The Solitaire Mystery

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Summary: A first rate cross between fantasy and philosophy!!!
Review: The Solitare Mystery is a story of a boy and his father trying to find their mother/wife who has gone to find herself. The boy, Hans Thomas, recieves a magnifying glass from a dwarf and a sticky bun book from a baker. This book is a story inside a story. One story is of the long drive to Athens to find Hans' mother and is full of Hans' father making short speeches and asking questions on why we are here on earth. The other part is the story of the sticky bun book. These two stories are cunningly combined to produce an interesting duo of fantasy and philosophy. I particularly like ending of this book because all of the loose ends from both the sticky bun book and the story of Hans, his father, and his mother, are tied together.

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Summary: truly, madly, deeply
Review: After this book, you want to become a JOKER yourself. If you don't know what I mean, read the book!!

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Summary: Another good read from Gaarder
Review: I loved Sophies World. Solitaire is just a good - shorter, less philosphy, but a very good story. I became engrossed in the storyline. I may start my own joker collection!

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Summary: An artful mixture of life and philosophy
Review: Not only does Gaarder tell a great story with interesting changes in perspective, but he mixes in really thought provoking philosopy. You don't have to know much about philopshy or philosophers to "get it". He makes his leap into the philosophical very accessible. This book lingers in you mind. I loved it!

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Summary: We were born to be "jokers"...
Review: " The Solitaire Mystery" is actually a book of philosophy. In the story the joker is an "ousider" who can see the truth of life that others could never understand. Most important of all, he knows that life is an exciting adventure and he never loses the curiosity of being a human. In the card game of life, we were born to be "jokers". As we grew older and older, we gradually become spades. clubs, diamonds, and hearts. Because we have lost the curiosity to find out who we really are and the true meaning of life. We simply take everything for granted. Philosophy is a way to help us to become who we ought to be-- the "jokers". I like the philosophical issuses that Hans discussed wuth his father on the journey. I found them interesting and inspiring. After readign this book, philosophy is no longer a boring subject to me but an important factor of being a real human.

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Summary: A Magnificent Book!
Review: The Solitaire Mystery is one of my all time favorite books. I discovered Jostien Gaarder four years ago while in seventh grade, when I read Sophie's World. I bought The Solitaire Mystery as soon as it came out in English. I was not disappointed. This novel is outstanding as fiction and as a philosophical mind-twister. My problem with Sophie's world was its textbook-hidden-in-a-book style. The Solitaire Mystery has a plot which is just as interesting, without the slow-moving lectures. I love how Gaarder thinks about thinking while involving the reader in a thought-provoking plot about fate. How anyone can rate this book less than four or five stars is inconceivable. This is a book to read again and again, a real masterpiece!

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Summary: GREAT, I loved it!
Review: His imagination is extraordinary, that cards trick, that each one is alive, and correspond to a day during the year, CLEVER!!! I like his style of telling stories, great stories in the story! I have read other of his books, and I've found them all, GREAT!

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Summary: If dreams are so real, then reality could be a dream
Review: Jostein Gaarder is a philosopher who wants to share one thought with the world, and he does it extremely well in the form of a novel in "The Solitaire Mystery." He defends that if dreams are so real, then how could humans ever be sure that reality is not a dream? The story itself, which I found fascinating, is the trip of a father and his child from Norway to Greece by car in order to find the mother of the child. During the trip, the child will begin a parallel voyage that will take him to find himself and his place in the world that we all live in. The reader will not only enter a fascinating world, but he will also find himself as the kid in the story does. In this process, the father will take a major role as he tells his son the most important ideas of the history of philosophy. Overall, the book gives the reader a new perspective with which to observe the world and measure what surrounds him. If you pick it up, you won't be able to put it back down; and it surely will change your life as it did with mine.

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Summary: it's just a really good book
Review: i read sophie's world last summer, and we all have to admit there were times i was falling asleep. but the solitaire mystery is a wonderful book filled adventure and silliness that brings about philosophical issues in a fun, light way. i recomend this book to anyone interested in philosophy. simple and childish as it may be, it's pretty darn good!

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Summary: shiok!
Review: This book has been excellent. I come from a place so far from Scandinavia but the book has managed to captivate all the mystique of the far lands and at the same time stimulate all the wild thoughts of being. I would love to make my way there, so watch out, joker!