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branomander 's review for:
Sophie's World
by Jostein Gaarder
This wasn't a bad novel by any means. In fact, it was a really useful one. I'm only just beginning my journey into philosophy, and the information presented in here was really helpful for me. It let me orient myself better, and plan out the rest of my reading.
If the book had been nonfiction with more elaboration, I probably would have given this five stars. While I haven't studied much of philosophy, I've read into existentialism some and his summary here was really well done, so it seems reasonable to assume the rest was presented accurately too. With that said, I really liked the informative aspect of the book.
Where it fell apart for me was the story. It felt like a half-measure. Sure really cool, deep, meta stuff happens in the story and I did enjoy that aspect to some extent, but the characters were really weak for me. I didn't believe their interactions at all. The dialogue was strange, to say the least. People didn't act like people at all, and this could have been deliberate based on the nature of the story, but I don't feel like it was.
That being said, there is a lot to dig into here. A lot going on between the lines. Some allegorical events that I enjoyed, if only because they were obvious enough for someone like me to get.
For someone just wanting to read a good story, unless you like really meta fiction, this probably isn't for you. For someone purely wanting a digestible introduction to philosophy, this is a pretty good way to start.
If the book had been nonfiction with more elaboration, I probably would have given this five stars. While I haven't studied much of philosophy, I've read into existentialism some and his summary here was really well done, so it seems reasonable to assume the rest was presented accurately too. With that said, I really liked the informative aspect of the book.
Where it fell apart for me was the story. It felt like a half-measure. Sure really cool, deep, meta stuff happens in the story and I did enjoy that aspect to some extent, but the characters were really weak for me. I didn't believe their interactions at all. The dialogue was strange, to say the least. People didn't act like people at all, and this could have been deliberate based on the nature of the story, but I don't feel like it was.
That being said, there is a lot to dig into here. A lot going on between the lines. Some allegorical events that I enjoyed, if only because they were obvious enough for someone like me to get.
For someone just wanting to read a good story, unless you like really meta fiction, this probably isn't for you. For someone purely wanting a digestible introduction to philosophy, this is a pretty good way to start.