Grendel

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Summary: This book is unusally profound, a philosophical masterpiece
Review: John Gardner's Grendel is essentially a boook that questions the true nature of humanity. Grendel is represented as traversing the road of all who seek meaning and hope in a nonsensical world- his intellectual journey drags him throught the unforgiving vagaries of religion, the desperation of love, and the notion of a hero. Each of mankind's most deeply valued aspiration- art, religion, "heroism", and love- are all portrayed as nothing other than meaningless names for self-serving ideals.In the book, these steps are represented by a blind " shaper" who creates a new world for his followers through "sleight of wits", the hero who originally challenged Grendel, and a hostage queen. The initial contrast between Grendel and the humans slowly disappears, until at last the chisel of reason carves both of their illusions away until only the true beast remains. The human kingdom of Hrothgar-populated by manipulative lords, idiotic priests, a self-deluding poet, an insane revolutionary who praises violence for its own sake, and a disillusioned "hero"-is revealed to be what it truly is beneath its not so shiny veneer: the mask of a beast. The metaphor for all of human civilization and ideals is clear. A dark book, but full of brilliant reasoning, wonderful imagery, excellent poetry, and, at the end, a light of hope. A must read for anyone concerned with the true nature of humanity or philosophy,; the questions it raises are profound and difficult to dispel.

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Summary: Great 20th-Century response...
Review: ...to a great 8th-Century question. You can knock off a translation of BEOWULF one night, and follow it up with a couple nights' worth of GRENDEL. Gives you a funky sense of the centuries being squashed up together, as well as a sense of what does and doesn't change about humanity. Here in Binghamton, where Gardner wrote and taught before his fatal motorcycle accident, he has more detractors than fans. That's always puzzled me, and when I put the question to those detractors, most admit to never having read anything by Gardner other than THE ART OF FICTION. It doesn't bother me that they disagree with his ideas ABOUT the art, but that they would dismiss him without reading so much as a paragraph of his art--well, they just lose me there. To really judge, they would have to sample the wit, the music, the enthusiasm, and the intellectual gymnastics of GRENDEL. It's one of my favorite reads (a quick, exhilerating read), one I find rewarding each time I go back to it, and one I recommend for anyone who's not averse to the idea that reading can be fun.

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Summary: A reflection of man!!!
Review: Grendel is the reflection that Hrothgar sees in the mirror. A frightening look at man and his personal dreams of success, the initial price and its eventual cost. The book also explores the conflict between clarity of thought and obscured vision, in very subtle ways. This read is completely absorbing and absolutely incredible. Perfection!

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Summary: Grendel FINNISHes off Hrothgar
Review: After reading Beowulf on of my professors talked about this book. After tracking it down and reading through it, many times. I have found that it way surpases the original. I knew what would happen. But I prayed that Gardner had changed the eventual decline of Grendel. A great read and a great time. Sad and beautiful.

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Summary: A TALE GRIMMER THAN GRIM
Review: IT'S ANTI-HEROIC, ANTI-BEAUTY QUEEN, SACRELIGE. I LOVED IT! IT'S WICKED FUNNY AND IRONIC AND LICKS DELICIOUSLY MORBID AT THE PLEASURE CENTER OF ONES DARKER SELF. I''VE READ IT 5 OR 6 TIMES INDULGENTLY WITH A SENSE OF UNSETTLING SATISFACTION AND MAYBE ENVIOUSNESS AS UPON RETURNING FROM AN ALL TOO DELIGHTFUL AND PERVERSE ID SAFARI. I TO WAS CHARMED BY THE DRAGON'S SPELL AND "GRENDEL" AFFIRMS FOR ME THE NEGATIVE TRUTH: TO KILL THE QUEEN IS THE ULTIMATE ACT OF NIHILISM. A HEALTHY AND FUNCTIONAL SOCIAL ORDER MUST NOT BE PREDICATED ON THE IDEAL. HIS MONSTER LUST BARELY RESTRAINED, THE BOLDNESS OF HIS RAIDING AND HIS INNER CONFLICT WHEN CONFRONTED WITH THE INCONSISTENCIES AND LIES OFFERED UP BY RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IS CERTAINLY A METAPHOR FOR REVOLUTION.

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Summary: Well-known myth from the little-known eyes of the conquered.
Review: Beowulf is a story of our cultural archetypes. The glory and heroism of Beowulf's triumph over Grendel is a classic tale of the supremacy of the virtuous man. Yet Gardner in "Grendel" gives us the view from the creature's perspective. Grendel finally tells his side of the story: of his misunderstood attempts at friendship; of his captivity in his mythical role; of his disdain for his roots. Gardner tells the story of Grendel's world, and we are made to feel the eyes of the Dragon upon us as we move toward our destiny.

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Summary: Monstrous observations of man
Review: Grendel of Beowulf fame observes man's practices and conduct. Grendel's reflections convey a dishearting summation of man's character and his mental processes. Intellectually presented with philosophical insights,John Gardner weaves in the legend of Grendel"s exploits to add alacrity to the profundity. A thought provoking romp of pitting beast against "beast", and without bias, the reader wouldn't know who to cheer. If you prefer books with impact,then put on a helmet for this mind jostler.

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Summary: A riveting and hilarious revisiting of the old epic.
Review: Yes! A glorious read. You don't have to know the originalstory, but it helps. Briefly, the Anglo-Saxon epic "Beowulf"where the monster Grendel makes his appearance, dates from about 700 AD, was probably written in England, but describes events in Denmark. An aging king's hall is troubled for twelve years by visits from a monster who lives in the depths of a marshy lake. The monster breaks into the hall at night and seizes and eats men. It is invulnerable to swords. Eventually, a neighboring group come to the hall promising to deal with the monster. The king's men are a bit humiliated, but in no position to refuse. Sure enough, the hero Beowulf wrestles the monster and succeeds in tearing off its arm. Monster goes back to marsh to die, but...here comes Mama Monster, and she is REALLY bad news. However, Beowulf tracks her to their den under the lake and kills her too.

John Gardner's "Grendel" retells the story...from the point of view of the monster. His Grendel is an enthralling creation, basically all Id, ruled by appetite and impulse, given to sudden craziness, but full of inchoate yearnings and an endearing scepticism about the bombastic heroics of the drunken Danes. He watches everything, hidden behind cowsheds or in a tree. He is smitten with the beauty of the king's young queen! (But he has no sex urge: invading the royal bedchamber, he is appalled by her nakedness).

Grendel is full of confused metaphysical musings on the nature of reality, time, fate, and other inconvenient appurtenances of daily life. He is not the only philosopher, however: there is a wonderful portrait of an all-knowing dragon (who also features elsewhere in the original, but is only seen in repose in this book).The dragon is a wily old rascal, of impenetrable cunning and endowed with great power. Sort of like Jesse Helms. Even Grendel fears him. (Actually, in full philosophical flood the dragon is more like a cross between Alan Watts and Stephen Hawking). Then there is Grendel's mother, a nasty bloated thing who has forgotten speech, a limbic horror:

"When I sleep, she presses close to me, half buries me under her thistly fur and fat. "Dool-Dool," she moans. She drools and weeps. "Warrovish," she whimpers, and tears at herself. Hanks of fur come away in her claws. I see gray hide."

All the writing is just splendid, varied in rhythm, brilliant in imagery, incisive in tone: a scene in a sentence. Here is an archer hunting the winter woods:

"The man, furred from his toes to his ears, walks through the moon-and-snowlit woods, silent as an owl, huge bow on his shoulder, his eyes on the dark tracks."

It is also hilarious: he describes his night visits to the king's hall "[I have] ... knocked politely on the high oak door, bursting its hinges and sending the shock of my greeting inward like a cold blast out of a cave. "Grendel!" they squeak, and I smile, like an exploding spring. The old Shaper, a man I cannot help but admire, goes out the back window with his harp at a single bound, though blind as a bat."

Or the description of the tame bear during a feast in the hall:

"The bear sat with his feet stuck out, playing with his penis and surveying the hall with a crotchety look, as if dimly aware that there was something about him that humans could not approve."

Tempted enough? Go for it. A super book.

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Summary: True Monsters Aren't Stupid
Review: For how long have we been subjected to two-dimensional monsters, the seldomly evolving stereotype of the creature who either (a) kills without conscience, surviving on a mere animalistic, carnivorous bloodlust, only to be felled by some near-miracle at tale's end, or (b) drags its feet while mumbling sounds, not unlike a mute and not-so-human (and much less traveled) Forrest Gump, creating a mutual air of disgust and sympathy in the reader. Not to fear. There is a third dimension to monsters--a brain!--and John Gardner has found it in Grendel. Sure, he's not the first to create a creature with substance, but Gardner's Grendel borders on sheer genius. Plucked from the ancient manuscript Beowulf, Grendel is a revisionist retelling of the poem from the antithesis' perspective. And what Gardner does so effectively in the novel is his refusal to succumb to the conventions of revisionist storytelling, i.e. bending a popular tale to sympathize with the originally villainized outcast through textual manipulation, creating a "hey-this-guy-isn't-so-bad-he-isn't-so-bad-at-all" sort of attitude in the reader. Let it be known: Grendel is bad. Very bad. And although the reader may sympathize with the monster's plight to some extent, it is damn near impossible to like him. He is violent. Unforgiving. Self-serving. Mangy. In short, truly a monster. He reeks of his hate, much like the dried blood of his victims that has dried and encrusted itself onto his hairy torso. But Grendel is a philosophical creature, deeply ensconced in Nietzschean thought, and it is Grendel's mind and outlook which give him his substance, which propels the book forward. His worldview is dark. Bleak. Nihilistic. He sees no worth in humankind, which seemingly is a mirror and a result of his lack of self-respect. Or is it? It can be argued that Grendel is Gardner's interpretation of the Nietzschean Ubermensch, striving towards a level of existence unobtained. But is Grendel's (and Gardner's) answer to the malaise of human existence, consumption and destruction, accurate? Grendel is as dark as the outlook of the novel's namesake, narrator and protagonist. It is graphically violent. Disturbing in its implications. But it is, first and foremost, a philosophical treatise, recycled through the popular storyline of one of the English language's earliest and greatest epics.

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Summary: A mesmerizing book about the Meaning of Life
Review: John Gardner has written a masterpiece -- the story of Beowulf told from the monster's point of view. There are many startling passages in this book and many ideas and points of views that will leave a thoughtful reader chewing for months (or years) to come. Be warned, however, that this is not a happy book -- it can be depressing and some passages can be challenging. There are moments of unexpected humor and others of stark poetic beauty. I don't agree with Grendel's perspective on human nature, but I certainly appreciate the beauty and liquidity of its telling. I have read this book several times over the past 20 years and I have come away each time with something new.