Rating: 
Summary: Profound exploration of human experience of the divine.
Review: "The Sibyl" introduces us to an old woman who, in her younger days, served as a pythia or high priestess in the temple of the oracle at Delphi. One day she is visited at her remote mountainside dwelling by a wandering Jew, who was turned away at the temple because the oracle could not give him the answers he seeks concerning his destiny. He relates his story to the woman, how he was cursed by the son of God when, not knowing his identity, the man refused to let him rest for a moment against the wall of his house. The unfortunate man is now doomed to wander the earth forever, immortal, without possibility of rest or happiness. His wife and child have left him, and he is unable to find joy or fulfilment in anything. His eyes are described as empty, dried-up wells.
The woman then tells her own story, about how she was chosen to be god's bride in the temple. Her relationship with her god is a disturbing one, passionate and violent, as she serves as a vessel through which Apollo speaks to the priests. She loves her god with a consuming fervor, but constantly feels more like an abandoned lover than a beloved bride. And when she explores the realms of human love with a man of the village, she must face the consequences of her betrayal of god. Driven from the temple by an angry mob, she seeks refuge in the mountains above the city, where she bears god's son, a witless boy who does nothing but sit all day in their hut, smiling vacantly at nothing.
As the man and woman share their stories, they contemplate the nature of god, and the nature of the relationship between the human and the divine. We see clearly that god is not always a benevolent force, but brings both joy and sorrow, both pleasure and pain into the world. We also see that, though every person experiences god in his or her own way, no one escapes experience of the divine, and we are all bound to god, for better or for worse.
I do not capitalize "god" here because the book is not concerned solely with the Christian God, though he does play a role in the story, but with a much broader, more universal human experience of the divine. The bulk of the book centers on the pythia's relationship with the sun god, Apollo, but we also encounter numerous other deities and spiritual forces, including more intangible river gods, tree gods, etc. Many of the deities are interconnected and cannot be fully distinguished from one another. Apollo himself is infused with references to Pan, the goat-god of the mountains above Delphi. "The Sibyl" is a captivating and deeply thought-provoking spiritual journey. It does not offer concrete answers, but inspires readers to search within themselves to discover the nature of their own, personal relationship with the divine.
This review refers to the 1958 Vintage Books printing, translated my Naomi Walford.
Rating: 
Summary: "There is no joy in seing god"
Review: A lot of people accuse the religious of living in a nice little fantasy world where god protects them from the bad things in life and from death. The few religious who are truly mystical in their devotion to god know that "there is no joy in seeing god," as the old prophetess utters. This book reads like a fable and a poem, a myth and a tragic love story (love between whom? Has anyone ever really loved this woman?). For her, god has been volatile and cruel, like love can be. It has been said that god is love. Neither have anything to do with happiness exclusively. It has also been said that the heart sees truths the brain cannot comprehend. Like all great art, this book illuminates the heart's truths, truths that my brain left alone would refute. "I myself long for love and light, but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?" --Leonard Cohen
Rating:
Summary: A fable about human and divine love
Review: A troubled man tries to visit the Oracle at Delphi but is turned away by the priests. Undaunted, he learns that a sibyl, or female prophet, is living in exile with her son somewhere in the mountains along the sacred path to the temple. He finds her and begs that she listens to his tale and guide him along his path. The stranger relates his story about a being cursed by the Christ to wander endlessly. In response, she tells her own story of becoming a pythia, or priestess of the Oracle at Delphi.
The novel is a look into the meanings of love and faith and how humans try to reconcile themselves with the divine. When the stranger is cursed because of his inhospitality, he's outraged and cannot understand why a god would do such a thing. The sibyl sees both sides of her god, realizing that he is both good and evil, and accepts what happens. And it's not preachy, trying to tell the reader that religion is the ultimate answer or that one religion is better than the other. (I didn't feel as though someone was trying to convert me.)
"The Sibyl" is an interesting and enjoyable novel.
Rating: 
Summary: an earnest parable about the nature of God
Review: As Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1951, Par Lagerkvist must be recognized as one of Sweden's great authors. I know virtually nothing else about him. This was the first book of his that I ever read. I cannot say that I was moved to want to continue. THE SIBYL is a thin volume, a tale, a fable, a parable, not a novel in the usual sense of the word. A wanderer (see the legend of the Wandering Jew) appears above the town of Delphi in the first century A.D. He hails from Jerusalem and has been cursed by Jesus for an act of unkindness on his way to the crucifixion. The wanderer appears at Delphi looking for someone who can foretell if he really is condemned to wander forever. The only hope turns out to be a social outcast, an old woman living high on the mountain above town. He tells her his story, briefly. The rest of the book is her story---of how she became the vessel through which the oracle spoke and her single, ill-fated love, a cruel rape, and subsequent disgrace. Lagerkvist deals with eternal issues. God is cruel, incomprehensible and frightening, he says. His acts have no meaning discernible by humans. But He is also good and full of a meaning (which we cannot understand). God's connection to Man is both a blessing and a curse. Scandinavian gloom spreads and spreads and, in this age of terrorism, poverty, hunger, and ecological disaster, you feel that you have heard this all before. In fact, you have seen the proof of it all around you. Do you need to read about it again, cloaked in antiquity's faded garments ? I did not particularly enjoy this book, though it is certainly well-written and intelligent. Pessimistic messages are common in literature; so is the consideration of the largest issues. I felt that this tale was a little too didactic, a little too preachy for my taste.
Rating:
Summary: an earnest parable about the nature of God
Review: As Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1951, Par Lagerkvist must be recognized as one of Sweden's great authors. I know virtually nothing else about him. This was the first book of his that I ever read. I cannot say that I was moved to want to continue. THE SIBYL is a thin volume, a tale, a fable, a parable, not a novel in the usual sense of the word. A wanderer (see the legend of the Wandering Jew) appears above the town of Delphi in the first century A.D. He hails from Jerusalem and has been cursed by Jesus for an act of unkindness on his way to the crucifixion. The wanderer appears at Delphi looking for someone who can foretell if he really is condemned to wander forever. The only hope turns out to be a social outcast, an old woman living high on the mountain above town. He tells her his story, briefly. The rest of the book is her story---of how she became the vessel through which the oracle spoke and her single, ill-fated love, a cruel rape, and subsequent disgrace. Lagerkvist deals with eternal issues. God is cruel, incomprehensible and frightening, he says. His acts have no meaning discernible by humans. But He is also good and full of a meaning (which we cannot understand). God's connection to Man is both a blessing and a curse. Scandinavian gloom spreads and spreads and, in this age of terrorism, poverty, hunger, and ecological disaster, you feel that you have heard this all before. In fact, you have seen the proof of it all around you. Do you need to read about it again, cloaked in antiquity's faded garments ? I did not particularly enjoy this book, though it is certainly well-written and intelligent. Pessimistic messages are common in literature; so is the consideration of the largest issues. I felt that this tale was a little too didactic, a little too preachy for my taste.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning myth on the quest to find substance!
Review: On the surface, "The Sibyl" seems to be a decent enough myth about a man who was cursed by Christ for a show of inhospitality, and his approaching an ex-prophetess of Apollo on a mountainside overlooking Delphi.This book, however, delves into the mythological implications of the human being searching for meaning in a world where gods, or God, allows pain and evil to exist. The characters have no names, a feature often found in cosmological and mystical myths to help the reader "step into" the roles found therein. A truly moving account of the pains of being not just called, but Chosen, and of ultimately finding a place for onesself in an often harsh world. Written in 1956, "The Sibyl" is full of the sense of confusion and loss of the post war era, and Lagerkvist's own, often pessimistic, philosophical debates on the nature of man's significance. There are some truly rewarding passages in this book, though one of the easy pitfalls is to assume any mention of "god" refers to the Judeau-Christian God, when often the reference is to Apollo, a contextual reference point for the use of one of the more famous Sibyls of history. The myth is ancient, but Par Lagerkvist's retelling is contemporarily bound - and the questions asked are both very old and still presently unanswered.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Review: Par Lagerkvist's THE SYBIL is an amazingly simple, but profoundly relevant, read. The layers Lagerkvist utilizes in setting up his novelistic parable are far from simplistic, and involve most explicitly the historical shift from pagan religiosity to monotheism as specifically exemplified in the transition from Greco-Roman to Judeo-Christian beliefs. One might plausibly read this novel on a layer that denotes God's many faces and forms, but one should ideally (and logically) read this novel with the existentialist view of its author in mind: God only exists as a social-construction and he is only what we make of him. Lagerkvist's revision of the mythical Cumaean Sybil's story---obliterating the fact that she lived forever and kept growing older and more decrepit due to her 'wrong wishes'---shows the humanity involved in love as well as the conflicting desire for communion with the godhead. As Sybil grows to understand that her earthly love is more direct and vital than her falsely-rendered role as priestess, or pythia, the reader is able to recognize the discrepancy between dogma and tradition, a faulty tradition in which temple elders uphold customs merely for the sake of profit and reputation rather than due to pure belief in the godhead. Contrasted with Sybil's story is the story of a man who has crossed paths with Christ. The intermingling of the two different, yet seemingly similar, religious attitudes creates the framework for Lagerkvist's novel and further stresses the humanity inherent in any divine figure or idol. When he states, "Yes, god is evil ... Revengeful toward anyone who dares to love another than him," Lagerkvist not only invokes the Judeo-Christian sentiment of false idol worship, but also considers the strictures that this worship places upon men and women who wish to also partake in earthly, or romantic, love. A powerful account of the transition from polytheism to monotheism from a very modern author, THE SYBIL is a viable argument against the constraints of any brand of religiosity. This can be seen in its sympathetic and notably human portrayal of a woman who, in mythology, is granted no such sympathy. Lagerkvist's recurring parallels between Sybil and the Virgin Mary prove that religion stems from what came before and in doing so also argues, quite soundly, that the human experience should take precedence over the divine as the "divine is ... alien and repellent and sometimes it is madness." This novel, from the Nobel Prize winning author, is undoubtedly a journey into the human soul, one worth undertaking, one worth pondering, one worth reading with a mind completely open to revision and to the general nature of humanity's lusts and innate flaws. . Reviewed by kris t kahn, author of ARGUING WITH THE TROUBADOUR: POEMS.
Rating:
Summary: Lagerkvist's Masterpeice on the Divine....
Review: The Sibyl is most certainly a wonderful piece of literature of profound imagery and mythical content. It was the first book I read from the Nobel Prize of Literature recipient for Barrabus - Par Lagerkvist, which ignited my interest in his other novels, short stories and essays.
The Sibyl is a remarkable short parable about the struggles of the good and bad occurrences between the divine and human beings.
A wondering Jew whose only experience with God being a negative one, was cursed by the son of God for his impatient words on his way to crucifixion, demonstrating how one instance could change a person's life forever. He begins to believe in the curse and seeks insight from a legendary Pathia, who lives in a cave in the mountains over looking Delphi. The Pathia like himself experienced the wrath of God. She then tells a story of the blissful love to the merciless unsympathetic side which exists in the same God. Unlike the Jew however the Sibyl accepts God. The divine is not just a man on the clouds dictating people's lives but it's the impulses of nature, in animals, in lust, in every emotion humans are faced with.
This book leaves us with one prophecy which is that God is both love and hate and both exist to form a connection with him. The Sibyl dives into the quest for meaning, dealing with terrors and the wonders of existence. Wonderfully written and a truly captivating read.
Rating:
Summary: Lagerkvist's Masterpeice on the Divine....
Review: The Sibyl is most certainly a wonderful piece of literature of profound imagery and mythical content. It was the first book I read from the Nobel Prize of Literature recipient for Barrabus - Par Lagerkvist, which ignited my interest in his other novels, short stories and essays.
The Sibyl is a remarkable short parable about the struggles of the good and bad occurrences between the divine and human beings.
A wondering Jew whose only experience with God being a negative one, was cursed by the son of God for his impatient words on his way to crucifixion, demonstrating how one instance could change a person's life forever. He begins to believe in the curse and seeks insight from a legendary Pathia, who lives in a cave in the mountains over looking Delphi. The Pathia like himself experienced the wrath of God. She then tells a story of the blissful love to the merciless unsympathetic side which exists in the same God. Unlike the Jew however the Sibyl accepts God. The divine is not just a man on the clouds dictating people's lives but it's the impulses of nature, in animals, in lust, in every emotion humans are faced with.
This book leaves us with one prophecy which is that God is both love and hate and both exist to form a connection with him. The Sibyl dives into the quest for meaning, dealing with terrors and the wonders of existence. Wonderfully written and a truly captivating read.
Rating:
Summary: divine retribution and clash of religions
Review: This is an amazing historical novel. Not only does it evoke a sense of mystery in life and the sacred in late antiquity, but it turns an utterly bizarre plot into something totally believable. The result is a profound and inspiring meditation on life. I felt wonder, repulsion, and a desire to learn more - there is nothing more that a reader could hope for in an historical novel. The plot revolves around a banished sybil, who has lived in seclusion for so many years with her retarded son that she has become a legend in the towns nearby. An ordinary man condemned to immortality seeks her out, and they recount to eachother their life stories. The reader feels what it was like to live then, how religious beliefs shaped their lives and world view, and how in that seminal era the gods may indeed have erred. I was totally awestruck at the way that it made me feel. Highest recommendation.
|
