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Summary: The Modern Family Fable.
Review: Bottom Line: read it. To yourself, to your kids, to your friends, to your dog, to anyone who will listen. Let the fairy to of a boy searching for life in a unique story put a sparkle of curiosity in your eye. Absolutely enjoyable and lovely.
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Summary: A journey into questioning the world.
Review: Gaarder's story leads to a fantastic journey, in which the questioning of our own conditions of existence is the key to gain a broader perspective of it. When you read "Maya" following this one, there is an even great pleasure in reading these books.
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Summary: Wonderful, Brilliant, Beautiful
Review: I absolutely love this book and have read it numerous times!
I read Sophie's World by the same author and really liked it so I decided to try this one and bought it at my local bookstore (I was 15 at the time) and I loved it then I still love it now (I'm 18) and would reccomend it to people of any age. Kids will love it for it's fantastical story and adults for the story but also the insight, poetry, and philsophy. It's an amazing tale of fate and fantasy and the details just lock together so cohesively to form the complex story.
It's a must read!
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Summary: The Solitaire Mystery
Review: I consider The Solitaire Mystery a beautiful secret that avid readers are not aware of. It is satisfying, heart-warming literature.
This is a book for people who are not satisfied with modern writing that is hollow and formulaic. It is engrossed in similes and metaphors. It also incorporates a lot of philosophical ideas (some of which are reminiscent of Sophie's World.)
The novel interlocks two different stories - one from the present and one from the past - to illustrate the circularity of life. The premise of the present story is about the journey of a man and his son across Europe to search for his wife. The subtitle accurately describes the book - it is about family.
I highly recommend this novel to people of all ages. It is extremely thought-provoking and simply wonderful.
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Summary: This philosophical book really makes one think.
Review: I found The Solitaire Mystery to have very vivid characters and a good plot. I think that it is much more captivating than Sophie's World, which I also read. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to think. It raises many questions in one's mind, but answers few. This book interwines past and present, fate and chance, a card game and 'real' life. Although taking place in the land of the philosophers, the main character in this book, Hans, has modern day family problems. This book starts when Hans and his father go off to find Hans' mother who went off to 'find herself'. As they drive to find Hans' mother, they are followed by a strange midget who Hans suspects to be a living card: a joker. A baker in a small village gives Hans a book: a book about living cards...Is it true? One thing Hans does realize is that throughout time there will always be a 'joker'. I think that although this book raises questions about who we are and what our purpose is, it gives one hope; it tells one that although one comes from dust and eventually returns to dust, one's ideas are alive always
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Summary: The best philosophy lesson ever!!!
Review: I have read many of Gaarder's books, and so far this is my favourite (and not just his but by any author). Compared to Sophie's world, which has a sort of text book feel to it, this book has a plot and is truly captivating...till the very end (as is all Gaarder's books). I especially like the discussions between the boy and his father. Also the 'solitaire calender'. And how all the characters are so tangled up. This book will definitely get you thinking about life, in a way you have never done. Enjoy!!
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Summary: This book really changed my life.
Review: The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder is easily one of the greatest books that America has ever overlooked, though it's obscurity shouldn't make its value questionable. This tale is extremely complex, but an overall beautifully interwoven story. Not only do you become immersed in it by page one, but it's extremely psychological,philosophical-- a book that I like to call "symbolic fantasy", just like Michael Ende's books, especially the Neverending Story. You will discover so much profundity in this book while you enjoy it although you probably won't catch half of it until you read it again! A must read! Along with it I'd recommend the Neverending Story, other Jostein Gaarder books, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery, Alice in Wonderland, the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, anything.
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Summary: Post-modern fairytale
Review: The Solitaire Mystery follows a young boy, Hans Thomas, and his father on their way to find their runaway mother. Along the way, they encounter various people, each connected by a strange world long ago, leading ultimately to the unraveling of the mysterious pasts of Hans and his family.The Solitaire Mystery explores the strange world of coincidences and determinism. It dabbles in the philosophy of consciousness, reminding one of Descartes's elegant statement, "Cogito ergo sum," except declared this time by a pack of living playing cards. While definitely surreal, Gaarder touches questions intrinsic in every culture in the world. The only problem I had with this book was its story-within-story format. This made it somewhat difficult to follow, as it reached the point when Hans was reading a book about someone telling someone else a story told to him by another person. However, despite the heady material The Solitaire Mystery utilizes, it still reads as light and whimsical. This is a fairytale a la Alice-in-Wonderland, but at the same time, deep and profound.
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Summary: Post-modern fairytale
Review: The Solitaire Mystery follows a young boy, Hans Thomas, and his father on their way to find their runaway mother. Along the way, they encounter various people, each connected by a strange world long ago, leading ultimately to the unraveling of the mysterious pasts of Hans and his family. The Solitaire Mystery explores the strange world of coincidences and determinism. It dabbles in the philosophy of consciousness, reminding one of Descartes's elegant statement, "Cogito ergo sum," except declared this time by a pack of living playing cards. While definitely surreal, Gaarder touches questions intrinsic in every culture in the world. The only problem I had with this book was its story-within-story format. This made it somewhat difficult to follow, as it reached the point when Hans was reading a book about someone telling someone else a story told to him by another person. However, despite the heady material The Solitaire Mystery utilizes, it still reads as light and whimsical. This is a fairytale a la Alice-in-Wonderland, but at the same time, deep and profound.
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Summary: A modern classic and an adult fairy tale
Review: The Solitaire Mystery is Jostein Gaarder's best book. (though arguably not his greatest, which is probably Sophie's World). Very few books make one want to sit down and re-read them all through again after the first reading, but this is one of them. It is deceptively simple, yet the ideas are so striking that you can't work out why nobody ever pointed them out before. Jostein Gaarder took the theme of Alice in Wonderland to create an entirely new and modern story based around the cards - you'll never look at a playing-card in the same way again. Buy this for your entire family, even for your children or grandchildren. Once you've read it you'll wonder why you never read it before. A classic plot, yet such a very new one. Simple yet incredibly complex, yet an intelligent child could understand it. A novel of ideas that is coherent and striking and memorable. I tried very hard to think of anything I didn't like or found substandard in this book, and... I just couldn't. It is perfection itself. Even rereadings are highly recommended. You discover the smallest details and nuances that passed unremarked the first time around, which link back and forward to past or future events, and only build up an even more coherent picture.
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