Beware the black jaws (The testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson)

Member Name: Dinah93

Product:	The testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson
Date:	15/01/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting premise, unusual subject

Disadvantages: Two dimensional characters, too much background and very little action

I spent much of this book trying to discern if this was indeed fiction, or a memoir. As a work of fiction this book is an interesting premise, and very unusual. However as a memoir it would present as the ramblings of a sad, Godless minister who spent his life never living up to his own expectations. A man who wanted to be special, and never came to terms with his own mortality, which in the end drove him to delusions.

Gideon's search to be extraordinary ultimately leads him to The Stone. The Stone draws close parallels with an imaginary friend. The fact that a minister should jump so quickly to associating this stone with the Devil, and befriending it even, would indicate that at this point he has started to loose his grip on reality, and years of preaching what he does not believe has caused him to blur the lines between reality and religion.

The outcome of the book is made clear within the introduction. I found this spoilt the book greatly, as there were very few twists and turns that were not expected. The book therefore read as an explanation or embellishment of what we were told in the first chapter. From many authors this would have been enough, however the voice of Gideon is extremely cold, and despite professing to love Elsie, I did not get the impression he ever loved his wife, he had only a desire for what he could not have with Elsie, and even his relationships with his parents were distant. One of the interesting points I felt was that his mother had also become mentally ill, which coupled with his sleepwalking as a child were both risk factors for him himself becoming mentally ill as an adult, a diagnosis he vehemently denies.

There were strong parallels between Gideon and his father, which the author downplays, however I felt something was lacking by the author not acknowledging this denial. The authors distaste of the way his father lived his life comes across as hypocritical, and Gideon manages to be at once self-abasing and holier than though. I did not feel involved with any of the characters, and felt that this was what can best be described as a Brechtian style of writing, encouraging me not to engage with the characters, but to judge their actions independently. I found this quite dreary for a novel, as I did not care what happened to them, and did not see much humanity written into any of the characters. This is possibly due to Gideon's own distance from his surroundings, and the distance he has always kept from other people.

Elements of the book are never fully explored I felt, such as how Elsie can see the stone, but it vanishes around the same time Gideon does. Equally no plausible explanation is given for the time Gideon was missing, or the damage to his leg. I had the impression that there would be a plausible explanation, but the book was written from Gideon's perspective, and he did not want to acknowledge one. The introduction and epilogue would again elude to this, as it seems Gideon has lied to his readers, especially concerning his affair with Elsie, however it is my belief that Gideon was deluding himself, rather than intentionally lying in his manuscript.

There was a very long build up to Gideon meeting the Devil, during which his life was explained, and his surroundings explored. I found this to be slow going, as his life essentially was unremarkable, and was delivered in functional, unemotional sentences which delivered the right amount of information, but encouraged little empathy.

The characters in this book were reflections of elements of Gideon's character in many ways, Catherine Craggie representing the interesting person he wanted to be, but her body was twisted and broken, in a similar way to how Gideon saw his own soul after decades of deception and waste. Catherine Craggie was an interesting, well thought out character, and more could have been made of her. In contrast Elsie, John and Jenny were all extremely flat and two dimensional. I could not build up an adequate picture of the people he professed to be close to, Elsie was pretty, John was a teacher, Jenny had dark curly hair, but their personalities were almost ignored. My favourite part of the book had to be when Gideon took Jenny to meet his parents. While little happened, the delivery in this section was more involved, and a small glimpse of Jenny as an individual, rather than just Gideon's wife, showed through.

I can't say that overall my impression of the book was positive, I found it too slow and despite the amazing subject matter, it was dry and bland. The book seemed long and poorly structured, and it seemed an opportunity was lost on a truly original concept.

The Testament of Gideon Mack is 386 pages long, and published by Penguin. I got my copy from Readitswapit, although it is widely available in book shops and Amazon. The book was long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2006.

Summary: What happens when a faithless minister befriends the Devil?