Colm Toibin's novel, The Testament of Mary, that re-imagines Mary in light of a humane mother and a "real" woman, instead of a mythical mom who was simply a function of God's grand scheme, has been "trending," along with the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict's resignation.
The novel has been adapted into a play that is currently playing on Broadway. It's a "bold, brazen piece" according to Maureen Dowd of the NYT.
The Mary of Toibin's creation is illiterate yet intelligent (a pointer for T that literacy has little obvious connection with intelligence per se), has echoes of Antigone and Electra, and is no "idealized, asexual and docile Madonna, tenderly cradling her son's bleeding body, Pieta-style."
This Mary cannot bear to witness the horror of crucifixion, disapproves of the outcasts that surround Jesus and (most scandalously) misses sleeping with Joseph.
Mary disdains the men who flock around Jesus' drive for power, for she can tell that they are in it, not for love of god, but for the creation of powerful institution by mythologizing the story of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection. She hates the notion of hiding the truth to protect the institution they are building.
Toibin is an (lapsed) Irish Catholic and gay.
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