Reviews

Narciso e Boccadoro by Hermann Hesse

reillykid7's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

mpt45's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

estherdb's review against another edition

3.0

Originelles Rating: 5 Sterne

Als ich das Buch zum ersten Mal gelesen habe, fand ich es fantastisch. 5 Sterne, ohne Zweifel. Ich war damals um die 18-20 Jahre alt und ich glaube, das mein Alter sowieso etwas mit diesem Rating zu tun hat. Klischee, aber ich war damals viel mehr naiv und schneller begeistert.
Es war ein interessantes Experiment, dieses Buch jetzt wieder zu lesen, nach all dieser Zeit.


Jetzt zur eigentlichen Review.

2020-Esther gibt 3 Sterne, vor allem aus nostalgischen Gründen und für die Sprache.

Die Charaktere sind flach, die Handlung ist hauptsächling das Beschreiben von Goldmunds Eroberungen und die Moral ist nicht so nuanciert.

Goldmund hat mich genervt. Er ist die Verkörperung von oberflächige Hipstermillenials mit Bindungsangst. Er will frei sein, ungebunden die Welt erobern. Aber am Ende bleibt er ein unzuverlässiger, selbstsüchtiger Schürzenjäger. Obwohl es sein Kumpel ist, der den Namen Narziss bekommen hat, ist Goldmund derjenige, der narzisstisch ist AF.
Nur seine Gedanken, Gefühle und Wünschen sind ihm wichtig. Außerdem sind diese so schwankend, dass sie mir zurzeit mit Whiplashes hinterlassen haben. Er ist glücklich - traurig - glücklich - todestraurig - euphorisch - etc., alles innerhalb einer Stunde...
Andrerseits ist Narziss fast nur Geist und Rechtschaffenheit und bleibt er so flach als meine Gehirnwellen zur Coronazeit.

Ein zusätzliches Problem, das ich mit diesem Buch habe, ist der problematische Riss zwischen Körper/Liebe/Emotionen/weiblich und Geist/männlich. Ja, am Ende sehen wir, dass ein Teil von beiden in den Charackteren steckt, aber trotzdem gibt es nicht genug Ambiguität und bleibt das Ganze sehr schwarz-weiß hier.

Eine riesige Quelle von Ärger: Dieses Buch ist frauenfeindlich. Die Frauen sind nur Figuranten und Lustobjekt, die einfach darauf warten, von Goldmund ausgewählt zu werden.
(Frage mich nicht nach dem Grund, weshalb er so erfolgreich war, ich habe den Reiz nicht gespürt.)

ronya_0203's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

genevebiollo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

sheofthemoon's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

scroquis's review against another edition

inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

debonairsaltydog's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

wyleus's review against another edition

4.0

4 ☆ — this was the spiritual awakening i didn't know i needed.
i wanted to start reading something from hesse for a long time (i began siddartha one year ago but dropped it since i didn't feel like i could enjoy it at its max) and i believe this was THE perfect moment to read narcissus and goldmund. tbh the middle part bored me a little, but the monologues, the close contact between death and love, how their relationship evolved and the way until the last part of the book i believe it was narcissus who had changed goldmund, but at the end both of them were irremediably changed by one another. all of this was amazing

awilderm23's review against another edition

4.0

'Oh, how incomprehensible everything was, and actually sad, although it was also beautiful. One knew nothing. One lived and ran about the earth and rode through forests, and certain things looked so challenging and promising and nostalgic: a star in the evening, a blue harebell, a reed-green pond, the eye of a person or of a cow. And sometimes is seemed that something never seen yet long desired was about to happen, that a veil would drop from it all: but then it passed, nothing happened, the riddle remained unsolved, the secret spell unbroken, and in the end one grew old and looked cunning like Father Anselm or wise like Abbot Daniel, and still one knew nothing perhaps, was still waiting and listening.'

'He thought that the dear of death was perhaps the rot of all art, perhaps also of all things of the mind. We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, are transitory and will soon disappear.'

'Goldmund had shown him that a man destined for high things can dip into the lowest depths of the bloody, drunken chaos of life, and soil himself with much dust and blood, without becoming small and common, without killing the divine spark within himself, that he can err through the thickest darkness without extinguishing the divine light and the creative force inside the shrine of his soul.'