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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
This surrealist journey through Portugal, parts of Angola, and tbe United States invites the reader along fot a mind-bending look into faith and reality. Written as 3 novellas, or a three part novel, we follow each character through some stage of grief.
1. Tomás, who works for some kind of library/archive in 1904 Lisbon. He has recently witnessed the deaths of his wife, his son, and his father. Struck with grief, he has taken to walking backwards and decides to pour all his effort into finding an artifact mentioned in the long-forgotten journals of a long forgotten priest in 1630s Angola. His journey- riddled with problems and delays - takes him to the High Mountains of Portugal.
2. Eusebio Lozora, a pathologist in Bragança, listens to his wife weave connections between Agatha Christie and religion. When she leaves, a widow comes to his office with her husband’s body tucked into a suitcase. She asks to watch the autopsy, to “see how he lived.” And so we see just that.
3. Senator Tovy, missing his late wife, Clara, adopts a chimpanzee in the heat of the moment. He lives to Portugal, where the chimp becomes his greatest companion.
The three stories had a way of connecting, weaving themselves into each other, so what looked like a mess of lines actually made something beautiful. And that’s not even getting into the metaphors. I recommend this book for anyone who likes to be challenged, who likes to be left with more questions. For anyone who likes a good chuckle while the world around a character is falling apart.
1. Tomás, who works for some kind of library/archive in 1904 Lisbon. He has recently witnessed the deaths of his wife, his son, and his father. Struck with grief, he has taken to walking backwards and decides to pour all his effort into finding an artifact mentioned in the long-forgotten journals of a long forgotten priest in 1630s Angola. His journey- riddled with problems and delays - takes him to the High Mountains of Portugal.
2. Eusebio Lozora, a pathologist in Bragança, listens to his wife weave connections between Agatha Christie and religion. When she leaves, a widow comes to his office with her husband’s body tucked into a suitcase. She asks to watch the autopsy, to “see how he lived.” And so we see just that.
3. Senator Tovy, missing his late wife, Clara, adopts a chimpanzee in the heat of the moment. He lives to Portugal, where the chimp becomes his greatest companion.
The three stories had a way of connecting, weaving themselves into each other, so what looked like a mess of lines actually made something beautiful. And that’s not even getting into the metaphors. I recommend this book for anyone who likes to be challenged, who likes to be left with more questions. For anyone who likes a good chuckle while the world around a character is falling apart.
The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel is a different book: it tells three tales that are loosely connected to each other. It is an interesting approach, in my opinion, but I don't think that it was that well executed. My problem with different tales (and hence, different characters and story lines) is that the quality level of each of the tales was also very different.
The first tale was kind of boring with the excessive details about car parts, the mechanic of the thing and it was a very slow reading process. The plot didn't really interest that much me as well. Although Tomás seemed an interesting character in the initial pages, I had hoped the story would develop in a different way.
The second story was more interesting than the first (marginally) and you can't help but be curious about the story of the woman who carries a husband in a suitcase. But, similar to what happened with the first story, I think it was badly executed and didn't go in a direction I was expecting - this is not exactly bad but I felt kind of disappointed in the end of the second tale.
The last tale was my favorite story: it was the one which I found to be the most accomplished - in terms of plot and of characters and I quite liked Odo.
The book, in general, is very philosophical and allegorical and I liked that about it. I also enjoyed the fact that the author managed to sprinkle the book with some magical aspects, which made the whole book more interesting. I also enjoyed reading about my country, recognizing the landscapes, the cities and some of the little villages he mentioned throughout the book.
The end result was not really that satisfying because of the drag of the first tale and the fact that I think the three tales weren't on equal terms regarding the quality of the plot and the writing, making the reading inconsistent. Even though I think that this book might have been meant to be read as a novel, for me, it seemed like a collection of stories glued together by some elements.
Interesting read but...not amazing.
The first tale was kind of boring with the excessive details about car parts, the mechanic of the thing and it was a very slow reading process. The plot didn't really interest that much me as well. Although Tomás seemed an interesting character in the initial pages, I had hoped the story would develop in a different way.
The second story was more interesting than the first (marginally) and you can't help but be curious about the story of the woman who carries a husband in a suitcase. But, similar to what happened with the first story, I think it was badly executed and didn't go in a direction I was expecting - this is not exactly bad but I felt kind of disappointed in the end of the second tale.
The last tale was my favorite story: it was the one which I found to be the most accomplished - in terms of plot and of characters and I quite liked Odo.
The book, in general, is very philosophical and allegorical and I liked that about it. I also enjoyed the fact that the author managed to sprinkle the book with some magical aspects, which made the whole book more interesting. I also enjoyed reading about my country, recognizing the landscapes, the cities and some of the little villages he mentioned throughout the book.
The end result was not really that satisfying because of the drag of the first tale and the fact that I think the three tales weren't on equal terms regarding the quality of the plot and the writing, making the reading inconsistent. Even though I think that this book might have been meant to be read as a novel, for me, it seemed like a collection of stories glued together by some elements.
Interesting read but...not amazing.
Over the years, I've casually dismissed most magical realism as too twee for me to appreciate. And though I hadn't read LIFE OF PI, I dismissed Martel similarly. Sure it's not fair but I'm not the only reader to unjustly pigeonhole authors.
In all honesty I wasn't expecting to like this. And after the first 100 pages, the novel hadn't yet proven me wrong. But am I glad I stuck with this triptych...My favorite 'panel' of the triptych was the middle, though the third is the most impressionable and the most likely to cause a sudden and sharp lump to form in your throat.
Grief and surrealism would appear to make strange bedfellows; mournful heavenward exhortations cozying with the absurd playfulness of surrealism seem tonally disparate. And yet Martel contrasts the worst kind of grief with a magical or surrealist turn of events and host of characters to create something indelible, something tragicomic, something akin to alchemy.
In all honesty I wasn't expecting to like this. And after the first 100 pages, the novel hadn't yet proven me wrong. But am I glad I stuck with this triptych...My favorite 'panel' of the triptych was the middle, though the third is the most impressionable and the most likely to cause a sudden and sharp lump to form in your throat.
Grief and surrealism would appear to make strange bedfellows; mournful heavenward exhortations cozying with the absurd playfulness of surrealism seem tonally disparate. And yet Martel contrasts the worst kind of grief with a magical or surrealist turn of events and host of characters to create something indelible, something tragicomic, something akin to alchemy.
First of all - The High Mountains of Portugal is not as good as Life of Pi but it still is an interesting novel and definitely worth a read.
This time Martel's main focus is the human race's relations through apes, and it is told through three interconnecting stories spanning 80 years. Some moments are pure comedy while others verge on the bizarre and absurd, other sections are heartwarming. However Martel's final message seems to be that primates are closer to us on the evolutionary scale than we think.
This novel is actually three novellas within one: "leaving home, going home, being home" is the paraphrase of their headings. They could be classified as Fall, Effect, Redemption in a nearly Christian allegory, but that would be too simplistic. Each story is its own, connected only by place and one event that creates the reader's recognition of the connection. Read the book like you read short stories: be in the moment, don't look for the arc of story but just note the life that is happening there before you and see it for itself. The third story was perhaps my favourite, but the middle story is also compelling. The first is comical and a bit absurd. I think this book could be re-read and new discoveries made. Worthy literature for study.
Unlike other reviewers, I did somewhat enjoy this on a narrative level but I agree that it is a bit odd and doesn't really "work" on a literary level
Three different stories, with a connection, in three different timeframes. I liked the third one best, but in general this book was just too philosophical for me.
It’s set in Portugal and it’s weird and i liked the reading experience what can i say
I debated between a 3 and a 4 (it's really a 3.5 in my book), but opted for a 3. I almost bailed after part one, which is literally 130 pages about a temperamental car ... I found it boring and slow moving (much like the car itself!). I plugged on and part two did improve significantly, with a long, engaging 'sermon' (delivered by a character who turns out to be deceased), comparing the Gospels with Agatha Christie mysteries - and then a longer section giving somewhat gruesome details of an autopsy, in which the deceased turns out to be filled with both vomit and the bodies of a chimpanzee and a bear cub (WTF???!!!) Not sure, even now, what to make of that, or what it 'means' - or the extinct rhinoceros that seems to have some mystic significance that also escapes me. The third part, I DID find more palatable, and even delightful, in parts, and the three sections (more or less) come together in some surprising (and some NOT so surprising) ways. Martel's prose is fine, and even exciting sometimes, although what's with all the snake metaphors? Despite several attempts, I never made it through more than 10 pages of 'Pi', so I should have known this wouldn't be to my taste, and doubt I will read that or any other Martel in future - but this was a good one off taste of his talent.
An interesting book of three connected stories.
The first story was a struggle, the second got surreal and the third I loved.
The first story was a struggle, the second got surreal and the third I loved.