A review by junosdaughter
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence

adventurous emotional funny hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Maggie Laurence is a mother to a lot of the literary fiction girls out there today and they don’t even know it. This novel is hilarious, simple but well-crafted. Rachel’s inner dialogue is startlingly authentic, so much so that I was shocked seeing this described as “a woman hovering on the brink of madness” in the introduction because this is literally just girlhood to me.

She becomes a fool for love, after spending her entire life disgusted by the “fools” of the world; those who wear emotions on their sleeves, those who wear unflattering clothes, those who aren’t conscious of sticking out, those who do not make their every decision in life to align seamlessly with the world around them. Rachel tells herself she could never be like them, it would be a jest of God to ever end up in a similar way. Then, she meets a man. For the first time in her life, she has an outlet for the emotions she keeps locked away. For the first time, she chooses on pure desire. For the rest of the novel, it’s as Jacqueline Novak put so eloquently: “I, too, hear the jingle of bells upon my hat.”

At her most foolish, most irrational and unwise, Rachel is so sympathetic. Her bitterness starts to melt away and, finally with a life of her own to deal with, she becomes less critical of everyone else. Slowly, she sees how her terrible insecurity is killing her inside out:

“Go on, Rachel. Apologize. Go on apologizing for ever, go on until nothing of you is left. Is that what you want the most?”

and…

“No, I have no pride. None left, not now. This realization renders me all at once calm, inexplicably, and almost free. Have I finished with façades? Whatever happens, let it happen. I won't deny it.”

Rachel realizing the futility of living for anyone but yourself is extremely gratifying to read because it’s such a relatable trap. We have literally all been there. We’ve all had these growing pains. Rachel’s second adolescence is just happening a little later than she might have wished.

“God’s mercy on reluctant jesters. God’s grace on fools,” the final lines of the book, one of my favourite lines of prose of all time. It’s just so deeply true!!! I could scream it from rooftops.