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richchappelow's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
julien_reads's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed “A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East” by László Krasznahorkai, but I caveat this by saying that the book is really challenging to read. The sentence structure, vocabulary and extreme detail really force the reader to pay close attention to the text. This reading style is very different from a typical novel and I can see how it can turn people off. I think this is an intentional choice by the author and lends to the overall vibe of the book. With all that being said, I would highly recommend.
The book is really hard to describe and summarize. It’s like if someone was trying to describe a landscape painting of a temple. But they didn’t want to just say what’s there, they also wanted to tell you in great detail what it would feel like to be there. Through painting this picture the author touches on tradition, humanity, and the incomprehensible vastness and complexity of nature. All the while there’s a small character-driven plot going on but it’s not really the point. If this sounds weird and crazy to you, it’s because it is!
The book is really hard to describe and summarize. It’s like if someone was trying to describe a landscape painting of a temple. But they didn’t want to just say what’s there, they also wanted to tell you in great detail what it would feel like to be there. Through painting this picture the author touches on tradition, humanity, and the incomprehensible vastness and complexity of nature. All the while there’s a small character-driven plot going on but it’s not really the point. If this sounds weird and crazy to you, it’s because it is!
briancrandall's review
5.0
...and the fact that there was no kind of breathtakingly extraordinary plant growing there, no stone of any fantastical shape, nothing special, no spectacle, no fountain, waterfall, no carved tortoise, monkey, or wellspring, accordingly there was no spectacle and no circus, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with pleasantness, neither with exalted or ordinary entertainment, in brief, that simplicity of its essence also denoted a beauty of the densest concentration, the strength of simplicity's enchantment, the effect from which no one could retreat, and whoever saw this garden would never wish to retreat because he would simply stand there, gazing at the moss carpet, which, undulating gently, followed the single surface of the ground that lay beneath it, he would simply stand there and watch, observing how the silvery green of this uninterrupted carpet was like some kind of fairy-tale landscape, because it all glimmered from within, that indescribable silvery hue glimmered from within on the surface of that continuous, thick blanket of moss, and from that silvery surface there rose, fairly close together, with just a few meters separating them, those eight hinoki cypress trees, their trunks covered with marvelous, auburn phloem peeling off in thin strips, their foliage, bathing in vivid, fresh green, and the fine lacework of this foliage reaching up to the heights, in a word whoever stood there and looked at this would never want to utter even a single word; such a person would simply look, and be silent. [106–7]
paeandbooks's review against another edition
Perfectly woven from whispers, fogs, and silence, this is (for me) the peak of atmospherical storytelling. The first page, literally the first paragraph took me to another world; the description was vivid and rich in details. It defies any categorization, lays somewhere between fable, meditation, and existential exploration. Heck, I can't even point which star should I give. It permeates the entire narrative, mirroring the protagonist's inner turmoil, and bring the readers the heaviness and frustrations. The act of observing fills the void created at the beginning, and soon filled the weight of the mountain looming in the distance, senses the tranquility of the lake, and envisions the winding paths that offer both direction and uncertainty.
The sentences are long. Like stretching long, and fitfully so. It created a sense of meditative and invited me to engage in a silent battle of introspection, inviting me to delve into the protagonist's internal landscape.
Should you read this? Yes, if you can:
1) bear long sentences without breaking any focus
2) frustrating details on frustrating things.
The sentences are long. Like stretching long, and fitfully so. It created a sense of meditative and invited me to engage in a silent battle of introspection, inviting me to delve into the protagonist's internal landscape.
Should you read this? Yes, if you can:
1) bear long sentences without breaking any focus
2) frustrating details on frustrating things.
asoliloquist's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
dycook's review against another edition
5.0
https://www.cleavermagazine.com/a-mountain-to-the-north-a-lake-to-the-south-paths-to-the-west-a-river-to-the-east-a-novel-by-laszlo-krasznahorkai-reviewed-by-dylan-cook/
chaosofcold's review against another edition
5.0
Lásló elegantly captures the fleeting brilliance and sheer scale of eternity in just over 100 pages.
The tale of an unknown man hunting for the most beautiful garden in the world hidden within the grounds of a monastery is the basic underpinning of Krasznahorkai’s latest oeuvre.
Do you ever look at a tree, a flower, a bottle of whisky and consider the cosmic impossibility that lead to its creation? The incalculable odds that create life are understood and respected by Buddhists in the creation of their temples.
This book is a work of art and much of the credit for this has to go to the English translation of Ottilie Mulzet who captures the purity of the prose and retains Lásló’s poetic structures.
The tale of an unknown man hunting for the most beautiful garden in the world hidden within the grounds of a monastery is the basic underpinning of Krasznahorkai’s latest oeuvre.
Do you ever look at a tree, a flower, a bottle of whisky and consider the cosmic impossibility that lead to its creation? The incalculable odds that create life are understood and respected by Buddhists in the creation of their temples.
This book is a work of art and much of the credit for this has to go to the English translation of Ottilie Mulzet who captures the purity of the prose and retains Lásló’s poetic structures.
rachelsw's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
3.75
heyfarahey's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes