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A review by thenovelbook
Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
3.0
This book is CRACKERS.
Like, I wasn't sure early on if I was going to finish it because it just seemed so peculiar. I did a lot of skimming. But there was enough humor to keep me going. The problem for me was that the humor was alternated with some passages of what felt like pretty heavy prose, and the tone felt very uneven.
I give you a sample of the hilarity, because when it was funny, it was very, very funny:
"Is that Dr. Warner?" cried Rosamund, bounding forward in a burst of memory, amusement, and distress. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Oh, do tell him it's all right!"
"Let's take hands and tell him," said Michael Moon. For indeed, while they were talking, another hansom cab had dashed up behind the one already waiting, and Dr. Herbert Warner, leaving a companion in the cab, had carefully deposited himself on the pavement. Now, when you are an eminent physician and are wired for by an heiress to come to a case of dangerous mania, and when, as you come in through the garden to the house, the heiress and her landlady and two of the gentlemen boarders join hands and dance round you in a ring, calling out, "It's all right! it's all right!" you are apt to be flustered and even displeased.
That mental picture kept me laughing for pages.
The main idea is that a boarding house full of dull people receives an unexpected visit from one Mr. Smith, a large man with grasshopper-like abilities who appears over the wall one day. He promptly throws everything into disarray and does all the things that no one's thought of doing since they were kids. But then there's an intended elopement, a run-in with the local doctor and criminal specialist, and a sudden distrust of Mr. Smith, who appears to have a very questionable record of violence and philandering.
The conclusion of the matter is... all kinds of batty, bonkers bananas.
But after I finished it, I keep revising my opinion a little and thinking, "You know, I think I liked it." Probably worth a reread now that I know what in the name of sanity it all means!
But don't read the Goodreads description. It spoils it all totally. It was more interesting to just come upon the answer by degrees.
UPDATE: I've just edited the Goodreads description to take out the spoilers, but it might take a while to show up.
Like, I wasn't sure early on if I was going to finish it because it just seemed so peculiar. I did a lot of skimming. But there was enough humor to keep me going. The problem for me was that the humor was alternated with some passages of what felt like pretty heavy prose, and the tone felt very uneven.
I give you a sample of the hilarity, because when it was funny, it was very, very funny:
"Is that Dr. Warner?" cried Rosamund, bounding forward in a burst of memory, amusement, and distress. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Oh, do tell him it's all right!"
"Let's take hands and tell him," said Michael Moon. For indeed, while they were talking, another hansom cab had dashed up behind the one already waiting, and Dr. Herbert Warner, leaving a companion in the cab, had carefully deposited himself on the pavement. Now, when you are an eminent physician and are wired for by an heiress to come to a case of dangerous mania, and when, as you come in through the garden to the house, the heiress and her landlady and two of the gentlemen boarders join hands and dance round you in a ring, calling out, "It's all right! it's all right!" you are apt to be flustered and even displeased.
That mental picture kept me laughing for pages.
The main idea is that a boarding house full of dull people receives an unexpected visit from one Mr. Smith, a large man with grasshopper-like abilities who appears over the wall one day. He promptly throws everything into disarray and does all the things that no one's thought of doing since they were kids. But then there's an intended elopement, a run-in with the local doctor and criminal specialist, and a sudden distrust of Mr. Smith, who appears to have a very questionable record of violence and philandering.
The conclusion of the matter is... all kinds of batty, bonkers bananas.
But after I finished it, I keep revising my opinion a little and thinking, "You know, I think I liked it." Probably worth a reread now that I know what in the name of sanity it all means!
But don't read the Goodreads description. It spoils it all totally. It was more interesting to just come upon the answer by degrees.
UPDATE: I've just edited the Goodreads description to take out the spoilers, but it might take a while to show up.