The Testament of Gideon Mack - some thoughts

A couple of weeks ago I finished The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson. This book was one of the longlisted for Booker 2006. When I read reviews of this book last September, in preparation for the post linked above, I knew that I wanted to read this book soon. And I must say I wasn't in the least disappointed.

Reverend Gideon Mack, a Church of Scotland Minister, vanishes from Monimaskit under mysterious circumstances. A few months later, his body is recovered at Ben Alder. Meanwhile, the innkeeper at his last lodging discovers a manuscript, a testament actually, which Mack seems to have left behind, on his last walk to death, in the hope that it will be discovered sometime. This manuscript finds its way to a publisher who decides to publish it with due disclaimers. The structure of the book is very interesting, a prologue by the said publisher, PW, an epilogue by the journalist, HC, who got the manuscript into PW's hands and the testament by Gideon Mack.

The book makes excellent reading. Certainly one of those books one is bound to like better on re-reading. Gideon Mack is a minister who doesn't believe in God, a few months before he vanishes he also claims to have met and conversed with the Devil (on surviving an accident at Black Jaws). He never loved his parents, he also realizes he never loved his wife, he loves his best friend's wife, he sees a Stone that no one else sees, he befriends a rickety old historian whom everyone holds in awe, he runs marathons and finally, he throws it all away at a Sunday mass. I won't say more because the whole joy of the book is not so much in its story (though it interests) but in the way it is told.

Recommended.