I love this book so much, it has been one of my favorite reads for the last couple of years. I especially was touched by Arsenyev's account of his friI love this book so much, it has been one of my favorite reads for the last couple of years. I especially was touched by Arsenyev's account of his friendship with Dersu Uzala, who sounds like a particularly enlightened and wise being. I also enjoyed reading Arsenyev's recounts of landscape, plants, animals and the overall natural area he was surveying. He bore witness to a place which was changing and is likely unrecognizable now. ...more
This is the second time I've read this book; the first time was about a decade ago. I considered it one of my favorite books back then and had recommeThis is the second time I've read this book; the first time was about a decade ago. I considered it one of my favorite books back then and had recommended it to a number of friends. Reading it again, I do remember the beauty of the writer's thoughts. I was mesmerized by the topic: the a-history of the gnostics. I include this book in my list of books of reading for insomnia - a sort of collection of books which come to my mind when I think of that liminal space between dreaming and being barely awake. Books to read when you are awoken in the early morning, or when you are forced to have to get up. Books that reveal a hidden light into the everyday....more
Quiet, understated, written in a careful contemplative manner; a novel straddling the abyss between memory and aging. A story where we know little aboQuiet, understated, written in a careful contemplative manner; a novel straddling the abyss between memory and aging. A story where we know little about the narrator but we are immersed, as readers, in one summer when he crosses from childhood into the dark mystery of the adult world. The main character is time and the supporting character is place. Reading this book made everything else disappear for a small moment....more
I loved this little book. It is short, and I could have finished within a few days, but I wanted to linger over it. What I loved most of about this boI loved this little book. It is short, and I could have finished within a few days, but I wanted to linger over it. What I loved most of about this book is its deliberation. The author wanted to work out one very small but potent aspect of a life- friendship and its death-and he took his time unfolding the details and complexities of feeling. In a way, one could say that nothing really happens in this book, except memories and thoughts. And it is true, the first half of the book consists of the main character's (the General) memories of his childhood. The second half is built on the dinner & conversation between the General and his exiled childhood friend, Konrad. The whole plot of the story can be summed up as thus: A man who is betrayed by both his wife and best friend becomes a philosopher.
This book is exceptional is its carefully crafted ambiance and the internal musing of the main character. So much in today we are in a hurry to have things happen that we rarely reflect about our reactions or the reasons why others make the choices that they make. In this book, the General spends a lifetime reflecting upon what makes up a character and how that character unfolds in a person. When you look at someone you are closest to, can you understand what motivates that person and can you ever be objective enough to be reconciled with that person's choice, even if it opposes you?
And then there is the language- here is an excerpt:
"The castle was a closed world, like a great granite mausoleum full of the moldering bones of generations of men and women from earlier times, in their shrouds of slowly disintegrating gray silk or black cloth. It enclosed silence itself as if it were a prisoner persecuted for his beliefs, wasting away numbly, unshaven and in rags on a pile of musty rotting straw in a dungeon. It also enclosed memories as if they were the dead, memories that lurked in damp corners the way mushrooms, bats, rats, and beetles lurk in the mildewed cellars of old houses. Door-latches gave off the traces of a once-trembling hand, the excitement of a moment long gone, so that even now another hand hesitated to press down on them. Every house in which passion had loosened itself on people in all its fury exudes such intangible presences." ...more
I would take this to a deserted island; I will never feel alone, for it is not a book as much as it is letters from a friend. And I will never reach iI would take this to a deserted island; I will never feel alone, for it is not a book as much as it is letters from a friend. And I will never reach its end. To finish it is to reach the end of reading.
The plot is standard gothic novel stuff, but Du Maurier uniquely reveals inner psychologizing in words. I'm not sure if I had encountered any novel soThe plot is standard gothic novel stuff, but Du Maurier uniquely reveals inner psychologizing in words. I'm not sure if I had encountered any novel so exact in this regard. I was very much drawn in by the language and the suspense of this work. I will read it again in 5 years to see how it affects me then....more
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