Jostein Gaarder is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories, and children's books. Gaarder often writes from the perspective of children, exploring their sense of wonder about the world. He often uses meta-fiction in his works, writing stories within stories.
Gaarder was born into a pedagogical family. His best known work is the novel Sophie's World, subtitled "A Novel about the History of Philosophy." This popular work has been translated into fifty-three languages; there are over thirty million copies in print, with three million copies sold in Germany alone.
In 1997, he established the Sophie Prize together with his wife Siri Dannevig. This prize is an international environment and development prize (USD 100,000 = 77,000 鈧�), awarded annually. It is named after the novel.
Kabalmysteriet = The Solitaire Mystery, Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery is a 1990 fantasy novel by Jostein Gaarder, the Norwegian author of the best-selling Sophie's World.
Its main target audience is young adults, but the themes of the book transcend any age group. The Solitaire Mystery, as with Sophie's World, has a philosophical content but, unlike Sophie's World, it does not explicitly mention philosophers and theories; thus readers of the book may be unaware that they are actually engaging in philosophy.
The book follows two seemingly separate stories: Hans-Thomas, and Sticky bun book.
"I don't belong anywhere. I am neither a heart, a diamond, a club, nor a spade. I am neither a King, a Jack, an Eight, nor an Ace. As I am here - I am merely the Joker, and who that is I have had to find out for myself.
Every time I toss my head, the jingling bells remind me that I have no family. I have no number - and no trade either. I have gone around observing your activities from the outside. Because of this I have also been able to see things to which you have been blind.
Every morning you have gone to work, but you have never been fully awake. It is different for the Joker, because he was put into this world with a flaw: he sees too deeply and too much."
The Solitaire Mystery is a very unusual fantasy novel by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder, the first novel he wrote after his bestselling "Sophie's World". It was published in 1990 as "Kabalmysteriet", and won the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. In common with "Sophie's World", it has a lot of philosophical content, although The Solitaire Mystery does not specify particular philosophers, or explicitly refer to philosophical theories. It can be read as a YA novel, but the themes transcend this, and apply to all ages.
The book has an interesting structure, with each chapter represented by a different card in a pack. From the start the reader is aware of an intriguing premise, and a subtext. The superficial story, which weaves together all the other themes, is narrated by a 12 year old boy, Hans Thomas, who lives in Arendal, in Norway.
In the story, Hans Thomas and his father set out on a car trip to find Hans Thomas's mother, who had left them both eight years earlier, in order to "find herself". They drive through Europe, starting from their home in Arendal, intending to travel to Greece鈥攖he birthplace of philosophy鈥攚here they expect to find Hans Thomas's mother. But are Hans Thomas and his father really going to search for the boy's mother? Or is something more subtle happening? As Hans says,
"It's always easier to ask than to answer."
The book explores fantasy and reality, fairy tales and family history. It is supremely imaginative, with mystery piling on top of mystery. During the car ride, Hans Thomas discovers that his father is not just an embarrassing adult who collects jokers, (frequently butting into the card games of total strangers to ask if they would give him their joker) but that he himself is a bit of a philosopher. Hans Thomas is well aware of his father's little failings; his drinking and his need for frequent cigarette stops, but deduces that these enable him to philosophise about the universe. Their conversations are fascinating to Hans Thomas; full of questions about the meaning of life.
During the stops, Hans Thomas has some strange experiences. In the first of these a strange little bearded man at a petrol station gives him a magnifying glass with the mysterious message, "You'll need it!" and gives them directions which take them miles out of their way to a village called Dorf.
"I stepped inside and it was like slipping into another world. Baker Hans sat in a deep rocking chair and all over the room there were glass bowls with goldfish inside. In every corner a little piece of rainbow danced. But there weren't only goldfish here.
I stood for a long time staring at objects I'd never seen before. It took many years before I could put into words what I saw there. There were ships in bottles, and conch shells, Buddha figures and precious stones, boomerangs and wooden dolls, old rapiers and swords, knives and pistols, Persian carpets and South American carpets made of llama wool. I particularly noticed a strange glass figure of an animal with a little pointed head and six legs. It was like a whirlwind from foreign lands. I might have heard of some of the things I saw, but this was long before I'd seen a photograph. The whole atmosphere in the cabin was totally different from the way I'd imagined it to be."
The story switches between Hans Thomas's narration of each day, as they approach nearer and nearer to their destination and finding "Mama", and what he reads in the "sticky bun" book, which becomes increasingly fantastic, strange and dream-like.
In the "sticky bun" book, the sailor describes finding himself on an island where a pack of cards have each come to life. As Hans Thomas secretly reads more of the tiny book with the magnifying glass, he discovers an astounding connection between himself and the sailor called Frode. Hans Thomas becomes determined to finally solve the mystery of the island, and the pack of cards. Life on the island seems to be full of strange rules, unknown spontaneous events and complex paradoxes. It reveals a great deal both about the world and about Hans Thomas himself, but increasingly throws up many more questions than it answers. The cards seem to talk nonsense,
"The goldfish does not reveal the island's secret but the sticky bun does."
"Why did all the dwarfs on the magic island have clubs drawn on their backs?"
"The baker conceals the treasures from the magic island."
"Sparkling drink paralyses joker's senses."
Hans Thomas comments, "Although I understood almost every word they said, I couldn't grasp what they meant."
As The Solitaire Mystery unfolds, so does the "sticky bun" book, and as each chapter of this novel has the title of a playing card, so each playing card is introduced in the "sticky bun" book. There is also a connection with a yearly calendar; a parallel between the weeks in the year and the 52 cards plus a Joker. The Joker is unique, as is the enchanting Ace of Hearts, whom Frode seems to be quite smitten with, even though she is always "losing herself". She it is who will have a different destiny,
"I have finally found my way out of the labyrinth. I know now that I belong to a different shore ... I have crossed oceans and moods. I've struggled over mountains and difficult thoughts, but someone has shuffled the cards."
As the two stories of Hans Thomas's journey and the events in the "sticky bun" book seem to start to overlap, Hans Thomas doggedly pursues the meaning and significance behind the "sticky bun" book. What does it all mean? Does it mean anything at all, or are the playing cards not "real", but just imagination? The thing which baffles Hans Thomas most is the element of chance. How can a tiny book found at random in a bun tell him things about his own life?
"The sticky bun man shouts down a funnel so his voice carries hundreds of miles."
"Destiny is a cauliflower head which grows equally in all directions."
"The magic island crumbles from within."
"The baker's son must find the way to the sea."
Occasionally Hans Thomas has an inspiration, and understands the significance of one of the sentences spoken by one of the playing cards. He sees it as a prediction, and shouts it out delightedly to his father, who increasingly worries that Hans Thomas is talking gibberish.
Do Hans Thomas and his father discover Hans Thomas's mother, or is she forever lost in the fairytale world of fashion? Well that would be telling. Throughout the story we have glimpsed a strange little bearded man following them about. The first time was when he gave Hans Thomas the magnifying glass which proved so useful to read the "sticky bun" book. He has reappeared inexplicably several times along the way, right through to a critical moment near the end. Whenever Hans Thomas approached the little man, he seemed to dash away and vanish. There are many elusive elements in the story, which features some unusual occurrences. But the family history, although complicated, is compelling, and fully explained in the end. Hans Thomas gradually unravels the mystery of the cards, and the knowledge he learns there about some events in the distant past, do shed a surprising light on his own life.
This book is far better than an average YA novel, and the themes dealt with are fascinating and thought provoking. But it is also ultimately frustrating. Philosophical enquiry provides few answers, and is an uncomfortable medium to meld with a novel. Enquiries pertaining to the unknown aspects of human existence do not fit well within the framework of a story. The imagery is ingenious; certain ideas and images such as the pack of cards, the goldfish, "rainbow fizz", and the mysterious and undefinable perception of flavour will stay with me a long time.
However it is better read as an elusive fantasy rather than a confused philosophical enquiry. It may make you re-examine some assumptions, or raise new questions; it may make you think. What it does not do is to provide any answers. As Socrates said, and the book quotes near the end,
"All I know is that I know nothing."
鈥淚 don't belong anywhere. I am neither a heart, a diamond, a club, nor a spade. I am neither a King, a Jack, an Eight, nor an Ace. As I am here - I am merely the Joker, and who that is I have had to find out for myself.鈥�
This is my all-time favorite book, and Gaarder is one of my all-time favorite authors. His sophomore effort is the strongest, I feel, for many reasons - complex enough to keep you interested, interesting and whimsical enough to keep it light, and new enough (in his works) that the story within a story (within a story) had yet become cliche.
I generally don't believe in destiny, but this book makes me want to believe.
I suggested a "translation theme" to my small group of GR friends for this weekend (which later turned into mystery translation), and this was the book that came to my mind. It was short to read over the weekend, a translation, and has been out under mystery category by GR members. To be honest, I thought it to be a murder mystery with a 12 year old protagonist. But once I started reading I found that I was very wrong. Once I finished reading this book, I told myself not every mystery is about murder, theft or abduction.
This is a road trip that Hans with his father from Norway to Greece in search of his mother who left them when he was 4 year old to find herself. During this trip Hans not only discovered about his family curse but also come to know about his grandfather and a secret island of Dwarves. This book is a beautiful tale of story within story and concentrate on father-son relationship.
This was surprisingly good. Will definitely going to reread it sometime.
You can really read this book at any age and appreciate it on different levels every time. On one level this is a mystical tale about a Norwegian boy and his father driving across Europe to find the boy's mother who left his father several years/months (time isn't exactly linear in this novel).
Along the way, the boy is given a tiny little book hidden in a sticky bun and then a magnifying glass with which to read the book. In the book unfolds a fantastical tale about life of an island.
Much more entertaining than Sophie's World or Maya, this is essentially a clever children's book which is thought provoking, intelligently written and imaginative
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This novel, which was published in Norway before "Sophie's World", is another offbeat, delightful ontology masquerading as an ingeniously constructed fairy tale. It tells the story of the 12-year-old Hans Thomas, who is driving with his father from Norway to Greece in a quest to retrieve his errant mother.
I was captivated by the twin storyline of Hans Thomas who left Norway with his philosophical father in search of his mother who had "went out into the world to find herself"; and that of Baker Hans, Albert Klages whose mother died when he was a child, Ludwig the German soldier and Frode who found himself stranded on an island with nothing but a pack of cards for company. This is a story-within-a-story in which fantasy and reality, the past and present, are brilliant mixed. Encapsulated is the advice that we should all try to be "jokers" in order to appreciate what is in front of us. "A joker is a little fool who is different from everyone else. He's not a club, diamond, heart, or spade. He's not an eight or a nine, a king or a jack. He is an outsider. He is placed in the same pack as the other cards, but he doesn't belong there. Therefore, he can be removed without anybody missing him."
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. As the story progresses, the themes of the essence of being, of God's role in the world, destiny and the joy of being alive or of the beauty of the world resonate in both stories. "Our lives are part of a unique adventure. Nevertheless, most of us think that the world is 'normal' and are constantly hunting for something abnormal. But that is just because we don't realise the world is a mystery. As for myself, I felt completely different. I saw the world as an amazing dream. I was hunting for some kind of explanation of how everything fitted together."
Gaarder, a former philosophy teacher in Norway, concentrates on these aspects of philosophy, using both stories to illustrate his themes and intrigue his reader. At one point -- during their visit to Athens -- I was reminded of a theme utilized by a lot of authors (e.g. Gaiman) to explain the intertwining of religion and the passing of time: "But in a way they were in the world, as long as people believed in them. People see what they believe - the world didn't grow old or frayed at the edges until people started to doubt."
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. "It's because the world has become a habit. Nobody would believe in the world if they hadn't spent years getting used to it. We have seen everything so many times before that we take reality for granted." A novel of ideas that is coherent and striking and memorable.
Book Details:
Title The Solitaire Mystery Author Jostein Gaarder Reviewed By Purplycookie
The author of 'The Solitaire Mystery' is better known for , a famous novel that I began as a teenager then quickly abandoned. I can't remember why, as I was hardly a picky reader then. I read a 700 page memoir by Chairman Mao's personal doctor, for goodness sake. (It's called .) After reading 'The Solitaire Mystery', however, I got an inkling. I will say this for it, 'The Solitaire Mystery' kept my mind off the apocalyptic state of the world for a few hours, and I am thankful. Unfortunately the form this distraction took was annoyance. The plot contains four or five stories nested within stories, except they're actually all the same story, with a heavy-handed moral about being aware of how amazing life is. Alcoholic deadbeat dads feature heavily, while the few women are beautiful, mysterious, and totally lacking any personality. The deck of cards conceit is fun at first, yet rapidly becomes tiresome through overuse. 'Jokers' are praised with exhausting sincerity, which is unfortunate as recent cinema has really ruined that as an epithet. In short, 'The Solitaire Mystery' felt like being regaled with an endlessly looping anecdote by a slightly drunk man who thinks he's a radical thinker. A quote from the Daily Telegraph describes it as, 'Intellectually arresting, emotionally uplifting'. Instead I found myself intellectually and emotionally irritated.
The lesson here is that my brain needs books so I don't have to listen to my anxious thoughts, and quality is a secondary consideration at a time of closed libraries. Thus I am grateful that this book was lent to me. It also made me eager to get back to the turgid bafflement of , which is at least hardcore weird.
I'm really toying the line between 3 and 4 stars so I've settled with 3.5. It's a hard one, as the concept with this book was so clever and different; and it's not like me to say but I almost think it was too different. Hans Thomas and his father travel across Europe in search of his mother, who they believe is in Athens. While on this journey Hans Thomas is given a magnifying glass by a dwarf and shortly after 4 sticky buns from a baker, the largest one containing a very small book inside. So begins a story within a story within a story - threefold! Even my head was struggling to keep everything straight. During the story within the sticky bun book we learn of a magical island with 52 dwarves each a card from a pack of playing cards - so 2 of diamonds, king of spades etc. Throughout we learn that this information passes on to another every 52 years, and by the very end of the book we learn how this island and the men who have learned all of its secrets and treasures link in with Hans Thomas and his family. A very smart premise and it is a remarkably woven tale, I enjoyed it and the writing was wonderful, with even some philosophy thrown in! I just feel it was kind of tricky for me to get my head around, I was concentrating so much I didn't get to stop and actually enjoy the book itself. Still 3.5 I reckon.