Book - 59, The Testament of Mary

The Testament of Mary (2012)

by

Colm Tóibín

Book Read: 20-22 February 2016
Note Written: 02 March 2016

Colm Tóibín's 'The Testament of Mary' was there in my Amazon wishlist for a long while and finally I purchased it and read. The novel shows certain experiences of Mary, mother of Jesus, from her own perspective. She is presented as a human like any one of us, not beatified and holy as the Mother of God. Fear, sadness, anxiety, anger, despair all caused by he actions and death of her son Jesus is explored through her contemplation.

There are some truthful accounts of how people/society would have reacted to someone who performs 'miracles', not the glorified version where everyone's all well behaved to Jesus and everything's hunky-dory. People would obviously follow him, but they also consider him a freak-of-sorts while taking advantage of a person like that. Mary tries to understand and at the same time oppose the way her son is being perceived and accepted(?) by society, after his death. She also fights the writers of 'Gospels' as they cloud her for information regarding her son, in the name of safekeeping.

Eve though the theme explored and certain aspects of Mary's thoughts and actions were interesting to read and know of, the book at large, was a bit boring. I wasn't really taken in by the book or the prose. I compare the book with a similar-themed novel 'The Gospel According to Jesus Christ' by José Saramago. Now, that was on brilliant narration! 'The Testament of Mary' wasn't much so.