![]() Gideon's sly unreliability is cloaked by Robertson's mastery of language and command of the elements of fiction the combination is addictive and captivating. ![]() Gideon's struggle to find meaning in his experience leads to his undoing. His survival is miraculous, but his account of what happened is scandalous: he was saved by the devil. But he appears downstream, only slightly injured, three days later. A conflicted Gideon, while walking with another minister, falls into a gorge and is presumed dead. After his wife dies in a traffic accident, Gideon consummates a long-held obsession with old friend Elsie, whose husband, John, is also a longtime friend. Raised by a harsh minister father, Gideon abandons faith at an early age, but later discovers it's possible to "be a Christian without involving Christ very much" and secures the pulpit at a small coastal church where he proves to be a gifted preacher. A brief foreword claims the book is an autobiography penned by Gideon Mack, a Church of Scotland minister who, after allegedly encountering the devil, becomes a pariah and madman before disappearing. ![]() Robertson offers in his absorbing American debut (two novels have been published in the U.K.) the cleverly framed autobiography of a Scottish minister who confronts the devil. For Gideon Mack, faithless minister, unfaithful husband, and troubled soul, the existence of God, let alone the Devil, is no more credible than that of ghosts or fairies - until the day he falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |