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    The Testament of Mary
    The Testament of Mary
    The Testament of Mary
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Testament of Mary

    Written by Colm Tóibín

    Narrated by Meryl Streep

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    2014 Audie Award Finalist for Audiobook of the Year, Literary Fiction, and Solo Narration—Female!

    Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, Colm Tóibín's provocative, haunting, and indelible portrait of Mary presents her as a solitary older woman still seeking to understand the events that become the narrative of the New Testament and the foundation of Christianity.

    In the ancient town of Ephesus, Mary lives alone, years after her son’s crucifixion. She has no interest in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel, who are her keepers. She does not agree that her son is the Son of God; nor that his death was “worth it”; nor that the “group of misfits he gathered around him, men who could not look a woman in the eye,” were holy disciples.

    Mary judges herself ruthlessly (she did not stay at the foot of the cross until her son died—she fled, to save herself), and her judgment of others is equally harsh. This woman whom we know from centuries of paintings and scripture as the docile, loving, silent, long-suffering, obedient, worshipful mother of Christ becomes a tragic heroine with the relentless eloquence of Electra or Medea or Antigone. Tóibín’s tour de force of imagination and language is a portrait so vivid and convincing that our image of Mary will be forever transformed.

    Editor's Note

    Daring & evocative…

    Tóibín’s daring and evocative novel challenges traditional notions of the holy virgin, humanizing her from ethereal being to grieving mother.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateSep 10, 2013
    ISBN9781442354944
    Author

    Colm Tóibín

    Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Tóibín was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.

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    Reviews for The Testament of Mary

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    • 4/5
      A gripping, understated, provocative story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Mary herself may have told it. Toibin brings a great humanity to the story, and our frailty takes on a strength of its own. Mary's voice is haunting, unwavering--I expect it to stay with me for a long time. This book gives me a fresh perspective on the old, old story. Merry Christmas, indeed.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I read this on Easter, an appropriate day for perhaps an annual reading, since it's only 81 pages. Mary, the mother of Jesus, old and wary, is living in the care of some of the gospel writers, who urge her to tell the crucifixion story the way they want to hear it, but Mary will tell only the truth. In her account the pieta never happened, and the resurrection was a common dream held by Mary and Mary Magdalene. The voice is sorrowful, lyrical, tired, forceful, resigned.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The book is very good. But the audio book, read by Meryl Streep was amazing. I highly recommend it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      First of course one has to suspend their belief and faith (if so inclined) and once that happens it is so incredibly easy to buy into this book. The writing is fantastic, the thoughts and feeling of Mary, the same as mother's everywhere. Looking back at when he was younger and needed her, her feelings of sadness as he left home, and lamenting the fact that he will not listen to her, not even to sane his life. Disliking his choice of friends and their influence over him .Actually quite amazing all that this little book encompasses. The poignancy and heartbreak of his crucifixion. But it is a line, one simple line at the end of the book that made this whole book a wonder to me. Not going to repeat it because I don't want to ruin it for other readers, if it even has the same impact for them. One of the quotes on the back of this book called it audacious, and I think that is a very apt description.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I finished this book in one fell swoop and I liked it. It is such a different slant, from a different point of view, of a story we all know so well. At university I took many art history courses so of course I came across many paintings/depictions of the Virgin Mary. Many of those portrayals are of a content, nurturing, almost flat and distant person. In this book of Toibin's we encounter a "real" mother, a mother with very major life experiences and tragedies and with all the emotions that one would encounter. She sees her son swirl in a very different and dangerous direction and looses her connection and influence with him and she also looses her connection with her own life and liberty. This would be a very hard parent situation to deal with. It was such a personal sacrifice on so many levels. The story's point of view is that she was not there as a disciple but as a mother. The writing was superb.
    • 5/5
      This is the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is old and lives alone in a far away place. The followers of Jesus come to her and want her to remember any of the details of her life and her son. She is a simple lady and not enlightened by the faith. She remembers the time when her son goes to Jerusalem and she hears about him from a cousin, Maurice. Maurice tells her to warn her son of his growing popularity among the people and the dissatisfaction of the ruling Romans. She decides to go to Jerusalem for a wedding where her son is expected to come and take him away from that city.Just before the wedding Jesus resurrects a dead man and at the wedding turns water into wine. She sees that her son is a different person than what she knew and is unable to convince him of his follies. She returns home dejected. Later from Maurice she finds out that Jesus is arrested and as punishment for his deeds is to be crucified. She reaches Jerusalem to be at his trial and his crucification. Being surrounded by spies and fearful of arrest she escapes Jerusalem and reaches a far off land to spend the reast of her days in annonimity. Later she hears of his resurrection and repents about the fact that she escaped for the fear of her life and was not with her son when he was buried.?The prose is lyrical and free flowing. Once you pick up this book it's hard to let go. It's not about religion but about a simple mother caring for her different son. A must read.
    • 3/5
      The Testament of Mary concerns the life of Mary, mother of Jesus, in her old age. This Mary is not the sainted holy mother that we find in the Bible and the writings of the church. She is a mother who is angry and bitter that her son has been killed. She finds his disciples to be a group of brutish, disgusting misfits. She appears to be suffering from the trauma of watching the torture and death of her beloved son (not the son of God, but the human person). She feels shame because of some her behavior at the end and how she feels that she abandoned Jesus in his time of need?thinking only of herself. She does not agree that her son is the Son of God (I am not really sure what she truly believes about his existence); nor that his death was "worth it"; she refuses to co-operate with the writers of the gospels, who regularly visit her and provide her with food and shelter. What she really longs for is to relive the time before the crucifixion, when both Jesus and Joseph were still alive?so they can grow old together?she longs for a normal life. This novella presents an interesting picture of Mary?as grieved, angry mother rather than a Saintly person who accepts all without complaint?I think the book would have been more interesting to present Mary as something in between these 2 extremes. 3 out of 5 stars.
    • 2/5
      A novella written from the perspective of the ageing Mary, mother of Jesus. It is a study in grief and in regret and could have been very, very good. However, I was not engaged at all by the character of Mary and, despite how short the story is, I wondered whether I could really bother to keep reading it. I did and my feelings remain mixed - such a great idea for a story, such a dull result.
    • 4/5
      weak ending and constrained by victimhood. overall an interesting concept.
    • 5/5
      Colm T?ib?n writes novels which tend to the dark and intense while thoroughly examining the angst and joys of his characters. His prose tends toward the simple ? without an ounce of simplicity ? the sublime and, as one reviewer wrote it is, ?elegant and complex.? The Testament of Mary, however, takes a slightly different tack. Based on a play, this novelization examines the life of Mary, the mother of Christ, years after her son?s crucifixion.T?ib?n portrays Mary as a skeptic in regard to her son?s divinity and the character of the men surrounding him during his public ministry as recounted in the New Testament. Those apostles are now her caretakers, providing her with food and shelter, all the while quizzing her for details of her son?s life. She clearly does not want the attention neither from strangers nor from those ?misfits,? (6) as she refers to them. She holds an empty chair for his return, but deep down, she her skepticism touches even this basic tenet of Christianity. T?ib?n writes, ??He was the Son of God,? the man said, ?and he was sent by his father to redeem the world.? ?By his death, he gave us life,? the other said. ?By his death, he redeemed the world.? ?I turned toward them then and whatever it was in the expression on my face, the rage against them, the grief, the fear, they both looked up at me alarmed and one of them began to move towards me to stop me saying what it was I now wanted to say. I edged back from them and stood in the corner. I whispered it at first and then I said it louder and as he moved away from me and almost cowered in the corner I whispered it again, slowly, carefully, giving it all my breath, all my life, the little that is left in me.??I was there,? I said. ?I fled before it was over but if you want witnesses then I am one and I can tell you now, when you say that he redeemed the world, I will say that it was not worth it. It was not worth it?? (79-80).Mary carries an enormous guilt for not staying with her son as he expires. Rather, she slips away with the others to save herself.Mary also treasures a small silver statue of the Goddess, ?I do not go to the Synagogue now. All that is gone. ? I move quietly. I speak to her in whispers, the great goddess Artemis, bountiful with her arms outstretched and her many breasts waiting to nurture those who come towards her? (80).This novel will most likely upset true believers, but T?ib?n has captured the anguish of a mother who has lost her son for a cause she neither believes in nor understands.Twice short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, T?ib?n?s Testament of Mary strikes at the core of sorrow, love, regret, and her longing for death. A truly noble and elegant story. 5 stars.--Jim, 12/8/12
    • 4/5
      It is very odd that I seek out alternative versions of bible stories seeing as I barely know the established ones. I have an interest in religion from my standpoint as an Agnostic, but have yet to read the Bible itself. I know my standpoint in itself is enough to offend some, but it ought not to as I respect the right of people to believe in whatever they like and hope the same would apply to me. So, this little book was longlisted for the Booker Prize and I grabbed it from the library hoping it would kick-start my Booker Prize reading again. It is short. Accessible. Written in conversational story-telling style. And it is powerful. In it Mary tells her version of what happened in the days before her sons death, and in the days after. She does not believe her son to be anything like as special as his disciples do, in fact she thinks he is getting too big for his boots, and that the disciples are trouble makers and tyrants. I am sure this must be a controversy to devoted Christians. But I take this story to be just another version of the events the bible describe. To me they are all stories and this one has just as much chance of being the true one as any other. It was interesting, heartfelt yet written with an emotional restraint that felt true from a narrator who had seen her son die a horrible death.
    • 5/5
      I read the book a few years ago, but Meryl Streep’s voice gave Mary a world weary timbre . You realize she is a mother who watched her son suffer a terrible execution. She does not feel that his death will save mankind.
    • 5/5
      What if Mary could tell us, from her perspective, what really happened? In this elegantly wrought novella, Colm T?ib?n provides us with his imagining of this. It took me a little bit to get swept up into her narrative, but once I did, reading this was a genuine delight. T?ib?n's use of language is exquisite. He believably gives voice to this grieving mother, and in the process he subtly explores the power of story, the transformation real events go through to become legend.She says"I do not know why it matters that I should tell the truth to myself at night, why it should matter that the truth should be spoken at least once in the world. Because the world is a place of silence, the sky at night when the birds have gone is a vast silent place. No words will make the slightest difference to the sky at night. They will not brighten it or make it less strange."And yet she speaks and tells her truth. This is almost a five-star read and I will return to it again, I am sure.
    • 4/5
      Europeans are divided about the attraction of American cities. Some are fascinated by the modernity of large cities, while others lament the lack of historical awareness and the cosiness of a historical city centre.The picture that emerges from Midnight in the garden of good and evil. A Savannah story puts Savannah in the same category of cities as New Orleans and San Francisco, in which Europeans who cannot be charmed by America's large sprawling metropolises.The author, John Berendt, makes quite an effort to explain how citizens of Savannah realized early in the 1960s that the preservation of the historical city centre was something worth to fight for. Not all parties involved in that effort acted out of pure altruism, and the author shows how conflicts and jarring interests in that development have led to entrenched political interests that would still be important for the story in the book.A large part of the book is spent painting up the individual characters who are either involved as primary characters in the story or on the side. The effect of these descriptions is quaint. The city centre emerges as a show-box, filled with peculiar people who are almost as quaint and old-fashioned as the historical building around them, ranging from old and fragile to the wildly exotic Chablis. The glamour of celebrity and Hollywood are sprinkled in to add to the magic.The life and career of Jim Williams, the main character are just as illustrious, and slowly Williams appears as the main focus of the story. His extravagant lifestyle, and the entourage of his house, Mercer House, filled with the exquisite antiques he deals in, set the stage for the drama to unfold. His eccentric lifestyle paves the way for readers to view his unusual relationship. Not the fact that it is a gay relationship, but the details of this somewhat peculiar relationship with Danny Hansford. While Jim Williams is described as having a relationship of a kind with Hansford, neither is specifically or exclusively described as being gay. With Williams, there seems to be a certain degree of disinterest, while Hansford is described as a more or less bisexual hustler, a victim of circumstances.The description of the murder investigation and trial are as unreal as anything, much like a farce, and all tainted by the hues of antiquity, as if it is set in the 1950s, or even further back, in the 1870s.Midnight in the garden of good and evil is based on a true murder case, but the author has transposed the story in a fairlyland setting of hyperreality or magic realism. This effect is enhanced by the voice of the gossipy omniscient narrator. The book is sometimes compared with In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, but the dreamlike quality of Midnight in the garden of good and evil has very little in common with the harsh realism of Capote's novel. In fact, the book has much more in common with another work by Berendt, namely The city of falling angels. What both books have in common is a highly personalized style in which the imagination of the author runs away with facts and conversations, transforming reality into an imagined story inside the head of the author.
    • 5/5
      ?I remember too much; I am like the air on a calm day as it holds itself still, letting nothing escape. As the world holds its breath, I keep memory in.? (5)The Testament of Mary is a bold endeavor in which Colm Toibin empathetically enters the heart and mind of Mary, mother of Jesus. She is not a religious figure here, but a mother ? observing her son?s troubling behaviour in the months leading up to his torturous death and attempting to come to terms with her grief as darkness descends on her world. Following her son?s crucifixion, Mary escapes being captured by those who would harm her and is living in exile. Her keepers, two of Jesus? followers, are writing the scriptures, a story which they believe will change the world. Mary is not so sure. ?I felt the enormity of their ambition and the innocence of their belief.? (101) Disinterested in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel, Mary struggles to come to terms with that she knows to have happened. Her son, Jesus, is not the Son of God, but the son of her late husband. After he had left home, she observed the crowd of followers her son associated with, and was troubled that no good would come of the association ? that which she deemed ?hysterical,? a palpable disturbance to which the conclusion was foregone. This ?high time? was dogged with gossip, rumours, and stories both true and wildly exaggerated. She recalls the strange atmosphere in Cana where her son is to meet her for a wedding: ?I knew already that the crowd I had seen in the street had not come for the wedding. I knew for whom these people had come, and when he appeared he frightened me more than any of Marcus?s words had frightened me.? (46)Of The Testatment of Mary, New York Times Magazine writes, ?Toibin?s prose is as elegant in its simplicity as it is complex in the emotions it evokes.? The novel (novella, really) is a quick read at just over 100 pages. But it has a depth which will take me much longer to absorb. Highly deserving of its 2013 Booker nomination and very highly recommended.?I had been made wild by what I saw and nothing has ever changed that. I have been unhinged by what I saw in daylight and no darkness will assuage that, or lessen what it did to me.? (94)
    • 3/5
      Of course this is fiction; no one knows what happened. There are perhaps some historical inaccuracies (rabbits, etc.), but the idea of telling the crucifixion from Mary's point of view is an interesting idea. There is a lot of ambiguity about the story and a lot of pure imagination.That said, there was something about it that did make the crucifixion seem much more real than the "traditional" ways of telling the story. It was a horrible, merciless way to die. We know that, but this story did seem to bring that home. And, as a church goer and a believer, I've heard the story for years and years. Was I offended by the story? No, definitely not. Unfortunately, so much of the Bible has been westernized, polished, and portrayed that it's sometimes hard to get beyond that. I did think the confusion among the followers of Jesus following the crucifixion was well drawn. To me, this doesn't weaken my faith, but gives it a different perspective (again, realizing that it is fiction), which in the end helps to build a faith that is not built on specific
    • 4/5
      This very short novella tells a few episodes in the life of Jesus Christ from the perspective of his mother Mary. She is telling the story many years later to two devoted believers who want to get down every last detail but are often disappointed with her memories and perspectives. Mary herself is more focused on the goddess Artemis and does not relate to the fervor and beliefs of Christ's followers. As she summarizes: "if you want witnesses then I am one and I can tell you now, when you say that he redeemed the world, I will say that it was not worth it. It was not worth it.?
    • 4/5
      The basics: The premise is somewhat audacious: years after the crucifixion, Mary lives alone. She recalls the last days of her son's life, including his death. Although the disciples keep her fed and provide housing, Mary does not share their belief that her son was the Son of God.My thoughts: The writing is beautiful and haunting. Mary is such a cultural and religious icon, and Toibin rises to the challenge to imagine Mary and her inner workings in a different way. As a character, she's incredibly dynamic: "I no longer need tears and that should be a relief, but I do not seek relief, merely solitude and some grim satisfaction which comes from the certainty that I will not say anything that is not true." Mary feels emotionally tortured. She reacts the way we would expect a grieving mother to act: she mourns the loss of her son. Yet everyone around her celebrates his death. This contrast is even more vivid when Mary recalls the day of the crucifixion itself. Toibin does not shy away from the horrors of dying in that way. It's difficult to read because Toibin, through Mary and with his own hand, emphasize the humanity of Jesus.Favorite passage: "Oh, eternal life!" I replied. "Oh, everyone in the world!" I looked at both of them, their eyes hooded and something appearing dark in their faces. "Is that what it was for?" They caught one another's eye and for the first time I felt the enormity of their ambition and the innocence of their belief.The verdict: Ultimately, I appreciated The Testament of Mary more in theory than in application. As I read, I was more enamored with the idea of this novella than the novella itself. In many ways, it was a fascinating read, but it wasn't a particularly satisfying one.
    • 3/5
      Colm was definitely taking the Mick with this one, at just 104 pages, if he had held it sideways it would have gone missing; it was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Let us remind ourselves that the Man Booker prize is awarded for the best original novel in the English Language. A Novel that is; not a short story, perhaps the panel were confused by the criteria for a short list and chose it because was erm............ short. Now I know that Julian Barnes had walked away with the prize in 2011 with his 160 page [Sense of an Ending] which was both short and unoriginal; so perhaps Toibin thought that if he wrote something even shorter and based it on one of the most well known stories in the world he would be bound to win. Perhaps some authors writing today believe that their readers attention span is so short that they cannot handle more that one idea or one central character.E M Forster back in the 1920's reminded us what the [Aspects of the Novel] were and he started with three main criteria: Story, people and plot. The novel should tell a story, there should at least be ragged ends to keep the reader interested, but all we get in The Testament of Mary is a different perspective on a well known story. Sure Toibin makes the point that Mary's part in the story was largely neglected by the chroniclers and her Testament, such as it was may well have been invented by the mythmakers, but this is hardly an original idea. Toibin does rather better with Forsters second criteria which is people. The aim of a novelist, especially an historical novelist should be to reveal the inner life of the actors in the story. One could say that the whole point of Toibin's book is to reveal the inner life of Mary; mother of Jesus and he does this by telling her story through a first person perspective. It is the life of a woman who fails to understand her son and who has to watch helplessly as he is put to death in a most cruel fashion. She sees the power that Jesus has over other people but she cannot equate this with the boy who grew up in her house and so what we have here is a mother's torment, rather than testament. Toibin has room enough for only one person in his story and so it has to be a good one. However on Forster's third criteria; plot, there is very little evidence of any such thing. Forster says the reader does not only need to know that things have happened he also needs to know why they happened and it is the novelist skill in revealing these issues, that keeps us wanting to know more, there should be some mystery. Admittedly this is more difficult in a historical novel, especially one that retells some of the most well known stories in the English language, but all that Toibin has time to tell us is that the action took place in a closed fearful society that was continually spying and spied upon and that those in Authority were able to stage manage events to their own advantage.Cynically one might think that another good way to sell a whole load of books, retailing at ?8.00 a throw, would be to create some controversy and what is better than to attack some of the most basic tenents of the catholic church. Despite what we read in the scriptures; the myth of the virgin Mary has developed down the ages and for some she is the most revered person in history. By depicting her as a grieving mother who does not for one moment believe Jesus is the son of God strikes at the heart of the catholic faith. Protests, publicity, of course there was.Despite all that I have said above I enjoyed the reading experience, although it was all over within the hour. Toibin is a master of creating an atmosphere of time and place. He writes beautifully placing his readers in scenarios that are both sharp and keenly sensitive. There are three major scenarios here that are beautifully written; the wedding at Canna, Pilates handling of the rabble and finally the crucifixion itself. The character of Mary is beautifully achieved; a person who understands little, relying on her instincts as a woman and a mother to see her through. His use of the first person allows us to get inside the head of an ordinary mother from that era and although he strays at times by making her think like a woman from current times, this does not get in the way of the characterisation and is often necessary to explain actions that are taken. A good book club choice for those clubs whose members have little time for reading, assuming also they have some background in the Christian religion. Me, I am still waiting for the other short stories that would have made this into a fine collection. Toibin having failed to win the Man Booker did what he should have done in the first place and re-wrote this as a play with only one actor. It would make a tremendous monologue. A three star read.
    • 4/5
      A powerful imagining of how the death of Jesus might have been experienced by his mother -- if in fact his mother was a Judean peasant woman in the first century of the Roman Empire. The tale is told by Mary in her old age, living out her life in a house in Ephesus, where two disciples try to get her to remember Jesus life and death as they want to have it remembered. Mary, however, remembers it differently. The story focusses on Jesus' last days and on his death, and Mary does not see this as a glorious event that opens the way to redemption. Or, it it does, she does not think that her son's agony was worth it. Moreover, her own humanity intrudes into the story that came to prevail -- this Mary fled Golgotha in fear for her life. What she longs for is the long ago, when her son was small and safe, and her husband was with her. Based on the spread of ratings here and on Amazon, people either like this book a lot, or dislike it intensely. For a believer, it would be hard to like. For a non-believer, it is a moving and beautifully written story of what Mary's experience -- as a mother and a woman in her time and place -- might have been like.
    • 3/5
      I was not really taken with this incredibly short piece of writing. I was intrigued by the set-up: Mary, the mother of Jesus, reflecting on her son's last years and death, without reverence or acceptance, while living in some fear for her own safety. Her recollections and impressions do not jive with the Biblical accounts we are familiar with; she had no desire to play along with those who hoped to establish Jesus' posthumous reputation as Son of God and Savior of Mankind, even though her livelihood and well-being seem to depend on their good will. Notably, T?ib?n did not call this "The Gospel according to Mary"---there is no hint of good news here. In Mary's eyes, her son's followers were louts, Jesus's miracles were shams, and his brutal death was devoid of any redemptive value. I can believe this version of Mary; I just don't care very much about her, because she seems rather flat on the page.
    • 5/5
      The narrator of this novel is Mary, the mother of Christ. She is at the end of her life and is being tended by two men who are unspecified but seem to be apostles. She reminisces about Jesus? miracles and crucifixion. She seems to doubt his divinity and resurrection and feels that his followers are planning to use his death for propaganda advantages. She does not trust these men and their motives and wishes that he was not sacrificed. Her view was that the Romans, who just wanted him out of the way because he was a threat to their power, bribed the people who crucified him.Toibin has created a fascinating new perspective on one of the most significant historical events by a character who was close to the events. Readers should consider listening to the audiobook because it is a masterful performance by Meryl Streep. She manages to express Mary?s doubts and conclusions with subtle voice inflections. This performance adds much to a fascinating novel.
    • 4/5
      Liked this a lot, especially as it contains many of the arguments I used to have with Religious education teachers about certain miracles.
      Also, the depth of Mary's grief as well as her distrust and hatred of her son's 'followers' is stunningly portrayed.
      Easy to see why this made the Booker shortlist.
    • 1/5
      Unconvincing, fuzzy and leaving bewilderment as to why it was written. This book is not necessary.
    • 5/5
      First of all, Meryl Streep. Even if I had not been already interested in this novel, finding out it's read by Meryl Streep? I'm in. And she was brilliant.The novel itself is a different side to the traditionally told story of the life of Jesus - what if the version passed down through history isn't quite the way it happened? What would Mary's story actually be? Toibin's Mary is not the sweet, joyful, willing handmaiden of the biblical tale - she is practical, and weary, and guarded, and scared, and the author made me believe right along with her.This is a thought-provoking read, which is sure to cause some to feel unsettled with it's re-imagining of the beloved story. It's a book I will come back to - I think it will hold up to reading again and again. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Toibin writes beautiful lyric prose, but The Testament of Mary adds little perspective or insight to the well-known gospel stories that it retells.
    • 4/5
      THE TESTAMENT OF MARYColm T?ib?nThere is an old joke that goes like this: A very pious nun died and was immediately admitted to Heaven. She was welcomed and told that since she led such a pious life, she could meet anyone in Heaven and ask that person a question. She immediately said she would like to meet the Virgin Mary. Her request was granted. As the nun knelt down in front of Mary in adoration, Mary gently raised her up and looked into her eyes, inviting the nun to ask her question. The nun reverently asked, ?How does it feel to be the Mother of Jesus Christ?? Mary thought about the question, then looked at the nun and said, ?To tell the truth, I always wanted a girl.? The answer to the nun?s question could also be the plot of THE TESTAMENT OF MARY. It is not the story found in the Christian Bible though it does include several of the most famous incidents. It is the story of a mother and her relationship with her son as she nears the end of her life. She never uses his name.Before his death, their relationship has become strained as he gets more involved with his friends, whom she doesn?t like. ?Something abut the earnestness of those young men repelled me....something of their awkward hunger, or the sense that there was something missing in each one of them. Too much talk and,?even worse, when my son would insist on silence and begin to address them as though they were a crowd, his voice all false and his tone all stilted....?She witnesses some of the activities which are considered miracles but sees negative sides as well. Lazarus?s life after being revived was not a blessing for him. ?...I still feel, that no one should tamper with the fullness that is death. Death needs time and silence. The dead must be left alone with their new gift or their new freedom from affliction.?When she tried to warn him to not go to the wedding because he was in danger he moved away and said, ?Woman, what have I to do with thee?? ? He began to talk to others...using strange proud terms to describe himself and his task in the world....[and that] he was the Son of God.?She thought about his change from a defenseless baby to a young man, ?a man filled with power that seemed to have no memory of the years before.? ?And what was strange about the power he exuded was that it made me love him and seek to protect im even more than I did when he had no power.?She observed changes in society. Young people wanted to go to Jerusalem and it became more important than it had been. They were held by its pull of money and the future. ?I had never heard anyone talk about the future until then unless it was tomorrow....or a feast they attended each year. But not sometime to come in which all would be different and all would be better....It carried away my son. If he did not go, people might have wondered why....?People, men and women alike, were more outspoken about their rulers, laws, and taxes. ?Then the talk turned to the miracles my sons and his followers could do, and how many were desperate to follow them now, or merely to find where they were.? She saw ?the world itself would undergo a great change, and then I quickly came to see that the change would happen only to me and to the few who know me; it would be only us who would look at the sky at night in the future and see the darkness before we saw the glitter. We would see the glittering stars as false and mocking, or as bewildered themselves by the night as we were, as left-over things confined to their place, their shining nothing more than a sort of pleading.?She talks about her son?s crucifixion in great detail adding that she left before he died because she was afraid she would be captured and possibly killed as well. She states that it was all prearranged even though it appeared that Pontius Pilate was giving the crowd a choice. She did not wash his body or attend the burial because she feared she would be arrested and, possibly, killed.She lives a solitary life, dabbling in pagan religions. No mention is made of her other children. Friends of his bring her food, provide shelter, and visit her (she calls them guards), are preparing their version of the Gospel but she refuses to collaborate with them. They want her to say she was present when he died, washed his body and attended the burial. She refuses. ?They want to make what happened live for ever...What is written down, they say, will change the world....He was indeed the Son of God.? They tried to convince her that when she conceived him, she felt differently. They say ?he died to redeem the world. To free mankind from darkness and sin...Sent into the world to suffer on the cross. His suffering was how mankind would be saved. ?Saved? ?Who has been saved?? she asks. They respond, ?Those who came before him and those who live now and those who are not yet born.? ?They were saved for eternal life.?She tells them, ?I was there. I fled before it was over but if you want witnesses then I am one and I can tell you now, when you say that he redeemed the world, I will say that it was not worth it.?THE TESTAMENT OF MARY is beautifully written with flowing sentences. (If you like short, direct sentences, you won?t find them here.) It does not present the Christian Bible version. It presents a fictional, mother?s perspective.
    • 2/5
      It was VERY well read. I do wish the author had read the scriptures about Mary`s life and Jesus`s death. SOOOO much was NOT correct. I understand the author wants "her take" on things, but I do feel much was lost in this.
    • 4/5
      As with just about any book written about important religious figures, there are many diverse opinions about this one. I had to go see for myself, and was able to pick up the audio version, narrated by Meryl Streep.On the 2013 Booker Prize Shortlist, this short (104 pages in print, just over 3 hrs in audio) powerful narrative gives us a completely different voice for Mary, mother of Jesus. This is not a plaster saint, nor is she wearing anything close to a halo. This is the reflection of an elderly woman, looking back on her life, wondering what happened to turn her precious baby boy into a radical rebel who was ultimately subjected to a brutal and violent death.This is a woman who does not see her boy as the son of God, who doesn't understand the disciples (those bullies her boy got involved with), who is afraid, who is searching for meaning, and who, as she nears the end of her life, is trying to make sense of everything that happened to her son during his short time on earth.As one might expect, Meryl Streep's reading is superb. I actually think this is one book that is much more powerful in audio than just being read in print. Mary is brought to us in low, at times almost catatonic, monotones. Her dreamlike remembrances give us an insight unlike any Christians are used to in their Bible readings. In particular, her version of the resurrection of Lazarus gives us an almost zombie-like figure barely stumbling around supported by his sisters. Mary cannot believe her son would participate in such a quack like show of magic. She doesn't understand, and yet doesn't question him.At Cana, we get a very different picture from the Synoptic gospels. In Toibin's work, Mary is not the instigator; in fact she is trying to get him to keep from making a show of himself. At the crucifixion, which Toibin paints in excruciating detail, we feel for this woman, who in spite of her love for her son (or because of it?) does not stay to witness the end, but rather runs into hiding in fear of her life. It is only in her later dreams that we are given the Pi?ta vision of Michaelangelo's.This is a powerful read with many opportunities for challenging what we think and believe. In the end, I don't think it will change any religious beliefs, but it will flesh out a marble statue.
    • 1/5
      Imaginative yet historically inaccurate. This version of Mary is anachronistic, as are the disciples and their understanding