not simply writing interesting stories, but is making a point through the story, a point about people. Not a general point either, but something specific about human nature. Each story perhaps reveals something else about human nature and how people live, work, etc. Perhaps they are kind of 'parables.' But I don't know if this can be proven--it's just a hunch so far.
Now I want to read more Chesterton. Good thing I have his biographies of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas upstairs, as well as Heretics and Orthodoxy (in one volume). And good thing I have more time than I did during school.
No comments:
Post a Comment