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Title: Manalive by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0-486-41405-1 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 27 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously!
Comment: Whether you're new to Chesterton or have read everything else he has written I cannot recommmend this book highly enough. In my opinion this is the best of his more serious allegorical novels in that the meaning is not hidden and confused as it is in some of his other works, but is right there ready to smack you in the face. Chesterton was always concerned with the problems facing the modern man (and while he wrote at the turn of the 19th century his "modern man" is still as modern today as it was then). The increasing societal pressures facing both the Christian and the non-Christian alike were then as now forcing people to view the world with a serious and somber tone, always looking to their survival in a world where absolutes were lacking and authority was no longer to looked to for answers. In this dismal worldview it is all too easy for man to get so caught up in the day to day struggles that he forgets that he is alive, that he is a living breathing person with a will of his own and not merely an automaton of a crushing society. He is alive, and that is a gerat thing!
While the story is rather strait forward and not nearly as interesting in its own light as some of his other novels, this book is so full of life that the reader cannot help but want to jump up and down at times at the reemergence of joy in the lives of the characters. While the "irresponsible" lifestyle prtrayed in the book should not be taken as a realistic alternative to the monotony of life that has clutched so many, the exposure of stodginess for what it really is should be a warning to anyone who has ever found themselves snearing at the strange behaviors of children or getting too caught up in our increasingly materialistic culture.
While not as overtly religious as some of his other books this book is perhaps most aplicable to those people who are too religious, whatever their philosophy. Those who have such a low opinion of the world and of man that they have forgoten that while their is evil in the world, the world was created good and their is still much to be found here. One of Chesterton's most endearing and uplifting classics, a must read for anyone who feels only too strongly the immense weight of the world on their shoulders, and a good reminder of the necessity of having some fun for everyone else.
Rating: 4
Summary: A strange allegory
Comment: I have very ambivalent ideas about this book. Although I admire GK Chesterton, I didn't really like it as a novel. So where do the four stars come from? From the ideas. Chesterton produces in this short work the very essence of decent human behavior, Christian or otherwise, in the close world of an isolated community, as an experiment. It shows that essential humanity lies in one very simple principle: refraining from consciously hurting other people. Of course we are far from perfect and at some point we will do things that we know will hurt somebody else, since frequently we face hard choices and are left to our freedom to choose what we think is the best course of action. But Chesterton here goes a bit further and shows us that many things we have been led to believe are wrong, aren't wrong at all. Breaking into houses is forbidden by law, but it's not wrong if you break into your own home, etc.
Certainly a good book, as a strictly literary work it was not entirely satisfying: plot, characters, etc.
It is, however, well worth reading for the insightful but simple, yet correct, ideas.
Rating: 5
Summary: Gets better with every page.
Comment: When I started reading this book, I thought "This is amusing, but where is it going?" It was entertaining all the way through, but it was only as I approached the climax of the story that I realized that it is far more than entertaining. This book is a world-class piece of literature that deserves to be read and studied. It is only an author as talented as Chesterton who could so brilliantly combine humor, nonsense, and the deepest, most serious questions of human existence.
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Title: The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0898704448 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: April, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Ball and the Cross by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0486288056 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 22 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0898705525 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: What's Wrong With the World by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0898704898 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Man Who Was Thursday (20Th-Century Classics) by G. K. Chesterton, Kingsley Amis ISBN: 0140183884 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1990 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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