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marko68's review against another edition
5.0
“We’re never the same, the presence of others changes us, draws forth different features and only rarely all at once, within every person are hidden worlds, some of which never reach the surface.” p25/6
Who can truly claim to understand the heart of man? It is complex and plumbs the depths of emotion, and raw human mystery. Jón Kalman Stefansson’s The Heart of Man is just the most beautiful, poetic, lyrical homage to the complexity of the heart. The third and final book in the Heaven and Hell trilogy, we continue to walk with ‘the boy’, the nameless protagonist whom we have travelled with since he set out on that fateful fishing trip with his most valued companion, Bárdur who forgot his waterproofs because of a book…
Reading Stefansson is like reading a dream. Translator Philip Roughton has done an amazing job as I, the reader, am carried away on the wisps of life and the depth of thoughts that permeate every page. Every page is a treasure as Stefansson has this unique ability to evolve a plot where we are privy to a narrative of the heart, mind and soul.
“The most burdensome in this life is never to be able to escape oneself, one’s own existence, shut up inside a compartment, in a world that never gives you any space, except perhaps in particular dreams, but that comes to you as soon as you open your eyes; how can it be tolerated? The most burdensome thing is not to know how to live, to know the notes but to be unable to sing them.”
Somehow throughout this book and indeed the entire trilogy which is essentially one meandering narrative in three parts, ‘the boy’ seems like the most unlikely character yet he seems to epitomise so much. In him is a youthful wisdom, a constancy, an observer, an innocence, a sadness, and a representation of a humanity that is ultimately an aspiration. We see him dealing with the entanglement of affairs of the heart, a naïveté that is becoming as he grapples with a heart that he’s trying to manage.
“The human body is a stupid beast that we drag along through time, like a heavy memory…. It’s a fact that the human heart has two chambers, which is why it’s possible to love two people at the same time. Biology makes it possible, demands it, some would say, but our consciences, consciousness, tell us a different story, which can make everyday life unbearably burdensome.” P77
Permeating throughout the entire book is the notion that all we really have are words. And that there is power contained in the written word, especially the poetic. It’s a source of wisdom, richness, dreams, expansion and wholeness. “What Reverend Kjartan said to me in the spring, that people who like Kierkegaard were dangerous because they cause us to question, and even rethink, the world”. P342
Beautiful, mesmerising, provocative and reflective. Can’t ask for much more from a book. 5 stars.
Who can truly claim to understand the heart of man? It is complex and plumbs the depths of emotion, and raw human mystery. Jón Kalman Stefansson’s The Heart of Man is just the most beautiful, poetic, lyrical homage to the complexity of the heart. The third and final book in the Heaven and Hell trilogy, we continue to walk with ‘the boy’, the nameless protagonist whom we have travelled with since he set out on that fateful fishing trip with his most valued companion, Bárdur who forgot his waterproofs because of a book…
Reading Stefansson is like reading a dream. Translator Philip Roughton has done an amazing job as I, the reader, am carried away on the wisps of life and the depth of thoughts that permeate every page. Every page is a treasure as Stefansson has this unique ability to evolve a plot where we are privy to a narrative of the heart, mind and soul.
“The most burdensome in this life is never to be able to escape oneself, one’s own existence, shut up inside a compartment, in a world that never gives you any space, except perhaps in particular dreams, but that comes to you as soon as you open your eyes; how can it be tolerated? The most burdensome thing is not to know how to live, to know the notes but to be unable to sing them.”
Somehow throughout this book and indeed the entire trilogy which is essentially one meandering narrative in three parts, ‘the boy’ seems like the most unlikely character yet he seems to epitomise so much. In him is a youthful wisdom, a constancy, an observer, an innocence, a sadness, and a representation of a humanity that is ultimately an aspiration. We see him dealing with the entanglement of affairs of the heart, a naïveté that is becoming as he grapples with a heart that he’s trying to manage.
“The human body is a stupid beast that we drag along through time, like a heavy memory…. It’s a fact that the human heart has two chambers, which is why it’s possible to love two people at the same time. Biology makes it possible, demands it, some would say, but our consciences, consciousness, tell us a different story, which can make everyday life unbearably burdensome.” P77
Permeating throughout the entire book is the notion that all we really have are words. And that there is power contained in the written word, especially the poetic. It’s a source of wisdom, richness, dreams, expansion and wholeness. “What Reverend Kjartan said to me in the spring, that people who like Kierkegaard were dangerous because they cause us to question, and even rethink, the world”. P342
Beautiful, mesmerising, provocative and reflective. Can’t ask for much more from a book. 5 stars.
hearingtrumpet's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderfully sweeping tale about what makes us human when stripped of all the masks and distractions in life. The poetry in the struggle for survivor. An ode to the bravery to live a life worth living as opposed to sheer existence. Multitudes of lives and experiences hidden behind every rugged face and muffled half sentence. Achingly beautiful prose.
marc129's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
“life, it’s glittering stars, but what then is the darkness between them?”
The strength of the previous, second part of the Heaven and Hell trilogy was its homogeneity, with the unnamed ‘boy’ and his companion, postman Jens, trekking through a gruesome snowstorm for days. This third part has a completely different character: it is more multiform, more chaotic, with more characters and more varied scenes. That is initially somewhat confusing (where is the story going?), and not all storylines are equally well done (postman Jens almost completely disappears from view), but Stefansson clearly uses that complexity consciously to address a richer number of themes, all in the ‘coming of age’ of the boy.
After his adventure with Jens, that boy finds himself back in the village, taken in by a number of free-spirited women who take care of his upbringing. Once again, the theme of death is prominently present, almost even as an active character, including in a beautiful scene in which a ship capsizes in a storm: “she sees a man pounding the keel of the ship with his fists, as if he’s knocking on a door; hello, is anyone there? Yes, death says, I’m always here, you’ll never find my door shut, you’re always welcome, my embrace is larger than life.” But the emphasis of this third part lies somewhat more on themes such as loneliness, human decline, (social) injustice, brutal games by the rich and powerful, and so on, all illustrated by means of incidents in the village.
The boy associates all these negative phenomena with darkness, an alternative to the classic struggle with evil. And that ultimately culminates in a beautiful scene at a wedding party, where the boy phenomenally summarizes his preliminary findings in a vitalistic credo: “I don’t know where the darkness comes from, yet I think that it comes from the same place as the light, and I think it grows dark because we let it happen. I think that it's difficult to attain the light, often very difficult, but I also think that no-one attains it for us. Not God, not Jesus, who maybe should have been a woman because then the world would have been different and better, not the governor, not farmers, not ships, not books. If we don't set out on our own, life is nothing. We ought to live to conquer death, that's the only thing that we know how to do and are able to do. If we live as we're able, preferably a bit better, then death will never conquer us. Then we won't die, we'll just become something else. I don't have the words for it, to describe it, I mean. Maybe we simply change into music.” And that ultimately turns out to be the message of this trilogy: “we ought to live to conquer death.” The final scene of this third part may be a bit cheesy, but all in all, this trilogy is more than worth the read!
omarsantor's review against another edition
5.0
Dios... qué viaje.
Sigo procesando lo vivido en esta última parte de la trilogía porque es maravillosa de principio a fin.
Las palabras siguen siendo lo más importante en la historia y en la narración de la misma; la forma de Stefánsson de transmitir sentimientos y ambientarte en su mundo es única y sé me va a costar mucho poder encontrar algún otro libro que llene mis expectativas como lo hicieron estos.
Te puedes sentir identificado con el muchacho por seguir con el duelo de su familia y de su amigo, de no encontrar un lugar en el mundo y por su amor por la literatura, conocer a personas que lo acompañarán y sobretodo encontrar el amor en Geirþrúður y Álfheiður y lo que ello conlleva: confusión, agobio, deseo y tristeza.
-"Lo más difícil de esta vida es no poder escapar de uno mismo, no poder abandonar la propia existencia, encerrado como se está en un envase, en un mundo que nunca desaparece salvo en algunos sueños, y a ese mundo se regresa en cuanto se abren los ojos. ¿Cómo se puede soportar eso? Lo peor es no saber vivir, conocer todas las notas y nunca hacerse con la melodía."
Son de los mejores libros que he leído en mi vida.
Sigo procesando lo vivido en esta última parte de la trilogía porque es maravillosa de principio a fin.
Las palabras siguen siendo lo más importante en la historia y en la narración de la misma; la forma de Stefánsson de transmitir sentimientos y ambientarte en su mundo es única y sé me va a costar mucho poder encontrar algún otro libro que llene mis expectativas como lo hicieron estos.
Te puedes sentir identificado con el muchacho por seguir con el duelo de su familia y de su amigo, de no encontrar un lugar en el mundo y por su amor por la literatura, conocer a personas que lo acompañarán y sobretodo encontrar el amor en Geirþrúður y Álfheiður y lo que ello conlleva: confusión, agobio, deseo y tristeza.
-"Lo más difícil de esta vida es no poder escapar de uno mismo, no poder abandonar la propia existencia, encerrado como se está en un envase, en un mundo que nunca desaparece salvo en algunos sueños, y a ese mundo se regresa en cuanto se abren los ojos. ¿Cómo se puede soportar eso? Lo peor es no saber vivir, conocer todas las notas y nunca hacerse con la melodía."
Son de los mejores libros que he leído en mi vida.
addelweise's review against another edition
3.0
I especially love the poetic writing style and much of silent arguments between mind and heart the writer gave. It makes you think twice—the life you’ve been given of and how you gonna live it.
brask's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
angeladobre's review against another edition
5.0
Copilul ăsta văzut de unii drept "bou, prost, idiot, îngrămădit şi tâmpit, cârpă şi clei, încurcă-lume, gunoi şi zdreanță", are o privire de neuitat pentru alții şi creşte aşa frumos. Ia toată durerea şi tristețea pe care i le aruncă viața, toată mizeria şi răutatea şi le transformă în praf de stele, în gânduri şi emoții ce-ți fac sufletul să vibreze şi îți saltă inima-n gât. Copilul ăsta e atât de singur şi pierdut în lume încât nu vede decât ce-i bun în oameni, nu judecă, nu arată cu degetul, se lipeşte de oricine îi aruncă o vorbă, cântată sau mormăită, amară sau dulce, tăioasă sau blândă. Copilul ăsta vede viața într-un mod unic şi original, învață că-i făcută din lucruri mărunte şi ajută pe oricine-i iese-n cale cu ce are, cu vorbe şi priviri calde. Ştie mai bine ca un om mare cât contează o vorbă.
Stefansson ne oferă o călătorie în inima omului. O inimă sinceră şi curată de care ți-e imposibil să nu te lipeşti. Un om ca toți oamenii pe dinafară, nici prea frumos, nici prea urât, dar prea tânăr şi prea inocent, şi complet deosebit pe interior.
Viața îl tot împinge în situații limită, îl tot provoacă să rătăcescă drumul, are momente când simte că oricât ar lupta totul e inutil, iar sensul vieții îi tot scapă. Viața nu e linie dreaptă, nu e doar frumoasă sau urâtă, bună sau rea, viața vine ca un tăvălug peste el şi îl tot pune la încercare. Şi lui îi e frică că o să piardă şi ce n-are.
N-o să vă spun unde şi când începe cu adevărat băiatul să simtă că trăieşte şi că moartea nu-l mai pândeşte, dar vă dau un indiciu: nu e un loc!
Trilogia asta a fost terapie pentru minte şi balsam pentru sufletul meu.
Stefansson ne oferă o călătorie în inima omului. O inimă sinceră şi curată de care ți-e imposibil să nu te lipeşti. Un om ca toți oamenii pe dinafară, nici prea frumos, nici prea urât, dar prea tânăr şi prea inocent, şi complet deosebit pe interior.
Viața îl tot împinge în situații limită, îl tot provoacă să rătăcescă drumul, are momente când simte că oricât ar lupta totul e inutil, iar sensul vieții îi tot scapă. Viața nu e linie dreaptă, nu e doar frumoasă sau urâtă, bună sau rea, viața vine ca un tăvălug peste el şi îl tot pune la încercare. Şi lui îi e frică că o să piardă şi ce n-are.
N-o să vă spun unde şi când începe cu adevărat băiatul să simtă că trăieşte şi că moartea nu-l mai pândeşte, dar vă dau un indiciu: nu e un loc!
Trilogia asta a fost terapie pentru minte şi balsam pentru sufletul meu.