Review of The Resurrection of the Body by Maggie Hamand
The Resurrection of the Body
by Maggie Hamand
Maia Press, July 15, 2008, $17.59
This is a remarkable book on two counts. First, it was originally written in 24 hours and won the first World One-Day Novel Cup in 1995 (it has since been fleshed out and edited a bit for this 2008 publication). Second, it has one of the most unusual endings I have ever read.
The story begins in a church in east London where vicar Richard Page is conducting Good Friday services. During the silent meditation time, an anguished scream is heard in the vestibule and a man who has just been brutally stabbed in the chest comes crashing through the rear door into the church. Rushed to the hospital, the man soon succumbs to his wound without regaining consciousness. No one knows who he is, where he came from, or who stabbed him.
Several days after his autopsy, the body goes missing from the morgue. Both the police and Page are at a loss to explain how this could have happened, or why. Then, when a parishioner tells Page that she has since seen the same man working as a gardener not far away, the vicar decides to investigate. Noting the parallels between the disappearance of the body and the Resurrection of Christ, a miracle which Page has always believed was symbolic rather than real, he struggles with his faith while trying to make sense of what is happening.
This is a very quick read, not so much because of the length of the book (just over 200 pages), but because of the very short chapters and Maggie Hamand’s crisp prose. The author is a London journalist, short story writer and teacher of creative writing.—Joseph Scarpato, Jr.