The Testament of Mary
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Description
In the ancient town of Ephesus, Mary lives alone, years after her son’s crucifixion. She has no interest in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel—her keepers, who provide her with food and shelter and visit her regularly. She does not agree that her son is the Son of God; nor that his death was “worth it;” nor that the “group of misfits he gathered around him, men who could not look a woman in the eye,” were holy disciples. Mary judges herself ruthlessly (she did not stay at the foot of the Cross until her son died—she fled, to save herself), and is equally harsh on her judgement of others. This woman who we know from centuries of paintings and scripture as the docile, loving, silent, long-suffering, obedient, worshipful mother of Christ becomes a tragic heroine with the relentless eloquence of Electra or Medea or Antigone. Tóibín’s tour de force of imagination and language is a portrait so vivid and convincing that our image of Mary will be forever transformed.
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Mary, mother of Jesus, as a human being, who tells in first person her version of the story of how her son grew away from her and ended up being crucified. The idea is simple and ingenious and I still don't know how he managed to write about the wonders Jesus worked in a seriously realistic manner. Marys testament as a broken-hearted mother, who can hardly overcome the fact, that she is estranged from her son and that she needed to flee to save herself, is beautifully insane - although it's language is calm and restricted- and imaginative. Breaks my little thoroughly non-christian heart.
Description
In the ancient town of Ephesus, Mary lives alone, years after her son’s crucifixion. She has no interest in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel—her keepers, who provide her with food and shelter and visit her regularly. She does not agree that her son is the Son of God; nor that his death was “worth it;” nor that the “group of misfits he gathered around him, men who could not look a woman in the eye,” were holy disciples. Mary judges herself ruthlessly (she did not stay at the foot of the Cross until her son died—she fled, to save herself), and is equally harsh on her judgement of others. This woman who we know from centuries of paintings and scripture as the docile, loving, silent, long-suffering, obedient, worshipful mother of Christ becomes a tragic heroine with the relentless eloquence of Electra or Medea or Antigone. Tóibín’s tour de force of imagination and language is a portrait so vivid and convincing that our image of Mary will be forever transformed.
Book Information
Posts
Mary, mother of Jesus, as a human being, who tells in first person her version of the story of how her son grew away from her and ended up being crucified. The idea is simple and ingenious and I still don't know how he managed to write about the wonders Jesus worked in a seriously realistic manner. Marys testament as a broken-hearted mother, who can hardly overcome the fact, that she is estranged from her son and that she needed to flee to save herself, is beautifully insane - although it's language is calm and restricted- and imaginative. Breaks my little thoroughly non-christian heart.