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catrink's review
5.0
This is a rollicking good, if somewhat bizarre read from modern standards. While not as strange as "The Man Who Was Thursday", Chesterton uses this tale of an avid but naive atheist, and an equally avid and naive Roman Catholic and their attempts to carry out a duel to examine major themes of both philosophy and religion of the time.
sarah_emtage's review
5.0
It has been long enough since my first time reading it that I had forgotten quite a bit of what happens. Also I think I understood and appreciated it quite a bit more this time around, and may even further the next time.
windhover's review
4.0
This book is not about the everyday world. It has little in common with the modern novels I am used to. It is not interested in exploring the nuances of introspection and social interaction. It seemed to me to be more like a farce with characters running around implausibly, saying witty, profound things. It also felt at times like a morality play with characters declaring their views on the state of the universe and of each other.
In the end, it is its own sort of book, a book obsessed not with "real life" but with reality. That is, it is a book interested in those parts of life that seem the most real, the parts when you are falling in love or escaping death or taking a stand for what is right. An absurd number of scenes take place at sunset or sunrise, with the almost automatic beauty and poignancy those times can carry.
The Ball and The Cross is about a devout Catholic and dogmatic atheist whose passionate stand against each other set them apart from the world and thus throws them together. At least, that is what the first half of the book is about. The second half (or maybe final third) is something else altogether—a Kafkaesque nightmare leading to a redemptive apocalypse, maybe. It's a little hard to describe.
Although The Ball and The Cross can feel didactic at times (it has no postmodern ambiguity about where it lands on the theism/atheism debate, for example), it is like little else you can read. If you can accept that G. K. Chesterton is doing his own thing here, the hyper-symbolic weirdness of its ending is really amazing.
NOTE: If you liked this book even a little, I would highly recommend Napoleon of Notting Hill. It has a similar narrative arc and is my very favorite of Chesterton's novels.
In the end, it is its own sort of book, a book obsessed not with "real life" but with reality. That is, it is a book interested in those parts of life that seem the most real, the parts when you are falling in love or escaping death or taking a stand for what is right. An absurd number of scenes take place at sunset or sunrise, with the almost automatic beauty and poignancy those times can carry.
The Ball and The Cross is about a devout Catholic and dogmatic atheist whose passionate stand against each other set them apart from the world and thus throws them together. At least, that is what the first half of the book is about. The second half (or maybe final third) is something else altogether—a Kafkaesque nightmare leading to a redemptive apocalypse, maybe. It's a little hard to describe.
Although The Ball and The Cross can feel didactic at times (it has no postmodern ambiguity about where it lands on the theism/atheism debate, for example), it is like little else you can read. If you can accept that G. K. Chesterton is doing his own thing here, the hyper-symbolic weirdness of its ending is really amazing.
NOTE: If you liked this book even a little, I would highly recommend Napoleon of Notting Hill. It has a similar narrative arc and is my very favorite of Chesterton's novels.
wwatts1734's review
4.0
To be honest, I had never heard of this title before I began reading a Collected Works of Chesterton, and of course "The Ball and the Cross" was near the beginning of this alphabetically arranged series. I am very glad that I read it, although I must warn the reader that this novel is very confusing in the beginning. It's the story of a conservative Catholic Scotsman named Even MacIan who breaks the window of the local newspaper "The Atheist" and challenges the editor, James Turnbull, to a duel. The novel is a comedy, and the situations in the novel are quite ridiculous on the face of it.
In one way, this novel is much like Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" as it is an odyssey of two very different characters who should not get along but ultimately do. In the end, this novel is a bit of a dystopia as it takes place partly in an insane asylum where the characters find themselves. At this point, the novel is an exploration of the fine line between atheism and insanity, between progressive thought and political oppression. In the end, each reader will find a different meaning in "The Ball and the Cross". But you will leave this novel taking something with you, a thought about how the world work, the nature of life and faith and society. That alone makes the time it takes to read this short novel worthwhile.
I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who likes Chesterton, humorous fiction and dystopian fiction.
In one way, this novel is much like Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" as it is an odyssey of two very different characters who should not get along but ultimately do. In the end, this novel is a bit of a dystopia as it takes place partly in an insane asylum where the characters find themselves. At this point, the novel is an exploration of the fine line between atheism and insanity, between progressive thought and political oppression. In the end, each reader will find a different meaning in "The Ball and the Cross". But you will leave this novel taking something with you, a thought about how the world work, the nature of life and faith and society. That alone makes the time it takes to read this short novel worthwhile.
I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who likes Chesterton, humorous fiction and dystopian fiction.
charityjohnson's review
3.0
Who has been hiding this book from me? Chesterton slays it.
Pull-quote from it: (on the problem of irrelevance/apathy by the public encountered by the editor of the paper, "The Atheist")
"Year after year went by, and year after year the death of God..became a leass and less important occurrence. All the forward me of his age discouraged [him]. The socialists said he was cursing priests when he should be cursing capitalists. The artists said that the soul was most spiritual, not when freed from religion, but when freed from morality."
Pull-quote from it: (on the problem of irrelevance/apathy by the public encountered by the editor of the paper, "The Atheist")
"Year after year went by, and year after year the death of God..became a leass and less important occurrence. All the forward me of his age discouraged [him]. The socialists said he was cursing priests when he should be cursing capitalists. The artists said that the soul was most spiritual, not when freed from religion, but when freed from morality."
jimmypat's review
4.0
This was a sprightly and fun book about the clash between atheism and theism. One of the most potent and important ideas that sprung from this novel was the indifference that society feels towards this clash- which, really, is the most fundamental argument of all. Chesterton’s work speaks directly to our time and it’s a shame that he is not wider read- but I suspect, sadly, it’s due to the terrible indifference of our world to the deepest question of all.
filia_secunda's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Long-time favorite. One of those wacky, adventurous, heartfelt, verbose, stridently Catholic books.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Racism and Antisemitism
josiahdegraaf's review
3.0
Interesting book that certainly fulfills its job of blending comedy with apologetics. It never really grabbed me, but my remaining ambivalence of the book more has to do with personal tastes than any flaws in the actual work.
Rating: 3.5 Stars (Good).
Rating: 3.5 Stars (Good).
samiwise's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
2.5