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The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
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The Testament of Mary (original 2012; edition 2013)

by Colm Tóibín

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1,37310913,504 (3.61)1 / 237
A provocative imagining of the later years of the mother of Jesus finds her living a solitary existence in Ephesus years after her son's crucifixion and struggling with guilt, anger, and feelings that her son is not the son of God and that His sacrifice was not for a worthy cause.
Member:PennyAnne
Title:The Testament of Mary
Authors:Colm Tóibín
Info:Penguin (2013), Paperback, 112 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:**
Tags:the Virgin Mary, Jesus, mother-son relationships

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The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín (2012)

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» See also 237 mentions

English (102)  Dutch (2)  Swedish (2)  German (1)  Spanish (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (109)
Showing 1-5 of 102 (next | show all)
In this slim novel, the mother of Jesus reckons with her rage and grief over the death of her son after she flees in fear for her own life. She remembers him as a sweet, dependent child and the passionate, arrogant man he became, proclaiming himself the Son of God, and sealing his death warrant. In Toíbín’s imagination, Mary is transformed from the passive, beatific incidental figure of the Bible to a very human mother confounded by her son’s demagoguery, but nevertheless supporting him during his agonizing hours on the crucifix and dealing with her grief afterward and guilt for having fled for her personal safety. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013. Wonderfully narrated by Meryl Streep in the audio version. ( )
  bschweiger | Feb 4, 2024 |
A brutal sad brief story. Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short as Hobbes would say. Mary tells a story of a pointless bit of suffering. Simply told with the elegance of a mother, in the harshest finest sense.
  BookyMaven | Dec 6, 2023 |
Thought provoking and memorable ( )
  sfj2 | Nov 16, 2023 |
Thought-provoking alternative perspective on the death of Jesus. ( )
  Bonnie_Bailey | Jul 7, 2023 |
The Testament of Mary is an account of the death of Jesus from the point of view of the one who knew him best, his mother Mary.

Toibin's Mary is an aged woman preparing herself for the end of her life and seeking to clarify in her own mind the events surrounding her son's death. She recounts her son's inexorable slide into the clutches of his political enemies and gives us a grim eyewitness account of the crucifixion. Mary's account of the aftermath varies dramatically from the traditional account.

Toibin's novella is ridden with heresies that are subtly and gently delivered in a way that is absolutely believable, although the book will no doubt ruffle many feathers. It is however a succinct and beautiful account of a mother's special bonds to her child, and a very human portrayal of a person who tradition has presented as more of a semi-divine figure. ( )
  gjky | Apr 9, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 102 (next | show all)
Colm Tóibín's mothers don't always behave as they should; they are often unpredictable, occasionally downright troublesome, prone to gusts of passion or rage or – worse – unnatural indifference. Rarely are they uncomplicated figures of placid, nurturing devotion; but they do make for fantastically involving fiction. In his 2006 short-story collection, Mothers and Sons, Tóibín brought us relationships that were often characterised by the way they inverted traditional roles. An entrepreneurial widow plots to escape to the anonymity of the big city, clashing with her son's determination to hold fast to their small-town life; another man slinks away from a crowded pub rather than be spotted by the celebrated mother who has absented herself from his life; in "A Long Winter", a magnificent extended piece set in rural Spain, a young man is forced to keep house ineptly for his father after his alcoholic mother walks out into a snowstorm rather than be deprived of drink.....
added by marq | editThe Guardian, Alex Clark (Oct 26, 2012)
 

» Add other authors (32 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Tóibín, Colmprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Streep, MerylNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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For Loughlin Deegan and Denis Looby
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They appear more often now, both of them, and on every visit they seem more impatient with me and with the world.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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"Originally published in 2012 in Great Britain by Viking Penguin." T.p. verso
"Some of this novel was used as the basis for the play "Testament," performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October 2011." T.p. verso
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Wikipedia in English (2)

A provocative imagining of the later years of the mother of Jesus finds her living a solitary existence in Ephesus years after her son's crucifixion and struggling with guilt, anger, and feelings that her son is not the son of God and that His sacrifice was not for a worthy cause.

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Book description
In a voice that is both tender and filled with rage, The Testament of Mary tells the story of a cataclysmic event which led to an overpowering grief. For Mary, her son has been lost to the world, and now, living in exile and in fear, she tries to piece together the memories of the event that led to her son's brutal death. To her he was a vulnerable figure, surrounded by men who could not be trusted, living in a time of turmoil and change.

As her life and her suffering begin to acquire the resonance of myth. Mary struggles to break the silence surrounding what she knows to have happened. In her effort to tell the truth in all its gnarled complexity, she slowly emerges as a figure of immense moral stature as well as a woman from history rendered now as fully human.
Spain, a small mountain village. The younger brother leaves to do his military service. After an argument about the mother's consumption of alcohol, she runs away. The snow begins to fall during her escape to the mountain paths, on her way to her native village, and she never returns. The older son and the father knows that they have to wait until spring to find her dead body.
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