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laurayasmin's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
this book is so long and so western european.
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape
namakurhea's review
5.0
There aren’t many books like “Compass” by Mathias Enard; carefully translated by Charlotte Mandell. It isn’t ‘fiction’, though the narrator, Franz Ritter and his band of intellectuals are fictional stand-ins. It isn’t an encyclopedia, though it is rich in details (historical, musical, philosophical, all the -cals one could think of). Allow me then to settle on “contemplation”; as this word best describes the experience of reading this book.
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“Oriental” and “Occidental”; two terms representing the “East” and the “West”. But who set these boundaries? On what grounds? And for what reasons? This compartmentalization of culture and history may have been trigerred by some patriotic sentiments; the wish to belong. But on the other side of the coin is also a process of “othering”; a deliberation of who is us and who is not us. We use compass to find our bearings. But what is east of East? Is it not West? And what is west of West? Is it not East? These are important contemplations, especially in our world today where we face what Enard calls as “the violence of identity” pinned on our selves by the other.
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It isn’t just his thesis that gives the book brilliance, it is also the way he propose them; a true disciple of “show, don’t tell”. There are A LOT of details covered in the book. The book introduced me to Clemente Susini’s anatomical Venus, Balzac (the first French Novelist to include a text in Arabic in his novels), Usama Ibn Munqidh, Karol Szymanowski’s “Songs of an Infatuated Muezzin” just to name a few! It is a book that you should not just read. You need to google the history, listen to the youtube samples, to savor the art.
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There are some funny bits as well, an example is tastefully marked with a huge “LOL” in a photo above haha. It definitely is an apt book for @transitsanta #AmongTheElements theme. And I am thankful that they carry this because this truly is a taste breaker! For me at least. A long reading journey, and yet very rewarding indeed.
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“Oriental” and “Occidental”; two terms representing the “East” and the “West”. But who set these boundaries? On what grounds? And for what reasons? This compartmentalization of culture and history may have been trigerred by some patriotic sentiments; the wish to belong. But on the other side of the coin is also a process of “othering”; a deliberation of who is us and who is not us. We use compass to find our bearings. But what is east of East? Is it not West? And what is west of West? Is it not East? These are important contemplations, especially in our world today where we face what Enard calls as “the violence of identity” pinned on our selves by the other.
.
It isn’t just his thesis that gives the book brilliance, it is also the way he propose them; a true disciple of “show, don’t tell”. There are A LOT of details covered in the book. The book introduced me to Clemente Susini’s anatomical Venus, Balzac (the first French Novelist to include a text in Arabic in his novels), Usama Ibn Munqidh, Karol Szymanowski’s “Songs of an Infatuated Muezzin” just to name a few! It is a book that you should not just read. You need to google the history, listen to the youtube samples, to savor the art.
.
There are some funny bits as well, an example is tastefully marked with a huge “LOL” in a photo above haha. It definitely is an apt book for @transitsanta #AmongTheElements theme. And I am thankful that they carry this because this truly is a taste breaker! For me at least. A long reading journey, and yet very rewarding indeed.
claudiaferreira's review against another edition
1.0
Como fição: estupidamente aborrecido! Pedante!
Não sou leitora que me preocupe muito com a trama, com o desenrolar da história ou com a evolução das personagens, desde que haja personagens minimamente apelativas, ricas, com percursos ou ideias originais. A personagem principal não me transmite a mais pequena simpatia ou emoção.
Como ensaio: um catálogo exaustivo de referências às incursões de diversos intelectuais europeus no médio oriente, uma divagação que se fica por aí, que falha em transmitir o seu propósito.
É apenas uma opinião, mas não encontro uma única ideia original neste livro.
Não sou leitora que me preocupe muito com a trama, com o desenrolar da história ou com a evolução das personagens, desde que haja personagens minimamente apelativas, ricas, com percursos ou ideias originais. A personagem principal não me transmite a mais pequena simpatia ou emoção.
Como ensaio: um catálogo exaustivo de referências às incursões de diversos intelectuais europeus no médio oriente, uma divagação que se fica por aí, que falha em transmitir o seu propósito.
É apenas uma opinião, mas não encontro uma única ideia original neste livro.
stef369's review against another edition
3.0
Dat deze roman, die de Prix Goncourt kreeg, een moeilijke roman is: jazeker. Maar daarom is het geen slechte roman, wel één die enorm veel aandacht en concentratie eist van de lezer. En ja, af en toe moet je eens iets opzoeken - wat met Google in de buurt niet echt een probleem is. "Boussole": ergens in het verhaal krijgt de hoofdfiguur, musicoloog-oriontoloog Franz Ritter, een vreemd kompas cadeau: een kompas die steeds naar het oosten wijst... De hele symboliek schuilt hierin: hoe wij als westerse mens naar het oosten georiënteerd zijn: in de kunst, de literatuur, het denken, ... in alles eigenlijk. Gedurende één lange slapeloze nacht herinnert Ritter zich al zijn exotische tochten en onderzoeken met Sarah: zijn grote voorbeeld en zijn "noorden" ( of liever: "oosten"). We leren in deze roman enorm veel erudiete en soms zeer zonderlinge wetenschappers en onderzoekers kennen - waarvan men nog nooit gehoord heeft... De uitweidingen zijn soms bijzonder vermoeiend en kunnen ook langdradig zijn. Ritter weidt telkens uit en komt - soms al het té ver gaat - steeds terug naar de situatie waarin hij zich bevindt: namelijk in zijn bed, proberend te slapen. In die zin lijkt de roman net een soort "jojo" die telkens na vele tussenverhalen terugkeert naar het begin. Als je het bekijkt vanuit het standpunt van: "Dat is een wetenschapper die raaskalt - namelijk als manier om niet met de realiteit geconfronteerd te worden, namelijk: zijn ziekte", dan is dat goed te plaatsen in de roman. Maar het is soms verdomd moeilijk en lastig. Enkele passages zijn bijzonder boeiend: bijvoorbeeld wanneer verteld wordt over een speciaal gevangenenkamp van de Duitsers in W.O. I, speciaal voor "mohammedanen" - met het doel om deze mensen in te zetten als mogelijke "terroristen" tegen de Fransen en Engelsen - of IS avant-la-lettre. De roman leert op die manier de huidige actualiteit in Syrië op een juiste manier, historisch, te plaatsen en te verklaren. Of, hoe islam-radicalisering eigenlijk een Westers product is... (zie citaten hierbij).
Een zware kanjer, die roman, maar het is wel goed geschreven en zou eigenlijk nog eens herlezen moeten worden met de nodige documentatie.
En tot slot... eigenlijk is dit gewoon een mooie liefdesroman... (en geen "thesis" zoals zo vaak op dit forum beweerd wordt...)
Een zware kanjer, die roman, maar het is wel goed geschreven en zou eigenlijk nog eens herlezen moeten worden met de nodige documentatie.
En tot slot... eigenlijk is dit gewoon een mooie liefdesroman... (en geen "thesis" zoals zo vaak op dit forum beweerd wordt...)
lightfoxing's review
5.0
Compass is a masterpiece. At once sweeping and small, two and a half decades and the entire Middle East explored in the length of a single insomniatic night in a small apartment in Vienna. Franz is at once fragile, endearing, and grotesque, his unrequited love for Sarah rendering him easy to relate to, invoking feelings of compassion and pity in the reader for a man who seems more like a baby bird, but also a sense of frustration at his impotence, his inability to carry on with his life. Enard weaves in throughout the entire novel, throughout the entire exploration of Franz's feelings for Sarah, for his career, the stories of the Orientalists of the 19th and 20th centuries, relating impressive amounts of information without ever venturing into the didactic, ushering us through years of and dozens of men and women who tread the field before Sarah and Franz, breathing life into them in short bursts without ever distracting from the two who reside at the heart of the book. We learn to love Sarah, and be frustrated by her, just as Franz does, and love the Middle East through both of them. While on the surface Compass relates the love of Franz for Sarah, at its core, it is a love letter to the Middle East, expressing with delicacy and tenderness the beauty found there. Heartbreaking, beautiful, and hopeful, with glorious prose and expertly sketched characters - if Compass doesn't win the Man Booker International, it will be a tragedy.
ishbelalice's review
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
megwhiteford's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
jenni8fer's review against another edition
5.0
This book is brilliant in the way the main character, a Viennese musicologist, Franz Ritter, through a restless night, stream of consciousness, recalls his travels through the Middle East with his friends and his unrequited love interest, the French scholar, Sarah, while weaving in the history of Europe and the Middle East. His Romantic Orientalism of history discusses classical musicians, writers, poets, artists, linguists, politicians and politics that enlightens historically as well as tells the story of Franz's adult life traveling the Orient. It's an incredibly dense read with a lot of information coming at you all at once, but very interesting subject matter. It is Franz Ritter's, "The Thousand And One Nights" tale, and the story of the Otherness we hold within ourselves. I want to read more by this author. His writing is wonderful.