Wednesday, November 18, 2009

"Mr. Andrews." EM Forster.

One-minute review: Mr. Andrews is dead and going to heaven. He was a righteous man in the world and he is joined on his journey to heaven by a Turk who has killed the Infidel and had three wives. Outside the gates of heaven they feel the world soul. Inside heaven they have all that they want, including the Turk’s seven virgins who were promised by Allah in the Koran. They encounter all the little gods that had been worshipped in the world—Buddha, Vishna, Allah, Jehovah—whose personalities grow brighter or fade depending on the number of prayers from below. They are not happy gods.


Both Mr. Andrews and the Turk decide to leave heaven and they join the world soul to which their wisdom from their experience in heaven contributes to make the world soul better. They have been given all that they expected in heaven and yet they were not happy. That is the wisdom they gained from their experience in heaven.


A strange tale of the after life.


75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World’s Literature. Ed. Roger B. Goodman. New York: Bantam Books. 1961.

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