How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Quite good
Advantages:
A good mystery, interesting and strange ideas .
Disadvantages:
Choice of phrasing slightly awkward, a slightly confusing depth of levels .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
The Solitaire Mystery is the book which Jostein Gaarder wrote prior to 'Sophie's World', still the most famous and best received of his works. As is customary for his books, things are not as straightforward as they may seem...
It tells the story of a 12 year old boy called Hans Thomas and his father, who embark on a journey to Greece to find and hopefully bring back Hans' mother. (Pretty standard fare so far.) On the way, however, a series of strange events occur, beginning with a dwarf who gives a magnifying glass to Hans Thomas, and a baker who presents him with a bag of buns- one of which contains a miniature book with a strange story... This is where things start to develop at a more confusing rate. The book tells a story of a man who was shipwrecked many years ago, and as the story unfolds, a number of co-incidences and parallels start to unfold. The book also follows many of the patterns of a pack of playing cards, which mirrors many of the aspects of Hans Thomas' life.
This is a book which needs a lot of concentration to follow, as you could easily lose track of the levels within the book- at one point you are reading the story of Hans Thomas, who is reading the story of a man who is telling the story of Albert, who is telling him the story of the shipwrecked man! (This can require careful reading; I consider myself able to read fairly challenging text, but I had to devote my attentions to this book to enjoy it.)
If you are willing to apply enough mental energy to following this you are taken on a very strange journey indeed. Many of the plot devices here are seen to better effect in his later novel, Sophie's World, but they still work well. For example, the drawing of parallels between two worlds to illustrate a point and the use of mysterious communiques to draw you into the same desire to find out more as the characters.
As a mystery, it certainly keeps you guessing- if you work out the answers before they are handed to you, then you have my congratulations and admiration. If, like me, you don't like things which are predictable, then you will find that this book certainly eludes your fathoming out.
I enjoyed this book , though not as much as I did Sophie's World. I found the language at times to be a little awkward- you could tell that it had been translated as some of the figures of speech seemed to be translated literally- and I was a little disappointed at the resolution of the story. While the mystery was resolved (and I won't spoil it here), I still wanted to know more of how and why: it wasn't fully explained.
In summary, I would recommend the book to fans of Sophie's World, but only if they have enough time to devote their full attention to it. I think 'The Solitaire Mystery' suffers in comparison to Gaarder's later success, but is well worth a look. If I hadn't read Sophie's world first, I probably wouldn't have been so keen to read more of his work. Perhaps this is one to borrow, rather than to buy?
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