A review by sarahmareacarr
Alamut, by Vladimir Bartol
2.0
an advantage of being in a book club is that it forces you to finish books you would ordinarily give up on. i had to reaaaalllllly struggle to get through the first chapter because the writing is DIRE. i thought it must just be a shoddy translation but according to the review below it's crap writing even in its native slovenian. ultimately i'm glad i did because some of the battle scenes were really exciting and hasan is a compelling character, and that sort of makes up for the mills & boone AWFULNESS of the harem scenes.
i found this review on goodreads and it sums everything up:
"Before I begin with my review, I should alert its reader that I perused the book in its original, Slovene edition (Sanje publishing house).
I had set my hands on this book several times in the past, but could never get past the first few pages. Even in his native language, Bartol is no master of style. The language is clumsy and inconsistent. Some passages are written masterfully so that even the longest monologues keep you interested for pages. Others make you wonder how on earth this book became a classic in the Slovene literary circles, sounding much like they were written by a teenager. The language is archaic for today's time, but that wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't for the seas of grammatical mistakes true even in Bartol's day. I must say that if language would be the primary merit to judge this book upon, I would give it a single star.
The pacing of the plot is not much better. At numerous times, you are at the edge of your seat, sometimes uncomfortably so, while other times he drags on for no particular reason. The third quarter of the book also gets annoyingly hasty and skips over significant events way too fast for my liking. There's no consistency at all and it takes away even more of my favour.
The characters can be confusing. At first look, they appear awfully underdeveloped and weak. The main character, Ibn Tahir, is introduced on a high note, but ends almost comically. As the story progresses, several characters gain a deeper, almost philosophical dimension, while others continue to be mere fodder used to propel the plot. It's surprising, since Bartol was a trained psychologist. Perhaps they simply did not strike a bell with me.
It's the theme, however, that redeems this unpolished jewel. The amount of research that had to be done for the completion of this novel is colossal and Bartol's achievement is all the more stunning since the only sources he had were in Slovene and German. A lot of the story is based on the mostly inaccurate writings of Marco Polo, but it maintains a comfortable degree of historical accuracy. Bartol's background in psychology and philosophy influenced the novel's underlying themes. So many fundamental parts of humanity are put to question, truly making you stop in the middle of reading, and ponder what you read. Alamut explores our illusionary experience of life, questions the relative truth and proposes one that is absolute. There is much debate on the existence of a god and the reasoning behind man's insistence on forming religion, creating gods and metaphysical explanations that cannot be scientifically proven. The novel could actually be called an experiment, an experiment of faith's power over people, an experiment led to see how far faith, illusion and lies can take someone.
There are profound moments in Alamut. It is a novel with a dynamic and spirit of curiousity and exploration possibly unprecedented in Slovene literature. Yet the novel suffers from many ailments that might well have kept it from seeing the light of day in our time. It is plagued by severe inconsistency and a clumsy style that does not do the power of the story justice. It is a great jewel, but so unpolished and rough that one might quickly discard it at first look. However, let me implore you, reader, to take the dive and look past the cover. It is well worth the journey and will undoubtedly stir you in one way or another."
i found this review on goodreads and it sums everything up:
"Before I begin with my review, I should alert its reader that I perused the book in its original, Slovene edition (Sanje publishing house).
I had set my hands on this book several times in the past, but could never get past the first few pages. Even in his native language, Bartol is no master of style. The language is clumsy and inconsistent. Some passages are written masterfully so that even the longest monologues keep you interested for pages. Others make you wonder how on earth this book became a classic in the Slovene literary circles, sounding much like they were written by a teenager. The language is archaic for today's time, but that wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't for the seas of grammatical mistakes true even in Bartol's day. I must say that if language would be the primary merit to judge this book upon, I would give it a single star.
The pacing of the plot is not much better. At numerous times, you are at the edge of your seat, sometimes uncomfortably so, while other times he drags on for no particular reason. The third quarter of the book also gets annoyingly hasty and skips over significant events way too fast for my liking. There's no consistency at all and it takes away even more of my favour.
The characters can be confusing. At first look, they appear awfully underdeveloped and weak. The main character, Ibn Tahir, is introduced on a high note, but ends almost comically. As the story progresses, several characters gain a deeper, almost philosophical dimension, while others continue to be mere fodder used to propel the plot. It's surprising, since Bartol was a trained psychologist. Perhaps they simply did not strike a bell with me.
It's the theme, however, that redeems this unpolished jewel. The amount of research that had to be done for the completion of this novel is colossal and Bartol's achievement is all the more stunning since the only sources he had were in Slovene and German. A lot of the story is based on the mostly inaccurate writings of Marco Polo, but it maintains a comfortable degree of historical accuracy. Bartol's background in psychology and philosophy influenced the novel's underlying themes. So many fundamental parts of humanity are put to question, truly making you stop in the middle of reading, and ponder what you read. Alamut explores our illusionary experience of life, questions the relative truth and proposes one that is absolute. There is much debate on the existence of a god and the reasoning behind man's insistence on forming religion, creating gods and metaphysical explanations that cannot be scientifically proven. The novel could actually be called an experiment, an experiment of faith's power over people, an experiment led to see how far faith, illusion and lies can take someone.
There are profound moments in Alamut. It is a novel with a dynamic and spirit of curiousity and exploration possibly unprecedented in Slovene literature. Yet the novel suffers from many ailments that might well have kept it from seeing the light of day in our time. It is plagued by severe inconsistency and a clumsy style that does not do the power of the story justice. It is a great jewel, but so unpolished and rough that one might quickly discard it at first look. However, let me implore you, reader, to take the dive and look past the cover. It is well worth the journey and will undoubtedly stir you in one way or another."