Rating: 
Summary: So Well Done
Review: The Dream of Scipio is an extremely well done novel--a challenging read involving three different characters at three different points in history. All are in the same French town, and each one affects the characters who exist after them. The story flows marvelously, moving seamlessly from one historical period to the next. The three main characters are concerned with, and perhaps obessessed with making morally correct decisions in an seemingly immoral world. Each lives in a time when tremendous calamities of historical consequences were occuring around them and all over Europe. The decisions they make are not easy and the later characters look for guidance to a writing by the Manlius, the first of the characters. The Dream of Scipio is a highly interesting read, on that I enjoyed immensely. If you are not afraid of a philisophically grounded novel, pick this one up. You won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book to read c arefully
Review: This book has many interesting aspects to it. The author very correctly shows us how there are consequences to the moral choices that we make, which is refreshing to see after the "let's see what I can get away with" attitude of the 90's. I do have some disagreements with the author, mainly the idea that faith and reason collide and that philosophy was destroyed by "uncivilized" faith. I can understand this dilemma in Manlius' 5th century to some degree, but in the 13th century and 20th century the work of St Thomas Aquinas would be available to shed some light on the issue, yet no reference is made, a strange omission in my mind. The book has many ideas, some of which I applaud, like the idea that the worst evil is when good people ( or people of good will) do evil things. If the author intended to stimulate thinking and asks his readers to think, he succeeds at doing this even if I can't quite agree with some of his proposals , for example the idea that Christianity caused the fall of Rome, an idea with which I cannot agree at all. Having said all this, the love stories are well done and the transitions from eras is seamless and work very well. The book kept me interested until the end, even if, as I have mentioned, I cannot agree with some of the ideas the author seems to present. So read and enjoy, but question what you read!
Rating:
Summary: Really should be 4 and 1/2 stars
Review: Having read An Instance of the Fingerpost (and loved it), I came to this novel with high expectations. I found the first hundred or so pages very tough going (truly brutal), and I just about gave up on the book. If I hadn't read Pears' work before, I probably wouldn't have finished this, and I would have missed the fabulous rest of the novel.The three stories are intertwined, and they each have an integral part in the other two tales. The last 50 or so pages are wonderful, thought-provoking, and probably controversial for its conclusion. I think any reader who finds the subject matter interesting, i.e. the nature of civilization and the philosophy of civilizing influences, will probably have the "mental toughness" to slog through the difficult beginning. Take it from this reader that it is all worthwhile in the end. A few warnings regarding the book: this is a novel of ideas, and, as such, none of the characters (except perhaps Julian in WWII era Avignon) are particularly well-developed -- certainly none as compelling as in Instance's narrators; idealistic readers will probably be disappointed by the unrelenting pragmatism of this work (sort of like attending a Jesuit university). If you are willing to invest the time and effort, this book is well worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting, but not great, book.
Review: The jacket text is a little misleading. The love interests are not at all central to two of the plots, which focus more on the philosophical underpinnings of the Catholic Church. Pears has an axe to grind and the book suffers somewhat as a result. SCIPIO also suffers in comparison to FINGERPOST in that it doesn't evoke its time(s) and place(s) nearly so memorably. This was especially true for the earliest story (Manlius). That said - there are a couple of truly moving scenes at the climax. Pears also does a neat job of connecting the stories. His art history background comes through in a few places as well. Other thoughts: * The female characters are not that well written.
* I was disappointed that the titular essay appears only by reference.
* The third story reminded me of The Fall (Camus).
* This is a book for deontologists, not utilitarians.
Rating:
Summary: A work of genius
Review: I've never studied philosophy and have casual knowledge of history,but I loved this book. Pears is a genius. I actually started at the beginning immediately after I had finished the last page. The book entertained, enlightened, and educated all at the same time. The three major characters were struggling with issues and were acting according to philosphies they thought they believed; but then there is chance, irrational "love" (and who has yet figured that one out), and events of the world. Pears shows that no one can ever direct their own fate. We also learn that events are never quite what they seem, and those who are renown for good or bad may or may not deserve that status. In short, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in people and how we are all products of the world we live in regardless of how focused, directed, or philosophical we may think we are.
Rating:
Summary: Paging Jonathan Argyll!
Review: Iain Pears is two writers: One writes breezy, funny, ingenious "Art History" mysteries (whose main character is Art expert Jonathan Argyll), and the other writes...well, dull, intellectual exercises such as "The Dream of Scipio." Don't get me wrong, I admired this book for its scope, and Pears should be lauded for his ambitions. I just lose patience with him as an author when he writes "important" fiction. Because this novel is fairly dripping with "importance" -- or more to the point "self-importance." As you can guess, I was no great fan of "An Instance of the Fingerpost." The impenetrable quality of that title gives you an idea of the type of writing we're dealing with. Pears certainly knows his History, but never -- in either the previous book or this one -- creates characters that are more than one-dimensional. Their loves, their betrayals...who cares. As I said, there's much to admire in "The Dream of Scipio" and it's, for the most part, interesting -- there's just not a helluva lot to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Best in Years
Review: I am an academic with graduate traiing at a Jesuit institution and this book made me think as one has not for years. At home with Lemony Snicket and beach novels as with better literature, I will enter a rave about this book for thought-provoking questions of ethics and civilization. On a style note--all three characters have the same voice. But since they face the same questions of good and evil, this is not bothersome to one who values plot and ideas. Great read!!!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, evocative, and haunting.
Review: You will still be thinking about this book long after you have read it. It is a tapestry of a tale, woven over three different time periods, and set against tragic historical events. Mr. Pears's characters are well developed and believable...their experiences are vivid with good attention to detail. Mr. Pears is challenging us to contemplate the effect that philosophy and religion have played in the development of human culture. He constructs the story for us to discover these effects from differing perspectives and differing experiences. He does a marvelous job. Bravo! One of the best novels I've read in a long time. Worthy of his previous book 'An Incidence of the Fingerpost', another great read.
Rating:
Summary: Pears improves on his earlier work with exceptional results
Review: I started Iain Pears' previous novel "An Instance of the Fingerpost" with great enthusiasm, blown away by his excellent sense of characters and history. By the early chapters, I was impressed at how Pears wrote a historical novel that conveyed vivid pictures of pre-modern England without getting bogged down or forgetting that there was a story to tell. By using a narrative style that told (and retold) a similar story through 3 characters, "Fingerpost," while trying to be innovative and inventive, ended up seeming redundant. A great glimpse of history, but one that took endurance to get through. In "Scipio," Pears adopts a similar style of recounting events through the interwoven stories of 3 men. But here his trio of protagonists are of vastly different eras and experiences, making his cast more engaging. He also takes a non-linear tact, which helps make "Scipio" a real page turner. Interestingly, Pears outlines his main characters' deaths relatively early in the book. He also makes insightful comments about the ways that past events follow similar patterns over the course of time. "Scipio" is a valuable novel that should find a wide following.
Rating:
Summary: A multidimensional, open ended morality tale
Review: Your reaction to Iain Pears' new novel is likely to depend on what you liked about "Instance of the Fingerpost." If it was the Chinese puzzle box of its plot within a plot within a plot, you won't find that here. "The Dream of Scipio" places its bets on depth rather than cleverness. Was it the colorful, cunning, swaggering characters, telling their stories in memorably distinct voices? Calm, third person narrative is the rule this time. Our three main characters - the gregarious aristocrat Manlius Hippomanes, in the final months of the Roman Empire; the impetuous itinerant poet Olivier de Noyen, caught up in papal politics as the Black Death descends on Avignon; and the reclusive historian Julien Barneuve, coping with the demands of the Vichy regime during the Nazi hegemony - are all restrained and bookish men who aspire to live above the storms of passion. Many readers will find them disappointingly bloodless, but I'm not sure this is a flaw. Despite the three peculiar, parallel love stories at the center of the plot, this work intends to be classical rather than romantic in spirit. But if you are the sort of person who dips into Gibbon's Decline and Fall for pleasure; if what attracted you to "Fingerpost" was the way it made bygone, alien ways of being human palpable; or the subtlety of its characters' intrigues and political calculations; or its philosophical sophistication; or its grasp of both the moral ambiguity of the human situation, and the imperative to behave morally in the face of that ambiguity - then "The Dream of Scipio" will give you at least the same level of satisfaction as the last book. Be warned that there are murders here (what is human history if not a catalogue of murders?), but no murder mystery. There are elaborate compositional patterns to be noted, and a good deal of real history to be learned, but no "Name of the Rose" style conumdrums to be unravelled. Nevertheless, you'll be left bristling with questions - not the kind of questions that make you instantly begin rereading in order to collect clues, but the kind that make you hungry for a book club so the questions can be thought through in company: What is civilization, really, and why should we value it? What is and is not worth sacrificing in order to preserve it? What makes an act virtuous, its intents or its effects? Unlike most "idea" books, this one doesn't push one set of answers on you, rather it sets out the dilemmas, through concrete hard cases, in all their painful unresolvability. Four and a half stars, highly recommended, but be aware of what you're getting into.
|
