Book review. On the Seventh Day . By Mark Wilson

 

On the Seventh Day- Mark Wilson

I’m running out of superlatives to describe the works of Mark Wilson. Often compared to his compatriot, Irvine Welsh, I find that’s a tad lazy as he has a completely different writing style. I find that Mr Wilsons work is more subtle and deeply considered than the full throttle assault Irvine welsh often adopts.

When approaching this book and reading the little teasers (again the Irvine welsh comparison was made) like "God hates you. Regardless of religion, race, sex, sexuality or nationality. He hates all of you. Basically, you are fucked."…it would be fair to say I was expecting a full on twisted barrage of anti-religious abuse. Whereas what Mark Wilson does with this book is to gently satirise religion by way of the retelling of biblical stories through the eyes of “Nick” who is one of the main characters in the book, while The other main characters wreak havoc in the present as Jesus is resurrected by way of inhabiting the body of a nondescript Scotsman, along with Moses as his right hand man inhabiting the body of a Manchester United footballer.

So the book has two streams throughout, That of Jay and Mo, trying to convince the entire world (every single one of us) that they must repent and adopt the one and only true commandment that God (Stuart) asked Moses to impart to the human race, which was, “don’t be a cunt” , before Moses got idea’s above his station and carved out those other nonsensical 10 commandments back in the day.

The world looks on in disbelief and shock as Jay and Mo perform miracle after miracle at various points around the world (spread like wild fire by social media).

Whilst the miracles convince many, the media, sceptics (and a deadly agent provocateur) cause their own havoc by their usual underhanded skulduggery and cynicism. 

Whilst all this is going on the story unveils it's new characters and twists. The afore mentioned Nick has his own issues with God / Stuart (an angrier more cynical God you could never meet).These characters, especially Nick, take us to different places and theories and this adds to the books mystery and intrigue in such a way that it helps prevent the book from being a simply witty farce as Wilson shows just how much he researched his biblical theories and then reconstructed them (or was it deconstructed them?) through his magical Wilson eyes before putting pen to paper.

The result is a thoroughly entertaining, controversial, thought provoking, funny, outrageous (at times) story of what could happen if God or the son of God was to reveal him/herself to the modern world. The phrase “you're talking through your arse” takes on a whole new meaning in this story and literally had me laughing out loud!

Miracles are either believed by half the people or considered trickery or blasphemy by the other half…and let’s face it I know which camp I would fall in if a Scotsman and a premier league footballer called a press conference telling us they are Moses and Jesus reincarnated and we must all repent of God will fuck us over…in 7 days.

On the seventh Day genuinely makes you think how we would react of the son of God was ressurected in these fucked up sceptical, religiously divided times whilst also being able to make you guffaw (or Tut in outrage, if you are that way inclined).

I loved On the seventh day and would defo recommend this to any of my friends and family and readers of the End Fanzine……talking of which!... at one point in the book Jesus / Jay even receives a tweet from The End fanzine (yes really!) asking him if he’s up for an interview!...you can imagine my delight and pride at having our little fanzine included in the work of one Mark Wilson…go buy this book now, you won’t be disappointed….and while you’re at it, have a look through Mark Wilsons other body of work and try them too. The man has such a great talent and should already be a literary star…...just like that cunt Irvine Welsh.