Book Review: The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín

The Testament of Mary is one of those books which leave a bittersweet taste in the reader’s mouth at the end. This has nothing to do with religion; it has everything to do with the sadness that seems to prevail from beginning to end.

The author tells in a beautifully flowing first person narration the story of Mary, or at least some of its parts. Mary in this novella looks like a woman bathed in sorrow. As she recounts the events that lead to her son’s death and their aftermath, she seems weak, secretly angry and quite bitter. And she doesn’t seem to have a shred of sympathy for Jesus before he met his end and his followers. In her eyes they were all part of a conspiracy that she doesn’t name but is quite clear for everyone to see.

Her memories are vivid, “I remember too much;” she says, “I am like the air on a calm day as it holds itself still, letting nothing escape. As the world holds its breath, I keep memory in.”

Nothing escapes her but sleep. She cannot sleep because the recent events have shaken her world; her son’s miracles, the fact that he publicly renounced her, his arrest, trial and crucifixion. But these are not the things upset her the most, it’s her visitors; two of his disciples that come to her time and again, trying to shape her memories into their own liking, determined to convince her that their version of the events is the true one.

“No,” she wants to cry out loud, “no, I wasn’t there until the very end,” but they pay no attention to her, they’ll write the story the way they want it, no matter what. She’s sick of men, and especially these ones: “…all my life when I have seen more than two men I have seen foolishness and I have seen cruelty…” In a way she’s also disappointed of her son, who, she feels has wasted his life for no reason at all: “It was not worth it,” she says, his death served no one.

Her words, her thoughts may sound heretic, but they simply come out of the bleeding heart of a grieving mother: “There are times in these days before death comes with my name in whispers, calling me towards darkness, lulling me towards rest, when I know that I want more from the world. Not much, but more. It is simple. If water can be changed into wine and the dead can be brought back, then I want time pushed back. I want to live again before my son’s death happened, or before he left home, when he was a baby and his father was alive and there was ease in the world.”

But these days are gone. Now even her own story doesn’t belong to her, even her life depends on the charity of others. The only thing she’s left with is her memories, and a bitterness that just doesn’t let go of her tortured soul.

A tale beautifully told in exquisite prose by a master storyteller.

Book Review: Cain by José Saramago

“The history of mankind is the history of our misunderstandings with god, for he doesn’t understand us and we don’t understand him.”
     Cain is one of those books that one truly enjoys to read; and I did. Saramago in this, his last offering before he passed away, recreates in his own special way the life of Cain and offers the reader, especially the one who’s not too attached to the words of the scriptures, a chance to have a few good laughs. While reading it, I dare to admit that, I found myself agreeing time and again with the somewhat heretical views of the author.
     At the beginning it was not to the Word, but simply the creation of the world, since, as we read, when god made man forgot to give to him the gift of speech. However, after he did give it to him maybe he came to regret it because if he hadn’t then Cain wouldn’t be able to speak and thus verbally annoy and abuse him for all eternity.
     First things first though. According to Saramago the first people were less than perfect. They were kind of stupid and full of flaws. When they were expelled from paradise actually “Adam and Eve resembled a couple of orangutans who had stood upright for the first time.” However, as time started going by they improved a bit, since they now had to work to make a living. As the story goes they set up home on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where with the help of the animals that followed them to exile, they started working the land. Of course at the beginning things were not so easy for them so Eve, every now and then, had to take a walk towards paradise and beg the angels to give her some fruits. However that didn’t last for too long since sooner rather than later they started becoming self-sufficient and independent until someday, without quite understanding how or why, they even became parents. Abel and Cain are their famous kids, but of course they had many more. Abel, the innocent one according to the official story, was in reality an infuriating character, somebody who found joy in provoking and insulting the others and who always thought that he was the leader of the pack. He really was scum, thus Cain, who could suffer his behavior no longer, ended up killing him. And that’s exactly how his long skirmish with god has begun. And that’s exactly when his long journey started; a journey that would carry him back and forth in time, a kind of a road trip into the Old and the New Testament, full of surprises and with many not so light touches of humor.
     Cain, in this book, is portrayed as the first hero in Hebrew history; someone who’s extremely daring and not in the least afraid of death, and who doesn’t miss a chance to give god a piece of his mind. In order to do that he travels a lot, so we meet him in Sodom and Gomorrah, at the Sacrifice of Abraham, on Noah’s Ark, at The Tower of Babel, in the desert visiting Moses’ camp, while he drops by in the New Testament as well to act the role of the Good Samaritan. Wherever he goes he uses the name of Abel, and at every single place he encounters the ugly face of god; a god that he’s determined to oppose in every way. He’s not your normal kind of hero, he seeks no redemption, but instead he asks of god to apologize to him for mistreating him.
     This is not one of those books that I would recommend to everyone because of its subject matter. However I’m sure that those who are familiar with the author’s work, as well as with the writings of Norman Mailer, Robert Graves and Nikos Kazantzakis, will truly enjoy reading it. Saramago doesn’t only seem to want to provoke the reader, but also to say to him that just believing something without questioning it, is the easy path; the one that leads to ignorance and cheats him of his free will and independent mind.

Nikos Kazantzakis - The Saviors of God

The most famous writer that ever came out of Greece was Nikos Kazantzakis, the author of the widely acclaimed "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Zorba the Greek". Today for you i have an extract from his "bible", the Askitiki, or, as it was translated in English, "The Saviors of God":

We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. As soon as we are born the return begins, at once the setting forth and the coming back; we die in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of life is death! But as soon as we are born we begin the struggle to create, to compose, to turn matter into life; we are born in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of ephemeral life is immortality! In the temporary living organism these two streams collide ... both opposing forces are holy. It is our duty, therefore, to grasp that vision which can embrace and harmonize these two enormous, timeless, and indestructible forces, and with this vision to modulate our thinking and our action.

The Preparation : First Duty

With clarity and quiet, I look upon the world and say: All that I see, hear, taste, smell, and touch are the creations of my mind.The sun comes up and the sun goes down in my skull. Out of one of my temples the sun rises, and into the other the sun sets.The stars shine in my brain; ideas, men, animals browse in my temporal head; songs and weeping fill the twisted shells of my ears and storm the air for a moment.
"I do not know whether behind appearances there lives and moves a secret essence superior to me. Nor do I ask; I do not care. I create phenomena in swarms, and paint with a full palette a gigantic and gaudy curtain before the abyss. Do not say, "Draw the curtain that I may see the painting." The curtain is the painting.
To SEE and accept the boundaries of the human mind without vain rebellion, and in these severe limitations to work ceaselessly without protest — this is where man's first duty lies.
I subdue matter and force it to become my mind's good medium. I rejoice in plants, in animals, in man and in gods, as though they were my children. I feel all the universe nestling about me and following me as though it were my own body.
Read more at the Source
Bio: Wikipedia

Book Choice: The Last Temptation of Christ