Reviews - The Blind Owl | The StoryGraph

777 reviews for:

The Blind Owl

Sadegh Hedayat

3.75 AVERAGE

mia_a's review against another edition

4.75

dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have been thinking what to write about this book. At times it was so hard to read, and I needed to fully focus in order to follow the story. Ponderings about death, life, love, superiority complex and mental illness were at times breathtakingly beautiful and other times deeply disturbing. Up to chapter 4 (out of 5) I was confused, questioning what have I read. But then it sort of clicks. You get the full(ish) picture and it clears out. There were plenty of sentences I marked but I would like to quote this one: "I retired as deep as I could into the depths of my own being like an animal that hides itself in a cave in the wintertime".

ammonfh's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

selenotropic's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

A really interesting book. I'm not sure I liked it, but I'm very glad I read it. An intensely bleak, miserable, interior portrait of an absolutely terrible man doing very little, transforming from abstract reflection into a linear story that's somehow even more solipsistic. Also it's kind of insanely ahead of its time too. It is distinctly modernist, but it's intensely self-questioning and dark for 1937, reminding me of Beckett's novels and later postmodern work. I think I need to reread this in a different translation to figure out how I felt about it, but I am certainly glad I read it.