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Title: Silence in October by Jens Christian Grondahl, Anne Born ISBN: 0-15-601297-9 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant
Comment: I was so gripped by 'Silence in October' that I was compelled to finish it in two days. With themes similar to that of the film 'My Dinner with Andre' and the poetry of American writer jani johe webster, this profound novel addresses the core of our being with beautiful and unrelenting questions on meaning and being. The prose is clean, and the content brings this novel into the circle of truly great literature.
The narrator's meditation on the departure of his wife, the meaning of that relationship and other 'defining' relationships, resonates with our own experience of the mystery of intimacy. Do our relationships over time define and create us, and who is the person still within, the person who might have existed had these relationships perhaps not (randomly?) happened? As the narrator reflects so astutely of his wife, 'When did it dawn on her that there was still an unknown woman trying to draw breath through her nose and mouth, a woman I had never set eyes on, behind her familar features?' The narrator, who, for undoubtedly metaphorical reasons, remains unnamed, also reflects on the passage of time, the inadeqacy of words, and most powerfully, the nature of projection onto another: 'I thought I was writing about Astrid, or about Ines and Elisabeth for that matter, but in fact I was only writing about myself, and when conversely I tried to recall my own thoughts and feelings through the years, I merely interpreted the fleeting shadows that an Elisabeth, an Astrid, and an Ines in turn threw on the valud of my skull's mumbling loneliness.'
One cannot help but read this novel and think of Andre reiterating the most essential human questions of 'Who are we? Where do we come from? And where are we going?', or the line from jani johe webster's powerful prose poem 'the weariest river,' in which she writes, 'and if there be no self discover, but rather a collection of aped masks, fastened to a dangling puppet, what then? we all have to make this search, do you think, before death nudges us for the last time?' And like the film 'My Dinner with Andre' and webster's poetry, there is, in this novel, both a disturbing, haunting element, and yet also an element of the possibility of emanicapation from our illusions.
Rating: 5
Summary: Masterful....
Comment: I generally don't read a lot of fiction unless something original about the story captivates me. I picked this one up for no particular reason and found the subject matter compelling - the odd dynamic in relationships whereby you can spend years with someone and share all levels of deep intimacy and yet still not really know them. Grondahl's work on a pure story level was incredibly satisfying, exploring the complexity of the human psyche and portraying the protagonist's deep introspection and trains of thought with wonderful skill. The story was also written in the first person with no real interference from any all-knowing narrator - no small feat.
All told, this is a thoughtful and thought-provoking piece of work. It is a book you cannot (or should not) read quickly; rather I found myself getting through chapters or even different scenes within chapters and having to stop and think about what I read.
Highly recommended!
Rating: 5
Summary: A great book for a silent vaction.
Comment: In October, I was spending my vacation in Sweden and Denmark. Before my trip I ran across this book and thought it would be interesting. I was spending some time in Scandinavia and wanted to read something with a different view of the world-so why not a Scandinavian author?
Upon my second night in Sweden I began reading this book. I was suprised at how the story pulled me deeper into the book. Sometimes the book seemed complex; but the story flowed so well. It's now January and I still think about this book!
This book was a great find. I hope the US publishers will print more of his books. If they don't, Mr. Grøndahl's books have been translated into German and many other languages; so I will just read the others in German.
While in Copenhagen, I made sure my friends bought the book as well for their holiday in India. This was the only English book by the author I found while in Copenhagen.
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Title: Lucca by Jens Christian Grndahl, Anne Born, Jens Christian Grondahl ISBN: 015100594X Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Mirror by Lynn Freed ISBN: 0345426894 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 09 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: A Lost Lady (Vintage Classics) by Willa Cather ISBN: 0679728872 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 16 June, 1990 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Crow Lake (Today Show Book Club #7) by Mary Lawson ISBN: 0385337639 Publisher: Dell Publishing Pub. Date: 13 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady in the Van (Today Show Book Club #5) by Alan Bennett, Alan Bennett ISBN: 0812969650 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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