Brother of Sleep

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Summary: will change the way you think about genius
Review: I first read this book in German for a college course seven years ago and have not been able to forget about it since then. The description of life in an isolated village, and what happens to a genius who emerges there, is thought-provoking. What happens when a genius is born into surroundings of people who cannot (or will not) appreciate him? What if he has no way of leaving a record? Skip the movie, which sacrifices much of the book's reflectiveness and grace in favor of soap opera love triangles and disastrous fires, and buy the book!
PS Any organist who has not read this should be ashamed of himself, but the writing is so evocative that non-musicians will understand (and even hear) the virtuosity of the main character.

Rating:
Summary: Go an buy!
Review: I looked into it at a friends. Then I startet reading and was hooked! I finished it the next morning. It is one of the best books i've ever read! So I read it again, and again, ...

Rating:
Summary: Melodramatic
Review: I'm very sorry I can't join with the previous reviewers in praise of this book. I loved the book's premise and theme and I also enjoyed the prose. It reminded me of an old folktale and was well-suited to the story.

What I didn't like was the way the author developed the story. I didn't get any sense of the protagonist, Elias, as a person and I couldn't identify or sympathize with him in any way. He was supposed to have an all-consuming love for Elsbeth, but this love just "appeared" in the story; Schneider really doesn't do anything to develop it. The rest of the book followed suit.

The book is tragic, but Schneider often slips into uncontrolled, "purple" prose and excesive melodrama. This caused parts of the book to seem silly to me rather than tragic.

Schneider is a young writer and I think he's one with a lot of talent. His ideas are fresh and highly original and he has a special talent for descriptive writing. The alpine village where this story took place really came alive for me.

While I can't really recommend this book to anyone, I would definitely read another of Schneider's books.