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sulevr's review against another edition
2.0
Minule see raamat kahjuks ei meeldinud. Ja ma ei saanudki hästi aru, mispärast, sest kogu tegevus toimub keskaegses Tartus ja just seda Tartu omaaegset keskkonda, mis mulle ju väga palju huvi on pakkunud, on siin raamatus väga palju kirjeldatud (ilmselt võrldemisi faktitruult ja ma ei tea ühtki teist raamatut, mis sama püüaks teha) ja kohati isegi on sõnavara rikkalik, mis võiks ju pakkuda head elamust… Aga vaatamata sellele oli raske end lugema sundida ja taipasin lugemise ajal, et hea kirjanik ei korda oma üht ja sama mõtet - vähemasti mitte samas vormis - raamatus mitu korda. Aga vot selles raamatus jauratakse samade asjaolude üle korduvalt ja korduvalt lausa tüütuseni, kohati lausa paarileheküljelise vahega: küll ühest surnud papagoist, küll Tartu halvast haisust, küll peategelase palavikust… Mingit erilist tegevusliini selles raamatus pole. Kuna autor on tahtnud ilmselt eelkõige kirjeldada keskaegsest Tartust erinevaid pildikesi, siis näibki, et kogu peategelase tegevus on üsna sihitu - oluline on vaid sattuda kohtadesse, mida veidi kirjeldada saaks, ja siis meenub peategelasele, et ta on ju “palavikus”, et sellest kohast jälle ära tulla.
giovydsb's review against another edition
2.0
È un romanzo dotto, Le api, un romanzo di quelli che insegnano un sacco di cose ai lettori. È istruttivo sia per quanto riguarda la vita quotidiana nell'Estonia seicentesca, sia per quanto riguarda le teorie medico-filosofiche in voga all'epoca. L'autore mira a far ragionare il lettore come un estone del Seicento, riuscendoci piuttosto bene, ma a costo di mettere in bocca ai personaggi spiegazioni di questa o quella teoria in modo un po' artificioso.
Sembra che a Friedenthal interessi soprattutto parlare dei temi che gli sono cari, temi meravigliosi come la melancolia, l'anima o la superstizione, e a questo pieghi storia e personaggi. Per quanto sia lodevole, in questi tempi in cui si rifugge la complessità, lo sforzo di scrivere un romanzo fitto di storia e filosofia, ricco di simboli e, come già detto, estremamente istruttivo, non si può negare che l'impianto narrativo ne risenta troppo: la trama è costruita su scene che mirano a illustrare usanze e credenze dell'epoca. Vorrei essere chiara: non sono tra quelli che non accettano qualche “spiegone”, o tra quelli che aborrono l'uso della narrativa per parlare anche d'altro, ma in questo caso mi è parso che i personaggi stessero in piedi solo come un pretesto per l'espressione di idee e che la storia fosse inconsistente, se privata del sostrato didascalico. Mi dispiace esprimermi in questi termini, perché trovo che l'ambientazione sia interessante, e un autore dotto come Friedenthal avrebbe potuto usare meglio, in senso narrativo, le sue conoscenze in campo storico e filosofico.
Tra le cose positive, la capacità dell'autore di rendere palpabili umidità, putridume, freddo e marciume, in descrizioni che fanno sentire il lettore al fianco dei personaggi in un ambiente malato e ostile. Tolte queste descrizioni efficaci, però, nemmeno lo stile mi ha convinto più di tanto, come se Friedenthal oscillasse tra l'aspirazione a scrivere un romanzo complesso e la volontà di fare il divulgatore e di semplificare lo stile per trasmettere più efficacemente determinate informazioni. Ne esce una scrittura senza gran carattere, un po' scolastica e impersonale (potrebbe anche essere colpa della traduzione, però, perché durante la lettura ho percepito qualche “slittamento”).
Non vorrei essere così inclemente con questo libro, che in fondo è molto (ma molto!) meglio di tante cose che vengono propinate ai lettori; tuttavia c'è un malinteso di fondo, secondo me, che riguarda la buona letteratura: per quanto Le api sia stato scritto da una persona che sa quello che dice, colta e capace di scrivere in modo corretto, non è stato scritto da un grande narratore. Se non si crede profondamente nelle parole e nella loro capacità di dare vita ai personaggi e alle storie, e si parte da un'idea, trattando le parole come semplice mezzo per comunicarla, la magia non riesce.
Sembra che a Friedenthal interessi soprattutto parlare dei temi che gli sono cari, temi meravigliosi come la melancolia, l'anima o la superstizione, e a questo pieghi storia e personaggi. Per quanto sia lodevole, in questi tempi in cui si rifugge la complessità, lo sforzo di scrivere un romanzo fitto di storia e filosofia, ricco di simboli e, come già detto, estremamente istruttivo, non si può negare che l'impianto narrativo ne risenta troppo: la trama è costruita su scene che mirano a illustrare usanze e credenze dell'epoca. Vorrei essere chiara: non sono tra quelli che non accettano qualche “spiegone”, o tra quelli che aborrono l'uso della narrativa per parlare anche d'altro, ma in questo caso mi è parso che i personaggi stessero in piedi solo come un pretesto per l'espressione di idee e che la storia fosse inconsistente, se privata del sostrato didascalico. Mi dispiace esprimermi in questi termini, perché trovo che l'ambientazione sia interessante, e un autore dotto come Friedenthal avrebbe potuto usare meglio, in senso narrativo, le sue conoscenze in campo storico e filosofico.
Tra le cose positive, la capacità dell'autore di rendere palpabili umidità, putridume, freddo e marciume, in descrizioni che fanno sentire il lettore al fianco dei personaggi in un ambiente malato e ostile. Tolte queste descrizioni efficaci, però, nemmeno lo stile mi ha convinto più di tanto, come se Friedenthal oscillasse tra l'aspirazione a scrivere un romanzo complesso e la volontà di fare il divulgatore e di semplificare lo stile per trasmettere più efficacemente determinate informazioni. Ne esce una scrittura senza gran carattere, un po' scolastica e impersonale (potrebbe anche essere colpa della traduzione, però, perché durante la lettura ho percepito qualche “slittamento”).
Non vorrei essere così inclemente con questo libro, che in fondo è molto (ma molto!) meglio di tante cose che vengono propinate ai lettori; tuttavia c'è un malinteso di fondo, secondo me, che riguarda la buona letteratura: per quanto Le api sia stato scritto da una persona che sa quello che dice, colta e capace di scrivere in modo corretto, non è stato scritto da un grande narratore. Se non si crede profondamente nelle parole e nella loro capacità di dare vita ai personaggi e alle storie, e si parte da un'idea, trattando le parole come semplice mezzo per comunicarla, la magia non riesce.
octavia_cade's review
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
3.0
One of the quotes on the back of this book refers to it as "magical historicism" and I think that's accurate. There are elements of the supernatural here that come out in a very magical realist way, but while I enjoyed them, I'm not sure that they were effectively melded together with the rest of the text. I appreciate that the author is trying to balance science and the supernatural, and that this mix was an inescapable facet of the time - late seventeenth century Europe - but the effect was still disjointed, so much so that the end was pretty ambiguous, and not in a particularly compelling way. I'm strongly inclined to think that the protagonist, Laurentius, was suffering from more than melancholia, and that many of his odd experiences resulted from a creeping onset of insanity.
Certainly The Willow King might be read as a record of his hallucinations, and that could be a valid reading, considering the nightmarish state of the region at the time. Laurentius is a Dutch student, arriving at a distant university in Estonia in order to get away from suspicions of heresy, but he's walking into a powderkeg. There's a severe famine on, and starving people are descending on the university town of Dorpat (currently known as Tartu), and all this seeping misery and conflict is leading to accusations of witchcraft, which are not mitigated at all by local superstitions regarding a willow king. It's all enormously unsettling, and Laurentius - clearly not the most stable person at the best of times - is undermined in all his senses, particularly smell and taste. It's the shifting, nauseating atmosphere that's most successful here, but a little of the repetition and the slow pacing could have been sacrificed for a bit more clarity, I think.
Certainly The Willow King might be read as a record of his hallucinations, and that could be a valid reading, considering the nightmarish state of the region at the time. Laurentius is a Dutch student, arriving at a distant university in Estonia in order to get away from suspicions of heresy, but he's walking into a powderkeg. There's a severe famine on, and starving people are descending on the university town of Dorpat (currently known as Tartu), and all this seeping misery and conflict is leading to accusations of witchcraft, which are not mitigated at all by local superstitions regarding a willow king. It's all enormously unsettling, and Laurentius - clearly not the most stable person at the best of times - is undermined in all his senses, particularly smell and taste. It's the shifting, nauseating atmosphere that's most successful here, but a little of the repetition and the slow pacing could have been sacrificed for a bit more clarity, I think.
withywoods's review
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
juliwi's review
4.0
I am consistently looking for more foreign fiction to read but, since I can only read in three (modern) languages, naturally I have to rely on translations. Thankfully, publishers such as Pushkin Press keep coming to my aid by publishing brilliant fiction in translation. I was first intrigued by The Willow King because of its title and cover, it gave me that fairy tale-tingle down the spine. Also, I miss my university days so I loved going back to that exciting time through Friedenthal's book. Thanks to Pushkin Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
At the heart of The Willow King is the body-soul relationship, something I studied myself at school. For a long time, scientists and philosophers were obsessed with "finding" the soul in the body. If we had a soul, as the Bible clearly tells us, it must be somewhere inside of us. Some of the greatest minds wrote about this, from Aristotle to Decartes, and Friedenthal engages with all of their arguments in The Willow King. His protagonist being a student gives him the perfect setup to discuss these without boring the reader and his quest to find an answer also becomes the reader's. The novel is set in the 17th century, a time we consider modern, yet Friedenthal shows us how this was a period of history in which science and superstition walked hand in hand. Witches and demons are still real, as is the evil eye, and scientists tread a fine line between the factual and the supernatural. Just think of the alchemists and their obsession with making gold. This time in history is fascinating and Friedenthal brings it to life in a very realistic way. For more on this please do check out Joanna Demers' review, she knows a lot more about it than I do.
Meelis Friedenthal's writing is incredibly descriptive, in an atmospheric way. The constant rain, the threat of hunger that lingers at the edges of Dorpat, Laurentius' melancholy, it all feels credible and real. Friedenthal really manages to put the reader into Laurentius' mind, switching to first person to show us his dreams and relaying to us all his thoughts and worries. As such, it's not necessarily a very uplifting novel, but it is stunning. It borrows from a lot of different genres, horror, suspense, fantasy, but never truly commits to any. This could have gone spectacularly wrong, but it works for The Willow King. As I said above, it took me a while to get into this book but it enormously picked up for me towards the end. Strangely, things started coming together for me when they did for Laurentius as well, a sign that Friedenthal knows exactly what he is doing. Despite the relative heaviness of its topic, The Willow King is a quick read. As Friedenthal constantly keeps his readers questioning whether the supernatural events are truly happening or not, he spurs them on and makes them as desperate to find an answer as Laurentius. Matthew Hyde does an excellent job at translating Friedenthal's prose and capturing the atmosphere he tries to create.
Although The Willow King left me at times confused, by the end Friedenthal truly had me in her grasp. The novel will leave you with a great many questions to ask of our world, which is not a bad thing. I'd recommend this to those interested in philosophy and history.
For full review: http://universeinwords.blogspot.com/2017/08/review-willow-king-by-meelis.html
At the heart of The Willow King is the body-soul relationship, something I studied myself at school. For a long time, scientists and philosophers were obsessed with "finding" the soul in the body. If we had a soul, as the Bible clearly tells us, it must be somewhere inside of us. Some of the greatest minds wrote about this, from Aristotle to Decartes, and Friedenthal engages with all of their arguments in The Willow King. His protagonist being a student gives him the perfect setup to discuss these without boring the reader and his quest to find an answer also becomes the reader's. The novel is set in the 17th century, a time we consider modern, yet Friedenthal shows us how this was a period of history in which science and superstition walked hand in hand. Witches and demons are still real, as is the evil eye, and scientists tread a fine line between the factual and the supernatural. Just think of the alchemists and their obsession with making gold. This time in history is fascinating and Friedenthal brings it to life in a very realistic way. For more on this please do check out Joanna Demers' review, she knows a lot more about it than I do.
Meelis Friedenthal's writing is incredibly descriptive, in an atmospheric way. The constant rain, the threat of hunger that lingers at the edges of Dorpat, Laurentius' melancholy, it all feels credible and real. Friedenthal really manages to put the reader into Laurentius' mind, switching to first person to show us his dreams and relaying to us all his thoughts and worries. As such, it's not necessarily a very uplifting novel, but it is stunning. It borrows from a lot of different genres, horror, suspense, fantasy, but never truly commits to any. This could have gone spectacularly wrong, but it works for The Willow King. As I said above, it took me a while to get into this book but it enormously picked up for me towards the end. Strangely, things started coming together for me when they did for Laurentius as well, a sign that Friedenthal knows exactly what he is doing. Despite the relative heaviness of its topic, The Willow King is a quick read. As Friedenthal constantly keeps his readers questioning whether the supernatural events are truly happening or not, he spurs them on and makes them as desperate to find an answer as Laurentius. Matthew Hyde does an excellent job at translating Friedenthal's prose and capturing the atmosphere he tries to create.
Although The Willow King left me at times confused, by the end Friedenthal truly had me in her grasp. The novel will leave you with a great many questions to ask of our world, which is not a bad thing. I'd recommend this to those interested in philosophy and history.
For full review: http://universeinwords.blogspot.com/2017/08/review-willow-king-by-meelis.html
richard_howlett's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
artine's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
laura_trap's review
3.0
This was a solid book. It was an interesting story, in that it kept me moderately engaged and I was curious as to how the story was going to play out. But the entire story was anticlimactic which was disappointing. We have our main character, Laurentius, who has 'melancholia' or some sort of mental illness. He's manic and depressed and is convinced that he has the power of the evil eye, which is if he looks at someone in the eyes, they'll die or become ill. And as we go through the story, there are allusions to something awful that happened earlier in his childhood and some scandal when he studied in Lieden. None of these are fully fleshed out in the story. The action is in spurts doesn't lead to anything one climatic moment in particular and the book just putters out and ends. There wasn't a solution, but then again there wasn't really a conflict to be solved anyway, other than Laurentius knowing he is sick and unable to make himself better. There is also Clodia, a woman he meets and gives him food, but it is also uncertain, even up to the conclusion, if she is real or a hallucination on his part. Overall, just a solid book. I did appreciate the the detail historical accuracy which did a great deal to set the tone for the book and a perfect setting for the uneasiness of both our narrator and his place of residence.