The Testament of Gideon Mack

James Robertson has written the most interesting, poignant, and thought-provoking novel I have read this year. His use of writing the novel as a sort of annotated manuscript provokes, in addition to its plot, the theme of faith. His characters are superbly conceived. The dichotomy of Gideon Mack, the protagonist minister who may be more devout than he would like himself to be, and his father, who Gideon so stubbornly insists he is nothing like, is interesting, especially near the end of the novel. These and many other qualities that other reviewers have given for you to read this novel, SO READ IT!

After reading the Testament of Gideon Mack, I am amazed by the depth of the book and the meticulous research that went into creating this modern Gothic tale. It's refreshing to read a book that allows the reader to arrive at her own conclusion. While the book is a first person account of trials and tribulations of Gideon Mack, it is also an indirect account of Scotland's identity crisis over the last 30 years. While there are many doubts surrounding the accuracy of Gideon Mack's account, the fundamental question that the book made me ask is the following: What is the role of religion in a society where anyone who converses with god or the devil is considered mad?

James Robertson's "The Testament of Gideon Mack" is quite the most wonderfully engaging and satisfying work of fiction I have read in a long, long while. Considering the duds that made the Booker shortlist last year, I'm baffled as to why it made the longlist but went no further. Gideon Mack, son of a Calvinist minister and himself a Presbyterian minister in the small Scottish village of Old Kirk, is a secret unbeliever. He ministers faithfully to his parishioners and preaches every Sunday to his flock without believing a word of what he's saying. In short, he is a spiritual imposter and a charlatan. Being a minister is just his day job. Yet, why is it that we can't help but come away with the feeling that he isn't remotely the hypocrite the above suggests he should be ? Could it be that we ask ourselves, how could anyone growing up in a family where the father (himself a man of the cloth) is as unnaturally severe and closed-minded and the mother as downtrodden and deflated as Gideon's be expected to believe in the institution of marriage and family and have faith in the existence of a loving God ? Sadly perhaps, the instruments of God are often his worst advocates. Ironically, it is Gideon and not his religious colleagues or openly agnostic friends who are chosen to experience the spiritual awakening vis-à-vis an amazing encounter with the Devil during those missing hours between the time he fell off a cliff into the gushing waters whilst trying to rescue a friend's dog and the time he's delivered back into the arms of the living. The sudden appearance of a standing stone in Keldo Woods, a phenomenon though not exclusively visible to him but in fact observed only by him - is a spooky precursor of his strange encounter with the horned one. His conversation with the Devil reveals a message of abandonment by God, which in turn propels him to come clean with his community. His confession is unwelcome as it upsets the studied and ordered lives of those around him. His best friend's wife, Elsie, whom he lusts after and had a tryst with proves faithless even as a friend. His fellow minister, Lorna, who has long nursed a secret crush on him proves equally adept at shutting him out when the message of his strange encounter flies in the face of her religious belief. Are these people - religious or agnostic - in any sense better or morally superior to Gideon ? At least, Gideon was open and had the honesty and humility to confess his ignorance as a human being who may not know the truth but is vulnerable to revelations from the world beyond. "The Testament of Gideon Mack" doesn't tell one to believe or not to believe. It does however nail religious belief to the realm of the unknown. People believe what they believe or want to believe. Regardless of the truth, with openness and humility, one is more likely to behave like a decent human being. Robertson has written an incredibly rich and absorbing novel that is full of literary flourishes, wit and im

Superbly narrated with a range of Scottish accents by Tom Cotcher, "The Testament Of Gideon Mack" is a compelling fantasy novel by James Robertson that is completely original and inherently fascinating from beginning to end. A manuscript of Gideon Mack's experiences growing up a preacher's son, his basic atheism, his becoming a minister of the Scottish church despite his disbelief in God, his encounter with a mysterious Standing Stone where no such stone should be, his near death by drowning, his encounter with the Devil, his attempt to reveal what he has experienced and the catastrophic consequences that result, all this and more are delivered into the hands of a publisher after Gideon's sudden disappearance followed by the discovery of his body. The publisher commissions an investigation into the Gideon's life and the claims of his biographical manuscript. The results leave the listener spellbound and, in the end, confronted with their own decision to make as to whether Gideon's story was real, or the result of madness. Wonderfully entertaining from beginning to end, and very strongly recommended for community library collections, "The Testament Of Gideon Black" is a superbly recorded, 12-cassette audiobook with a total running time of 16.25 hours.

This is the story of Gideon Mack, a son of the manse, raised in a cold and stark childhood and who is dominated by a minister father. He claims to have met the Devil during a period when he falls into a river and is missing for 3 days. The ensuing manuscript he writes, of his life and metamorphosis, is the basis for the book. James Robertson has taken a story of the supernatural, religion and myth and wove it into the tapestry of a small Scottish village. The results are a mesmerising novel that I had a hard time putting down! It was thought-provoking and reverberated with me for days after the last page was turned.