The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t know the story of the crucifixion? Is there anyone who can speak and understand the language of Western Civilization who hasn’t seen The Passion, or The Last Temptation, or been dragged by a friend to Sunday school, or at the very least looked up the Wikipedia article on Easter? I am genuinely curious what such a person would make of Toibin’s Testament of Mary.
Anyone not know of Michelangelo’s Pieta? The painting by Velasquez? How would such a person take on this thin, 80-page novel? Is it possible to evaluate the story based solely on its language, its style… Mary as an aging woman, not a saint or the mother of Christ, but someone who watched her son brutalized in the name of Roman justice, Jewish politics, Messianic posturing. A simple woman, fraught with her own inadequacies, and, in counterpoint to the biblical mythology, sins. Can anyone read this and not compare it to the tropes that prop up the most prominent religion in the New World?
Because, if not, this book would seem to be merely blasphemous. Mary is a sinner. Jesus was proud. His disciples were madmen, and the writers of the gospel were opportunists. But let me be clear: this is no irreverent tome. This is not apology disguised as feminism. Toibin’s Testament is a point of view, one that asks us to consider the story without the religion, to discover the spirit rather than have it shoved down our throats. It’s that ironic opposite of blasphemous, one that casts a light on all those other inspired works and exposes them for the soul-seducing frauds they are.
That is, for those of who know the story of the crucifixion all too well. Who can’t help but see Jesus symbolism in every other plot we’re forced to sit through like obedient children in the pews. But for those special few, those with the intellectual curiosity but not the educated bruising, who can read this story without prejudice—I wonder what they think.