The Solitaire Mystery: a novel about
family and destiny by Jostein
Gaarder
The Sticky Bun Mystery
Jostein Gaarder had an unlikely international success with Sophies World,
a novelized exploration of western philosophy through the eyes of a young
girl. This is an earlier work, translated from the Norwegian by Sarah Jane
Hails. This fable-like story dabbles in philosophy too, though more lightly.
It tells of a Norwegian boy traveling across Europe with his calm and
reflective father in search of his long lost mother. The boy finds a tiny
manuscript that reveals the secret of a magic deck of cards that can tell
the future.
Jostein Gaarder proved himself to be a remarkable teacher of philosophy
with his first translated novel Sophies World, an imaginative trip through
philosophers past and present. He brings his unique blend of fantasy and
philosophy to The Solitaire Mystery, a novel quicker in pace and slightly
less dense than the more heavily academic Sophies World. It is a mystery
filled with fantasy and fact as one family tries to reconcile itself with
destiny.
The story begins with Hans Thomas and his father driving ac ross Europe
to Athens to reclaim Hans Thomas mother who left them many years
before. Along the way, Hans Thomas and his father philosophize about
life and just how they are going to convice the woman they both love to
come back home with them. The trip begins quite normally, until Hans
Thomas encounters a midget at a gas station who gives him a tiny
magnifying glass and tells them to stop in the town of Dorf. When they do
so, Hans Thomas encounters a local baker with a secret he slowly shares
with Hans Thomas, for he bakes an almost microscopic book inside of a
sticky bun that tells the story of a fantastical magic island where life quite
literally follows along the lines of a game of solitaire. But what does this
mysterious story have to do with Hans Thomas and his father? The more
he reads, and the closer the two get to Athens, the more Hans Thomas
realizes that the story he is reading is his very own.
Jostein Gaarder is a remarkable storyteller, crafting unbelieveable tales
which readers readily grant a suspension of disbelief. The only faults I
would find with this novel is that the plot seems a little too contrived at
times, and the writing is sometimes a little too choppy, but I chalk that up to
things lost in the translation. What isnt lost in the translation is Jostein
Gaarders sheer wonder and joy with the world around us. Too often as
humans we forget to marvel at how truly marvelous our world is, at how
marvelous we are, no matter what we believe in terms of how we came to
be. Being awakend to that wonder is the sheer beauty of Jostein Gaarders
magical philosophical trips.
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