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¿Cómo reaccionar ante la indiferencia del hombre frente a los avisos del planeta de que el mundo está a punto de estallar? El profesor Zeno Hintermeier decide dejar su cátedra y embarcarse rumbo a la Antártida argentina, ansiando encontrar en el último rincón natural del planeta el silencio cargado de verdad que tanto anhela. Pero allí seguirá siendo un excéntrico incomprendido, un lunático obsesivo, un activista peligroso y, sobre todo, un hombre solo, más aislado aún que los icebergs que con tanto afán intenta preservar. Tal vez deba ir todavía un poco más lejos.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2011
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About the author
Ilija Trojanow
82 books114 followersIlija Trojanow (bulgarisch Илия Троянов) ist ein deutscher Schriftsteller, Übersetzer und Verleger bulgarischer Abstammung.
Ilija Trojanow im deutschen Wikipedia
Ilija Trojanow (Bulgarian: Илия Троянов) is a Bulgarian-German writer, translator and publisher.
Ilija Trojanow in the English Wikipedia
Ilija Trojanow im deutschen Wikipedia
Ilija Trojanow (Bulgarian: Илия Троянов) is a Bulgarian-German writer, translator and publisher.
Ilija Trojanow in the English Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
January 25, 2020
Zeno has an environmental problem. He cares too much about it. His ex-wife told him this: his intensity of feeling and enthusiasm came across as anger and shouting.
Zeno is a German scientist who did his doctoral work studying a glacier in the Alps. He fell in love with his glacier and with ice. Now 40 years later he never visits it. All that is left of the majestic glacier are scattered chunks of ice the size of desks.
Now Zeno gives lectures on an Antarctic cruise ship and leads walking tours to see the penguins. He knows his scientific stuff but he’s such a downer about the calamity that is occurring that he has to be told to “lighten up.” We actually get very little science – just his observations. He holds the tourists in a kind of contempt. They’re overweight and more interested in their checkoff lists than in the wildlife and natural beauty. They sit in the warmth of the ship and watch the scenery go by the windows as if it’s a documentary on a TV screen.
Zeno is torn about his own role in all this: is he contributing to their education and ultimate preservation of nature or is he contributing to its destruction? His paranoia makes him believe that the half-dozen scientific research stations maintained by various nations are there just waiting to be allowed to exploit the oil that’s probably under the ice. He gave up his glacier scientist role because he felt that it was like being a “hospice doctor” comforting dying patients. If education is working, why is nothing happening to improve the global warming situation?
While on the cruise he plots and carries out a dramatic action that brings world-wide news attention to his cause.
He has a woman friend, like many of the crew, a Filipina, whom he sees just three months a year on the cruises which are held only during the short Antarctic summer. So the cruise story is interspersed with lovemaking with his woman, with reflections back on his student days studying the glacier, and with episodes from the days when his marriage was dying. Each chapter ends with a few paragraphs of stream of consciousness passages, like a brain-dump of his day.
There’s good writing:
“…my beard is straggling toward retirement.”
“…no one can teach the art of complaining as well as rich people.”
“…the words kept limping at the end of every sentence like a bad leg.”
Of his bank advisor: “…the title says it all, the man advises his bank at the cost of his client.” He tries to fob off on him ‘securities:’ “…and what a phony word that is, right up there with “insurance.”
“I have the impression time and again that glaciers are putting on the last act of a bad play.”
A good book that kept moving; short, almost a novella, less than 150 pages.
The author is a Bulgarian-born writer (b. 1965) who now lives in Vienna and writes in German. He has also lived in Nairobi, Paris, Munich, Cape Town and Mumbai. With more than a couple of dozen works he is a prolific author but only a few of his works have been translated into English.
He had his 15 minutes of fame in 2013 after a flap in which he was denied entry to the US to attend a literary conference. He blamed it on a magazine article he wrote critical of NSA surveillance techniques, although his visa processing would have also occurred during a federal government shutdown. There’s a story here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ilija-...
Top photo from wanderlust.co.uk
Middle photo from sciencemagazine.org
The author from itb-berlin.com
Zeno is a German scientist who did his doctoral work studying a glacier in the Alps. He fell in love with his glacier and with ice. Now 40 years later he never visits it. All that is left of the majestic glacier are scattered chunks of ice the size of desks.
Now Zeno gives lectures on an Antarctic cruise ship and leads walking tours to see the penguins. He knows his scientific stuff but he’s such a downer about the calamity that is occurring that he has to be told to “lighten up.” We actually get very little science – just his observations. He holds the tourists in a kind of contempt. They’re overweight and more interested in their checkoff lists than in the wildlife and natural beauty. They sit in the warmth of the ship and watch the scenery go by the windows as if it’s a documentary on a TV screen.
Zeno is torn about his own role in all this: is he contributing to their education and ultimate preservation of nature or is he contributing to its destruction? His paranoia makes him believe that the half-dozen scientific research stations maintained by various nations are there just waiting to be allowed to exploit the oil that’s probably under the ice. He gave up his glacier scientist role because he felt that it was like being a “hospice doctor” comforting dying patients. If education is working, why is nothing happening to improve the global warming situation?
While on the cruise he plots and carries out a dramatic action that brings world-wide news attention to his cause.
He has a woman friend, like many of the crew, a Filipina, whom he sees just three months a year on the cruises which are held only during the short Antarctic summer. So the cruise story is interspersed with lovemaking with his woman, with reflections back on his student days studying the glacier, and with episodes from the days when his marriage was dying. Each chapter ends with a few paragraphs of stream of consciousness passages, like a brain-dump of his day.
There’s good writing:
“…my beard is straggling toward retirement.”
“…no one can teach the art of complaining as well as rich people.”
“…the words kept limping at the end of every sentence like a bad leg.”
Of his bank advisor: “…the title says it all, the man advises his bank at the cost of his client.” He tries to fob off on him ‘securities:’ “…and what a phony word that is, right up there with “insurance.”
“I have the impression time and again that glaciers are putting on the last act of a bad play.”
A good book that kept moving; short, almost a novella, less than 150 pages.
The author is a Bulgarian-born writer (b. 1965) who now lives in Vienna and writes in German. He has also lived in Nairobi, Paris, Munich, Cape Town and Mumbai. With more than a couple of dozen works he is a prolific author but only a few of his works have been translated into English.
He had his 15 minutes of fame in 2013 after a flap in which he was denied entry to the US to attend a literary conference. He blamed it on a magazine article he wrote critical of NSA surveillance techniques, although his visa processing would have also occurred during a federal government shutdown. There’s a story here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ilija-...
Top photo from wanderlust.co.uk
Middle photo from sciencemagazine.org
The author from itb-berlin.com
December 1, 2019
I am always in search of novels about climate change, which should have a great deal more literature about it than is in fact the case. Please recommend me any you find! In 'The Lamentations of Zeno', I was disappointed to find strong echoes of McEwan’s Solar, which I attempted to read then abandoned in annoyance. Once again, a man uses climate change as window dressing for his midlife crisis. It is a potentially civilisation-ending threat, so really deserves better than that. Just as with Solar, I was left wondering why I should give a damn about this man’s tedious love-life when the stability of the earth’s climate is at stake. Neither McEwan nor Trojanow managed to make me care about their narrator, or even believe that they actually studied climate change. Moreover, said narrators seemed very unlikely to be meaningfully affected by climate-related disaster. Basically, I don’t want literature that drapes climate change around flimsily as a backdrop for stories about middle aged men’s marital difficulties. I want books that explore the meanings and consequences of climate change for people’s lived experience. Examples I’ve come across are Flight Behaviour (which manages to have a marital difficulties sub-plot without it dominating) and The Carbon Diaries 2015 (which remains a great climate change novel despite the title being overtaken by time).
I am willing to concede that ‘The Lamentations of Zeno’ quite possibly loses something in translation, especially the metatextual interludes at the end of each chapter. These didn’t really work for me; John Brunner did the same thing far better in Stand on Zanzibar. (Actually, Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up is a brilliant, devastating novel about environmental pollution. As it was written 1972, however, climate change is not mentioned.) Although the setup of a jaded glaciologist leading an Antarctic cruise for the very rich seemed ideally suited to interesting environmental commentary, not much materialised. The odd incident stood out, generally involving penguins, but the narrative was weighed down by awkward, pointless sex scenes and digressive anecdotes. The blurb claims it, ‘recalls the experimentation of high-modernist fiction without compromising a limpid sense of place or the pace of its narrative’. I’m afraid I must disagree on all fronts. As a novel it felt conventional rather than experimental to me, had very little sense of place, and the narrative pace was glacial (sorry, couldn’t resist). Quite possibly this is a great work of literature that merely failed to be what I expected and wanted. If you weren't bored by Ian McEwan's Solar, perhaps you might like it. Just don’t expect to find anything meaningful about climate change within.
I am willing to concede that ‘The Lamentations of Zeno’ quite possibly loses something in translation, especially the metatextual interludes at the end of each chapter. These didn’t really work for me; John Brunner did the same thing far better in Stand on Zanzibar. (Actually, Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up is a brilliant, devastating novel about environmental pollution. As it was written 1972, however, climate change is not mentioned.) Although the setup of a jaded glaciologist leading an Antarctic cruise for the very rich seemed ideally suited to interesting environmental commentary, not much materialised. The odd incident stood out, generally involving penguins, but the narrative was weighed down by awkward, pointless sex scenes and digressive anecdotes. The blurb claims it, ‘recalls the experimentation of high-modernist fiction without compromising a limpid sense of place or the pace of its narrative’. I’m afraid I must disagree on all fronts. As a novel it felt conventional rather than experimental to me, had very little sense of place, and the narrative pace was glacial (sorry, couldn’t resist). Quite possibly this is a great work of literature that merely failed to be what I expected and wanted. If you weren't bored by Ian McEwan's Solar, perhaps you might like it. Just don’t expect to find anything meaningful about climate change within.
October 13, 2021
Zeno Hintermeier is a scientist that has been studying glaciers in the Alps for 40 years, watching their decline, their death, and he is really sad about it. He has another problem. He can't really talk to the people around him about this because it is so depressing. And that has had its consequences, like breaking up his marriage. Now he is now working as a tour guide in the Antarctic.
Most of the time I write reviews about the books I'm reading as soon as I finish them. This time I had to think about it a little. You see, my first reaction was that I really didn't like it. It is written in parts in this poetic style which I thought was unsuited for the story. The loss of ice is at the heart of this novella, and there is nothing poetic about glaciers disappearing. Here in Iceland we have already lost one glacier due to climate change, and going down the same road we will lose more of them. In my view the poetic style is just too beautiful for the subject.
So if I had written a review straight after I finished this book, it wouldn't have been a postive one. But, and there is a but here, there was something about this story that I felt like I needed to think about it. There was just something that made it stay with me, even though I was annoyed with the poetic style. It took a little while for me to figure out what that was. I finally got it. Ilija Trojanow does something quite interesting here. He manages to express eco grief better than I've seen in any story I've read before. Perhaps other writers have done this better than him, but I haven't at least come across it yet.
Zeno knows what is happening to the climate, and he knows why. He loves the glaciers, and knows they are disappearing. He knows the science behind it, and tries to get people interested in it, but that only makes his circle of friends smaller and smaller. So he has ended up as a tour guide to people travelling to the Antarctic. They are at least interested in what he has to say, but that isn't going make any difference, because they only have a temporary interest in this subject.
He is stuck in a strange situation. It is like being a witness to a slow moving car crash, and not being allowed to talk about it, because that would make it harder to keep the party going. Don't be a downer, just party on. I think that is what it must have been like for scientists that have been trying to warn people about climate change for decades, and have constantly been shut up by people that have a wested interest in keeping the party going as long as they possibly can.
Because this book expresses this feeling so well, I like it. Even though I'm not a scientist I can relate to Zeno. I can relate to what he is feeling. I get the internal conflict. I still feel it is a bit too poetic for its own good, but that is minor detail. Now that I've thought about it, I know this book will live with me for a bit longer than a lot of others.
Most of the time I write reviews about the books I'm reading as soon as I finish them. This time I had to think about it a little. You see, my first reaction was that I really didn't like it. It is written in parts in this poetic style which I thought was unsuited for the story. The loss of ice is at the heart of this novella, and there is nothing poetic about glaciers disappearing. Here in Iceland we have already lost one glacier due to climate change, and going down the same road we will lose more of them. In my view the poetic style is just too beautiful for the subject.
So if I had written a review straight after I finished this book, it wouldn't have been a postive one. But, and there is a but here, there was something about this story that I felt like I needed to think about it. There was just something that made it stay with me, even though I was annoyed with the poetic style. It took a little while for me to figure out what that was. I finally got it. Ilija Trojanow does something quite interesting here. He manages to express eco grief better than I've seen in any story I've read before. Perhaps other writers have done this better than him, but I haven't at least come across it yet.
Zeno knows what is happening to the climate, and he knows why. He loves the glaciers, and knows they are disappearing. He knows the science behind it, and tries to get people interested in it, but that only makes his circle of friends smaller and smaller. So he has ended up as a tour guide to people travelling to the Antarctic. They are at least interested in what he has to say, but that isn't going make any difference, because they only have a temporary interest in this subject.
He is stuck in a strange situation. It is like being a witness to a slow moving car crash, and not being allowed to talk about it, because that would make it harder to keep the party going. Don't be a downer, just party on. I think that is what it must have been like for scientists that have been trying to warn people about climate change for decades, and have constantly been shut up by people that have a wested interest in keeping the party going as long as they possibly can.
Because this book expresses this feeling so well, I like it. Even though I'm not a scientist I can relate to Zeno. I can relate to what he is feeling. I get the internal conflict. I still feel it is a bit too poetic for its own good, but that is minor detail. Now that I've thought about it, I know this book will live with me for a bit longer than a lot of others.
November 12, 2014
Wenn moralisch Standpunkt zu beziehen und dabei recht zu haben schon gute Literatur wäre, dann würde es sich hier um ein sehr gelungenes Buch handeln. Leider führt das eine nicht zwangsläufig zum anderen.
Zeno, Trojanows Protagonist, ist seines Zeichens Glaziologe. Sein Leben hat er dem Eis gewidmet, mit etwas was Liebe gleicht, wacht er über seinen Alpengletscher. Als ihm dieser im Zuge der globalen Erwärmung wegschmilzt, wirft er seine akademische Karriere über den Haufen und heuert an auf einem Kreuzfahrtschiff, wo er fortan Touristen sein Wissen über das Eis vermittelt. Dort fällt er, wenn er es vorher nicht schon war, als Konsequenz seiner Liebe zur Natur langsam der Menschverachtung anheim. Nur schwerlich kann man sich des Verdachts erwehren, dass die Distanz zwischen Protagonist und Autor hier nur eine hauchdünne ist. "'Ich bin es müde, Mensch zu sein" lässt er Zeno sagen - man wäre gern berührt davon und ist es nicht.
Seltsam leblos ist Trojanow dieser Charakter geraten, wie auch der Rest des Plots vor Sendungsbewusstsein zwar strotzt, aber eigenartig konstruiert und forciert erscheint. Die gesamte Komposition aus Handlung und journalistischen Einschüben (im Falle des Hörbuchs auch Musik) scheint erdacht um aufzurütteln, so vordergründig, dass das Gegenteil eintritt: selten hat mich Gelesenes so kalt gelassen, obwohl ich Achtung habe vor der Motivation des Autors, auch vor seinem Mut ganz klar Stellung zu beziehen.
Zeno, Trojanows Protagonist, ist seines Zeichens Glaziologe. Sein Leben hat er dem Eis gewidmet, mit etwas was Liebe gleicht, wacht er über seinen Alpengletscher. Als ihm dieser im Zuge der globalen Erwärmung wegschmilzt, wirft er seine akademische Karriere über den Haufen und heuert an auf einem Kreuzfahrtschiff, wo er fortan Touristen sein Wissen über das Eis vermittelt. Dort fällt er, wenn er es vorher nicht schon war, als Konsequenz seiner Liebe zur Natur langsam der Menschverachtung anheim. Nur schwerlich kann man sich des Verdachts erwehren, dass die Distanz zwischen Protagonist und Autor hier nur eine hauchdünne ist. "'Ich bin es müde, Mensch zu sein" lässt er Zeno sagen - man wäre gern berührt davon und ist es nicht.
Seltsam leblos ist Trojanow dieser Charakter geraten, wie auch der Rest des Plots vor Sendungsbewusstsein zwar strotzt, aber eigenartig konstruiert und forciert erscheint. Die gesamte Komposition aus Handlung und journalistischen Einschüben (im Falle des Hörbuchs auch Musik) scheint erdacht um aufzurütteln, so vordergründig, dass das Gegenteil eintritt: selten hat mich Gelesenes so kalt gelassen, obwohl ich Achtung habe vor der Motivation des Autors, auch vor seinem Mut ganz klar Stellung zu beziehen.
November 3, 2023
This is a tale of climactic and personal disintegration, in the story of Zeno Hintermeier, a glaciologist shepherding rich tourists on an expedition in Antarctica. His beloved glaciers, depicted almost as living organisms, are collapsing and he is taking this as a personal affront to his value system, with unpredictable consequences.
The planetary peril comes alive in this novel, as well as the ridiculous system enabling this collapse. It's all too much for this particular man. The reader is bombarded at the end of each chapter with a bizarre stream-of-consciousness rant which is an illustration of a noisy world heading to its ruin.
I have actually interviewed this author on my YouTube channel. Watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIAmm...
If you liked this review, follow me on Instagram @litwithcharles, where I do weekly book reviews, quizzes and lots of other fun literary content. I also have a weekly podcast, Lit with Charles, and a YouTube channel, Lit with Charles, where I host interviews with a huge array of writers, academics & publishers.
If you have thoughts on the book I’ve just reviewed or ideas for what you’d like to see me read next, send me a message here – I’d love to hear from you.
The planetary peril comes alive in this novel, as well as the ridiculous system enabling this collapse. It's all too much for this particular man. The reader is bombarded at the end of each chapter with a bizarre stream-of-consciousness rant which is an illustration of a noisy world heading to its ruin.
I have actually interviewed this author on my YouTube channel. Watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIAmm...
If you liked this review, follow me on Instagram @litwithcharles, where I do weekly book reviews, quizzes and lots of other fun literary content. I also have a weekly podcast, Lit with Charles, and a YouTube channel, Lit with Charles, where I host interviews with a huge array of writers, academics & publishers.
If you have thoughts on the book I’ve just reviewed or ideas for what you’d like to see me read next, send me a message here – I’d love to hear from you.
May 1, 2016
Zeno is a jaded, disillusioned and angry glaciologist, who knows that the ice-cap is melting and is distraught at the destruction of the environment he so much loves. He works as a tour guide on an Atlantic cruise ship where he has to contend with the ignorance and superficiality of the guests. The reader enters into Zeno’s thought processes and this doesn’t always make for easy reading. This is a novel that demands the reader’s concentration but then the destruction of our environment is indeed a serious subject and so deserves our concentration. In some ways the book is a polemic about global warming and climate change, but it’s also an insightful and thoughtful exploration of one man’s reaction to impending disaster. The descriptions are vivid and evocative, and we get to know Zeno in all his world-weariness. Well-crafted and well-paced, this is a novel that makes the reader think, and brings an important issue to life in a lively and intelligent way.
January 2, 2022
Favorite quote: “Don’t you think that an excessive love of nature leads to violence, including towards humans? On the contrary, insufficient love of nature leads to violence, also towards humans”.
November 2, 2019
[3.5 Sterne]
Dieser Kreuzfahrttrip in die Antarktis an der Seite des inzwischen verbitterten Natorforschers Zeno hat mir überraschend gut gefallen. Das Buch ist zwar von 2011, aber topaktuell mit seiner Kritik an Umweltverschmutzung, Konsum und Kapitalismus. In seiner Darstellung ist es ungemein verzweifelt, was sich einerseits in herrlich trockenen Beobachtungen äußert und mir andererseits aus der Seele gesprochen hat, denn auch in mir breitet sich oft dieses Ohnmachtsgefühl angesichts der aktuellen Lage und den Reaktionen mancher Menschen aus. Allerdings sollte sich hier niemand ein glückliches Ende oder die Idee zur Rettung der Erde erwarten.
Dieser Kreuzfahrttrip in die Antarktis an der Seite des inzwischen verbitterten Natorforschers Zeno hat mir überraschend gut gefallen. Das Buch ist zwar von 2011, aber topaktuell mit seiner Kritik an Umweltverschmutzung, Konsum und Kapitalismus. In seiner Darstellung ist es ungemein verzweifelt, was sich einerseits in herrlich trockenen Beobachtungen äußert und mir andererseits aus der Seele gesprochen hat, denn auch in mir breitet sich oft dieses Ohnmachtsgefühl angesichts der aktuellen Lage und den Reaktionen mancher Menschen aus. Allerdings sollte sich hier niemand ein glückliches Ende oder die Idee zur Rettung der Erde erwarten.
June 30, 2017
Read this book! Read it now!
I cannot believe the low ratings and bad reviews, but I am always on the outside. What can I say, if you generally agree with my likes and dislikes in books, you gotta read this!
It's the story of a geologist who is given a glacier to study in the Alps (and who knew that was a thing? The book is full of interesting facts like this.) His glacier dies, and with it, his hope that things will get better and people will pay attention to the environmental disasters around us. He can't bear to keep teaching, so takes a job on a boat giving lectures to vacationers visiting Antarctica. This way he can at least be among the glaciers he loves.
The book is a log he writes on a trip. He muses over his former life, he writes about the passengers, and his coworkers on the cruise. Again, we get fascinating info about whales from a fellow lecturer on board, about penguins and other birds from the bird lecturer. Poor Zeno is a voice crying in the wilderness though - the others also understand what is at stake, but haven't gotten to the same point of despair he has. He's a modern Cassandra, and no one is listening.
There is a Christo-ish artist also on board as a passenger, and he wants to do a pro-environmental art piece in the Antarctic. It's a spot on send up of how we all make ourselves feel good, while doing nothing to little to make any real change. As one passenger says "I'll do anything to help the environment" when given the chance to participate in the art project ... knowing darned well nothing will change in his life when he gets home.
It's pretty upsetting to read, because I am a despairer myself. But the writing is amazing! There are so so so many beautiful lines I stopped jotting, and am just going to buy my own copy of the book to underline to my heart's content. Plus, it's an important book (I think) and I want to both support the author for writing it for us, and share it with ANYONE I can get to read it.
There's been mention that people didn't like the staccato, confusing, jumbled ends of each chapter, but I thought they were a perfect contrast, the first part being the above the water reasonableness Zeno was still showing, the second part of the chapter the terror, the horror, the despair and desperation beneath the surface, like an iceberg. It's the below the surface that gets you in the end.
I cannot believe the low ratings and bad reviews, but I am always on the outside. What can I say, if you generally agree with my likes and dislikes in books, you gotta read this!
It's the story of a geologist who is given a glacier to study in the Alps (and who knew that was a thing? The book is full of interesting facts like this.) His glacier dies, and with it, his hope that things will get better and people will pay attention to the environmental disasters around us. He can't bear to keep teaching, so takes a job on a boat giving lectures to vacationers visiting Antarctica. This way he can at least be among the glaciers he loves.
The book is a log he writes on a trip. He muses over his former life, he writes about the passengers, and his coworkers on the cruise. Again, we get fascinating info about whales from a fellow lecturer on board, about penguins and other birds from the bird lecturer. Poor Zeno is a voice crying in the wilderness though - the others also understand what is at stake, but haven't gotten to the same point of despair he has. He's a modern Cassandra, and no one is listening.
There is a Christo-ish artist also on board as a passenger, and he wants to do a pro-environmental art piece in the Antarctic. It's a spot on send up of how we all make ourselves feel good, while doing nothing to little to make any real change. As one passenger says "I'll do anything to help the environment" when given the chance to participate in the art project ... knowing darned well nothing will change in his life when he gets home.
It's pretty upsetting to read, because I am a despairer myself. But the writing is amazing! There are so so so many beautiful lines I stopped jotting, and am just going to buy my own copy of the book to underline to my heart's content. Plus, it's an important book (I think) and I want to both support the author for writing it for us, and share it with ANYONE I can get to read it.
There's been mention that people didn't like the staccato, confusing, jumbled ends of each chapter, but I thought they were a perfect contrast, the first part being the above the water reasonableness Zeno was still showing, the second part of the chapter the terror, the horror, the despair and desperation beneath the surface, like an iceberg. It's the below the surface that gets you in the end.
July 4, 2015
A ver, de qué se trata este libro. Un tipo tiene un matrimonio desastroso, que termina en divorcio previo revoleo de platos. Su trabajo consiste en estudiar un glaciar, hasta que un día descubre que el glaciar no existe más. Después de un periodo de depresión (por lo del glaciar, no por el divorcio) retoma su trabajo pero ahora como guía turística en cruceros por la Antártida. Por motivos que tenían bastante sentido durante la lectura pero ahora no podría explicar, el tipo decide aprovechar un momento en el que los turistas y la tripulación bajan del barco para robárselo y tomarse el palo.
Ups, tenía que haber dicho que eso es el final.
Está escrito muy, demasiado rebuscado, al límite constante del fluir de la conciencia (algunos capítulos parecen directamente fluir de la conciencia de varias personas al mismo tiempo). Y pasa eso que dije antes: uno logra sentir un poco de empatía para con el personaje (un poco), pero una vez que salís de la novela no podes explicar por qué hace lo que hace.
Ups, tenía que haber dicho que eso es el final.
Está escrito muy, demasiado rebuscado, al límite constante del fluir de la conciencia (algunos capítulos parecen directamente fluir de la conciencia de varias personas al mismo tiempo). Y pasa eso que dije antes: uno logra sentir un poco de empatía para con el personaje (un poco), pero una vez que salís de la novela no podes explicar por qué hace lo que hace.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 26, 2017
Trojanow formuliert himmlisch, man möchte seine Sätze laut lesen um sie sich auf der Zunge zergehen zu lassen.
Mit Zeno Hintermeier hat Trojanow einen wunderbaren Erzähler kreiert, der mit enormer Plastizität vor dem inneren Auge entsteht.
EisTau ist eine großartige Gesellschaftskritik und liest sich zügig.
Mit Zeno Hintermeier hat Trojanow einen wunderbaren Erzähler kreiert, der mit enormer Plastizität vor dem inneren Auge entsteht.
EisTau ist eine großartige Gesellschaftskritik und liest sich zügig.
November 8, 2018
3,5 Sterne :)
Sehr schöner Schreibstil! Trojanow formliert manchmal so schön, dass man kurz innehalten muss :)
Alles in allem wird man beim Lesen so oft in die Irre geführt und ehrlich gesagt bin ich mir auch nach dem Beenden der Geschichte noch nicht ganz sicher, was ich da grade gelesen habe.
Bedarf auf jeden Fall noch Diskussion :)
Sehr schöner Schreibstil! Trojanow formliert manchmal so schön, dass man kurz innehalten muss :)
Alles in allem wird man beim Lesen so oft in die Irre geführt und ehrlich gesagt bin ich mir auch nach dem Beenden der Geschichte noch nicht ganz sicher, was ich da grade gelesen habe.
Bedarf auf jeden Fall noch Diskussion :)
July 19, 2018
Hermosamente escrito.
Read
July 29, 2024smeltend ijs of stervende eis, deze man maakt alles in z'n leven pessimistisch systematisch kapot. weergaloos wat een meesleper ijsbreker is dit voor boek!
niet alleen zitten er ludieke pinguïndijenkletsers, feitjes over smeltijs druipijs sneeuwijs glad ijs ijscos, de dagende doemenis van ons wereldbolletje, een erotische verhouding die ook heus vuur spuwt (hoewel ik nog niet mijn gedachten op een rijtje heb over of ik "binnendringen" nou zo'n hitsig woord vind) in, de onderdelen worden per stuk omlijst met lastig te volgen radio? en sekslijn? plotverduidelijkingen? en uit het niets vallende idiomen? passages.
ik moest om de zoveel pagina's de encyclopedie erop naslaan, wie weet nou exact wat dit allemaal is:
een snaaks lachje
profylactisch uit de weg ruimen
het loopt apocalyptisch af als mr. iceberger apodictisch begint
tot een soort koeterwaals husselen
de leptosoom naar de koffieautomaat vergezellen
"stilte, dat is zo'n schaars goed dat het met succes op de markt wordt gebracht, behoed in beschermde gebieden, gekoesterd in reservaten. die nissen krimpen, de pols van de tijd dreunt overal in vierkwartsmaat. (...) hoe valt te verklaren dat 'stilte' en 'stilstand' aanduidingen zijn geworden voor iets waarop neergekeken wordt?"
"de brave man had die [flessen rode wijn] gehamsterd voor zijn toekomstige schoonzoon, die op een dag door zijn dochter zou worden verlaten en de traktatie goed zou kunnen gebruiken om over de scheiding heen te komen."
"hoe langer ik zat te staren naar de wereld om me heen, deste zinlozer vond ik alles. de rationele trui die wij voor onszelf breien - dag in dag uit aan de man gebracht als de nieuwste waarheid - is snel uitgehaald als we een losse draad te pakken krijgen."
en als klapper op de ijsberg:
"zijn mensen en dieren voor u gelijk? ze zijn evenveel waard. is de mens niet een wezen van een hogere orde? niet dat ik weet."
niet alleen zitten er ludieke pinguïndijenkletsers, feitjes over smeltijs druipijs sneeuwijs glad ijs ijscos, de dagende doemenis van ons wereldbolletje, een erotische verhouding die ook heus vuur spuwt (hoewel ik nog niet mijn gedachten op een rijtje heb over of ik "binnendringen" nou zo'n hitsig woord vind) in, de onderdelen worden per stuk omlijst met lastig te volgen radio? en sekslijn? plotverduidelijkingen? en uit het niets vallende idiomen? passages.
ik moest om de zoveel pagina's de encyclopedie erop naslaan, wie weet nou exact wat dit allemaal is:
een snaaks lachje
profylactisch uit de weg ruimen
het loopt apocalyptisch af als mr. iceberger apodictisch begint
tot een soort koeterwaals husselen
de leptosoom naar de koffieautomaat vergezellen
"stilte, dat is zo'n schaars goed dat het met succes op de markt wordt gebracht, behoed in beschermde gebieden, gekoesterd in reservaten. die nissen krimpen, de pols van de tijd dreunt overal in vierkwartsmaat. (...) hoe valt te verklaren dat 'stilte' en 'stilstand' aanduidingen zijn geworden voor iets waarop neergekeken wordt?"
"de brave man had die [flessen rode wijn] gehamsterd voor zijn toekomstige schoonzoon, die op een dag door zijn dochter zou worden verlaten en de traktatie goed zou kunnen gebruiken om over de scheiding heen te komen."
"hoe langer ik zat te staren naar de wereld om me heen, deste zinlozer vond ik alles. de rationele trui die wij voor onszelf breien - dag in dag uit aan de man gebracht als de nieuwste waarheid - is snel uitgehaald als we een losse draad te pakken krijgen."
en als klapper op de ijsberg:
"zijn mensen en dieren voor u gelijk? ze zijn evenveel waard. is de mens niet een wezen van een hogere orde? niet dat ik weet."
November 4, 2019
EisTau von Ilja Trojanow ist bereits 2011 erscheinen und ist heute, angesichts der immer dringlicher werdenden Klimakrise, aktueller als je zuvor. Für den bayrischen Glaziologen Zeno Hintermeier ist die Klimakatastrophe schon eingetreten: Sein Alpengletscher, den er über Jahrzehnte erforscht, und dessen Niedergang er genauestens vermessen hat, ist unwiederbringlich geschmolzen. Der Tod seines Gletschers stürzt ihn in eine tiefe Krise, die sein Leben völlig verändert. Da er sich außer Stande sieht, seine Forschung in den Alpen fortzuführen, heuert er als Lektor auf einem Antarktis-Kreuzer an, um wenigstens dem Eis nahe zu sein. Aber auch in der Antarktis ist er mit der Gleichgültigkeit seiner Mitmenschen, die Umweltzerstörung und Klimawandel auf die leichte Schulter nehmen, konfrontiert. Als er die ständigen Beschwichtigungen und seine eigene Rolle als Touristenführer nicht mehr erträgt, entschließt er sich dazu, zu radikalen Mitteln zu greifen.
Was sich in Folge auf dem Kreuzfahrtschiff abspielt, erfahren wir durch Gesprächs- und Funkspruch-Fetzen, die den Kapiteln vorangestellt sind und die ich nicht ganz so gelungen fand, sowie aus Zenos eigenen Aufzeichungen. Die Sprache in Eistau ist eindringlich und poetisch. Mir haben einige Passagen sogar so gut gefallen, dass ich sie ein zweites Mal lesen musste.
Zeno wirkt allerdings oft unsympathisch, gerade auch im Verhältnis zu seiner Freundin und seinen Kollegen an Bord, und sein Blick auf die Menschen ist zutiefst pessimistisch. Auch in die Fridays-for-Future-Bewegung würde Zeno, der in der Ausbeutung und Zerstörung der Natur eine Art Erbsünde sieht, wohl keine Hoffnung setzen.
Trotz des etwas“ schwierigen“ Protagonisten, der kaum Identifikationsfläche bietet, hat mir das Buch sehr gut gefallen und die Lektüre hallt auch einige Zeit später noch nach - deshalb gibt es von mir eine Leseempfehlung.
Was sich in Folge auf dem Kreuzfahrtschiff abspielt, erfahren wir durch Gesprächs- und Funkspruch-Fetzen, die den Kapiteln vorangestellt sind und die ich nicht ganz so gelungen fand, sowie aus Zenos eigenen Aufzeichungen. Die Sprache in Eistau ist eindringlich und poetisch. Mir haben einige Passagen sogar so gut gefallen, dass ich sie ein zweites Mal lesen musste.
Zeno wirkt allerdings oft unsympathisch, gerade auch im Verhältnis zu seiner Freundin und seinen Kollegen an Bord, und sein Blick auf die Menschen ist zutiefst pessimistisch. Auch in die Fridays-for-Future-Bewegung würde Zeno, der in der Ausbeutung und Zerstörung der Natur eine Art Erbsünde sieht, wohl keine Hoffnung setzen.
Trotz des etwas“ schwierigen“ Protagonisten, der kaum Identifikationsfläche bietet, hat mir das Buch sehr gut gefallen und die Lektüre hallt auch einige Zeit später noch nach - deshalb gibt es von mir eine Leseempfehlung.
September 20, 2024
Ik heb soms een beetje moeite met boeken met vervelende hoofdpersonen, ik kan m’n waardering voor de persoon en het boek dan moeilijk scheiden. En dit was zeker zo’n boek! Ben het er verder best mee eens dat de mens de natuur nogal om zeep aan het helpen is, maar volgens mij is de oplossing niet om alleen maar boos op alles en iedereen te worden en geen oplossingen te bieden.
Ik moet een beetje denken aan de tuinder voor wie ik momenteel werk, ook iemand die heel scherp de slechte kanten van de mensen doorziet en het veel over onrecht heeft. Het verschil is alleen dat hij een alternatieve wereldvisie biedt wat de mens vooruit kan helpen (biologisch eten allemaal!!!!!!). Dat maakt veel uit!
Dus ja, toen ik eenmaal doorhad dat ik de hoofdpersoon een vervelende zak vond kon ik dit boek zeker waarderen! Gletsjers zijn ook enorm magistrale dingen!!
Ik moet een beetje denken aan de tuinder voor wie ik momenteel werk, ook iemand die heel scherp de slechte kanten van de mensen doorziet en het veel over onrecht heeft. Het verschil is alleen dat hij een alternatieve wereldvisie biedt wat de mens vooruit kan helpen (biologisch eten allemaal!!!!!!). Dat maakt veel uit!
Dus ja, toen ik eenmaal doorhad dat ik de hoofdpersoon een vervelende zak vond kon ik dit boek zeker waarderen! Gletsjers zijn ook enorm magistrale dingen!!
September 7, 2019
Gletsjeronderzoeker Zeno is het beu om mens te zijn. Met de zelfdestructie eigen aan mensen kaapt hij een cruiseship tijdens een kitscherige kunsthappening. Nogal grillig van vorm (verhalen uit het verleden afgewisseld met SOS-signalen en achtergrondgeluiden van de televisie), waardoor het verhaal je voortdurend lijkt te ontglippen. Bevat juweeltjes van zinnen.
November 2, 2021
Una buena idea llevada mal a cabo. Una sinopsis prometedora, pero con un contenido que da a debatir. No era lo que esperaba.
RESEÑA CMPLETA EN MI BLOG: https://lavidadeungamerprincipiante.b...
RESEÑA CMPLETA EN MI BLOG: https://lavidadeungamerprincipiante.b...
July 15, 2021
important content but pretty much the worst writing style i've ever come across
May 2, 2023
Etwas zäh, aber wichtiges Thema.
April 9, 2017
My rating would be 3.5/5 more precisely. That half a star is because it took me almost half the book to get the hang of it, and it's little less than 160 pages. But it was an overall good reading experience.
On The Lamentations of Zeno we get to know Zeno Hintermeier, a German scientist -glaciologist, specifically- who is put temporarily in charge of conducting an expedition for tourists, journalists and other scientists through and around the Antarctic. So, not only we'll get a tour through the icy unknown (I live in the Caribbean, I have no idea what a real glacier looks like) but like the name suggests, we'll also get a fair share of all the things that trouble our Mr. Iceberg.
Disclaimer: from now on there could be several details considered spoilers.
The book is structured in a way that each chapter is a location, coordinates, and by the end of each chapter we get a text that resembles a transmission with cross talk. Imagine several people having different conversations through one radio channel. Imagine being a spectator from afar of this expedition group, being able to hear every sentence that comes out of their mouths without knowing its real order. That's more or less what I got from these passages and it took me a while to see it this way; on the beginning I just found it baffling, funny, unsure as to what did this add to the text. What a great surprise.
The thing about Zeno is he is well aware that our world is dying and we're the killers. He sees how the behavior of the animals in the Antarctic has swifted, how his dear glaciers are not only showing signs of hurt in the crevasses and colors they show, but are slowly melting from the inside. Paraphrasing his words, he and his glaciers are like an old couple in which one is fighting and inescapable death and the other doesn't even know how to console the former. Having this realization early on life turns Zeno into a pure misanthrope, or maybe he has always been like that and the accumulation of the indifference of people ignited the darkest side of his detachment.
"By the late light of day we cast anchor in a bay full of ice floes as round as white whales, as narrow as their tailfins and as sharp as their teeth, a swan is swimming among them with a bloated head. The sky gradually darkens, a jaeger rushes out of its nest and pulls a last cry out of the dusky firmament. I wish there was a letter in the alphabet for death."
I can relate to an extent to Mr. Iceberg. He's called this way because of the time he has spent there on the ice, years on an off, and it fits well like a nickname for someone who would start babbling about the end of the world whenever anyone mentions the beauty of the unexplored/overexploited Pole. This guys took every possible opportunity to remind others of their faults against the nature, their egocentrism, the futility of believing on a future when we nipped the bud of life long ago. He found solace on the idea that even if these humans don't understand until there's violence, in the end we'd be fossilized excrement anyway. I read the book on a time I didn't have a lot of hope on the good side of humankind (saw the news today, just a little more bloody than yesterday) but as the pure misanthrope he is, maybe sociopathic, he didn't find himself at fault. He saw The Others, The Humans Except Him, as the root cause of doom. We get a glimpse of the things that once made him feel good and the ones that he was still able to enjoy (Paulina -his unexpected companion, music, the conversations with a couple of outstanding characters who happened to stumble upon the Antarctic, the glaciers themselves).
Zeno is worked up on a LOT of things that I won't go deep on, so as to not spoil the entire book. But he's particularly not fond of Dan Quentin's new photographic work, a huge human "SOS" in the middle of the Antarctic, an icon, the best representation of this announced death, as a wake up call for humans. You know, it'll be plastered on all museums, tv sets, streets. Zeno sees it as exploiting the ice for egotistical, capitalistic benefits, not a true interest on the salvation. And he is called to be part of that. Will he comply? Well, you have an idea of what kind of guy he is. So, in general, you get the lamentations and, surprisingly, a plan of action. A lesson for humans.
On The Lamentations of Zeno we get to know Zeno Hintermeier, a German scientist -glaciologist, specifically- who is put temporarily in charge of conducting an expedition for tourists, journalists and other scientists through and around the Antarctic. So, not only we'll get a tour through the icy unknown (I live in the Caribbean, I have no idea what a real glacier looks like) but like the name suggests, we'll also get a fair share of all the things that trouble our Mr. Iceberg.
Disclaimer: from now on there could be several details considered spoilers.
The book is structured in a way that each chapter is a location, coordinates, and by the end of each chapter we get a text that resembles a transmission with cross talk. Imagine several people having different conversations through one radio channel. Imagine being a spectator from afar of this expedition group, being able to hear every sentence that comes out of their mouths without knowing its real order. That's more or less what I got from these passages and it took me a while to see it this way; on the beginning I just found it baffling, funny, unsure as to what did this add to the text. What a great surprise.
The thing about Zeno is he is well aware that our world is dying and we're the killers. He sees how the behavior of the animals in the Antarctic has swifted, how his dear glaciers are not only showing signs of hurt in the crevasses and colors they show, but are slowly melting from the inside. Paraphrasing his words, he and his glaciers are like an old couple in which one is fighting and inescapable death and the other doesn't even know how to console the former. Having this realization early on life turns Zeno into a pure misanthrope, or maybe he has always been like that and the accumulation of the indifference of people ignited the darkest side of his detachment.
"By the late light of day we cast anchor in a bay full of ice floes as round as white whales, as narrow as their tailfins and as sharp as their teeth, a swan is swimming among them with a bloated head. The sky gradually darkens, a jaeger rushes out of its nest and pulls a last cry out of the dusky firmament. I wish there was a letter in the alphabet for death."
I can relate to an extent to Mr. Iceberg. He's called this way because of the time he has spent there on the ice, years on an off, and it fits well like a nickname for someone who would start babbling about the end of the world whenever anyone mentions the beauty of the unexplored/overexploited Pole. This guys took every possible opportunity to remind others of their faults against the nature, their egocentrism, the futility of believing on a future when we nipped the bud of life long ago. He found solace on the idea that even if these humans don't understand until there's violence, in the end we'd be fossilized excrement anyway. I read the book on a time I didn't have a lot of hope on the good side of humankind (saw the news today, just a little more bloody than yesterday) but as the pure misanthrope he is, maybe sociopathic, he didn't find himself at fault. He saw The Others, The Humans Except Him, as the root cause of doom. We get a glimpse of the things that once made him feel good and the ones that he was still able to enjoy (Paulina -his unexpected companion, music, the conversations with a couple of outstanding characters who happened to stumble upon the Antarctic, the glaciers themselves).
Zeno is worked up on a LOT of things that I won't go deep on, so as to not spoil the entire book. But he's particularly not fond of Dan Quentin's new photographic work, a huge human "SOS" in the middle of the Antarctic, an icon, the best representation of this announced death, as a wake up call for humans. You know, it'll be plastered on all museums, tv sets, streets. Zeno sees it as exploiting the ice for egotistical, capitalistic benefits, not a true interest on the salvation. And he is called to be part of that. Will he comply? Well, you have an idea of what kind of guy he is. So, in general, you get the lamentations and, surprisingly, a plan of action. A lesson for humans.
May 4, 2016
Please check out all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!
Zeno Hintermeier’s lamentations are endless, as he takes us on a journey in this novel. Not only is his marriage failing and his career faltering, he is also undergoing an existential crisis due to the melting of the polar ice caps. Zeno is a geologist, and he has been watching the progress of global warming throughout his lifetime. Now, as a scientist working as a tour guide on a cruise ship, he has a front row seat to the potential end of the world.
Overqualified for his job as tour guide, Zeno feels superior to his coworkers and especially to the guests on the ship. As they traverse the Antarctic, he finds new and powerful ways to convey the rapid loss of the glaciers, desperate to make the tourists take this tragedy seriously. The tourists, meanwhile, are more interested in taking selfies with penguins and gorging themselves on cruise ship buffet dinners. In his desperation, Zeno creates an extreme wake-up call for the effects of global warming – and it almost ends in tragedy.
In his sixties, Zeno is in the process of looking back at his life, and lamenting all he has lost. With the end of his marriage, he has taken a lover on the cruise ship, but he doesn’t see her as an equal in passion and intelligence. His career has become irrelevant, and his behavior is increasingly erratic. The melting of the ice caps pushes him over the edge, bringing back memories of a colder, idealized past. The novel becomes more complex as Zeno’s inner world begins to unravel.
Zeno’s personal issues are a small-scale view of what can be lost in a lifetime. The larger issue of global warming then becomes a haunting view of our entire existence as a species – and the potential for an end to the world we know. Zeno recognizes the fragility of the glaciers, and how we don’t appreciate them until they are almost gone – much like other aspects of his personal life. This novel brings humanity to the struggle to preserve the natural world. It is a small book, but it is packed with ideas that must be understood slowly and deeply.
I received this novel from Verso Books in exchange for an honest review.
Zeno Hintermeier’s lamentations are endless, as he takes us on a journey in this novel. Not only is his marriage failing and his career faltering, he is also undergoing an existential crisis due to the melting of the polar ice caps. Zeno is a geologist, and he has been watching the progress of global warming throughout his lifetime. Now, as a scientist working as a tour guide on a cruise ship, he has a front row seat to the potential end of the world.
Overqualified for his job as tour guide, Zeno feels superior to his coworkers and especially to the guests on the ship. As they traverse the Antarctic, he finds new and powerful ways to convey the rapid loss of the glaciers, desperate to make the tourists take this tragedy seriously. The tourists, meanwhile, are more interested in taking selfies with penguins and gorging themselves on cruise ship buffet dinners. In his desperation, Zeno creates an extreme wake-up call for the effects of global warming – and it almost ends in tragedy.
In his sixties, Zeno is in the process of looking back at his life, and lamenting all he has lost. With the end of his marriage, he has taken a lover on the cruise ship, but he doesn’t see her as an equal in passion and intelligence. His career has become irrelevant, and his behavior is increasingly erratic. The melting of the ice caps pushes him over the edge, bringing back memories of a colder, idealized past. The novel becomes more complex as Zeno’s inner world begins to unravel.
Zeno’s personal issues are a small-scale view of what can be lost in a lifetime. The larger issue of global warming then becomes a haunting view of our entire existence as a species – and the potential for an end to the world we know. Zeno recognizes the fragility of the glaciers, and how we don’t appreciate them until they are almost gone – much like other aspects of his personal life. This novel brings humanity to the struggle to preserve the natural world. It is a small book, but it is packed with ideas that must be understood slowly and deeply.
I received this novel from Verso Books in exchange for an honest review.
December 27, 2018
An interesting mashup of a narrative and an experimental book that felt more like an art form than an easy read. The first few pages of the narrative followed Zeno, a disgruntled misanthrope and aging expedition leader on a cruise to the Antarctic. Bemoaning humanity and its ravages of the world, Zeno fails in his duties numerous times and seems more focused on his lover—a Filipina waitress on the same cruise. In a final fit of insanity, he hijacks the ship when he and only one other person are onboard. The last page or so of each chapter is a mash-up of words, almost like word jazz, that eschew punctuation and logic. It almost felt like flipping frantically through TV channels (some pornographic) and catching just snippets of things that made sense; each ends with an alert about the ship's status post-hijacking in capital letters. In the end, the hijacking feels almost poetic. It happens during the staging of a live art piece—the crew and guests forming the letters S-O-S on the ice (originally intended as commentary on climate change) as the ship sails away.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It's impressive that it was translated from German and yet it still felt very nuanced. In hindsight I realize that the mash-up of information in the last page or so of each paragraph is mostly from the rescuers and news shows following the hijacking and wonder if you can't read each section together as a bit of a puzzle to make it all make sense. The text after the capital letter alerts, for example, when read together say, "and nevertheless/ keep it up/ nothing will help except a complete reboot/ I'll be sittin' when the evening comes/ wastin' time/ nothing else matters/ all ablaze/ now it's time to roll up your sleeves again/ and now for something completely different/ is in large measure suspect/ that came off marvelously/ on and on without end," which kind of sounds like a weird song lyric. Still, this creative format was a bit too out there for me. Maybe because I wasn't expecting it, or maybe because I'm a book traditionalist. The plot was interesting, the jazzy chapter endings were a bit too strange for my taste. Took awhile to get a feel for it and really dig into this book. As a consequence it took over 15 days to finish this 159 page book.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It's impressive that it was translated from German and yet it still felt very nuanced. In hindsight I realize that the mash-up of information in the last page or so of each paragraph is mostly from the rescuers and news shows following the hijacking and wonder if you can't read each section together as a bit of a puzzle to make it all make sense. The text after the capital letter alerts, for example, when read together say, "and nevertheless/ keep it up/ nothing will help except a complete reboot/ I'll be sittin' when the evening comes/ wastin' time/ nothing else matters/ all ablaze/ now it's time to roll up your sleeves again/ and now for something completely different/ is in large measure suspect/ that came off marvelously/ on and on without end," which kind of sounds like a weird song lyric. Still, this creative format was a bit too out there for me. Maybe because I wasn't expecting it, or maybe because I'm a book traditionalist. The plot was interesting, the jazzy chapter endings were a bit too strange for my taste. Took awhile to get a feel for it and really dig into this book. As a consequence it took over 15 days to finish this 159 page book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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August 29, 2016"Zeno Hintermeier is named for the founder of Stoicism, a central tenet of which is that we should live in accord with nature and that we should promote moral progress. The demise of the Alpine glacier to which Hintermeier has devoted his scholarly life palpably demonstrates that today’s consumerist humans certainly do not live in such accord. What to do?
His work at the institute thus essentially over, Zeno gamely follows a colleague’s suggestion to give lectures to tourists traveling to the Antarctic. Now in his fourth year on the MS Hansen, he has just been elevated to expedition leader, and this is where he begins the notebook we read." - Ulf Zimmerman
This book was reviewed in the September/October 2016 issue of World Literature Today magazine. Read the full review by visiting our website:
http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...
His work at the institute thus essentially over, Zeno gamely follows a colleague’s suggestion to give lectures to tourists traveling to the Antarctic. Now in his fourth year on the MS Hansen, he has just been elevated to expedition leader, and this is where he begins the notebook we read." - Ulf Zimmerman
This book was reviewed in the September/October 2016 issue of World Literature Today magazine. Read the full review by visiting our website:
http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...
February 20, 2017
At one moment, it was possible to think of self-annihilation as a beautiful thing: aim the (space) ship into the heart of the sun and set controls for cruise... no more, given the preponderance of our sociopolitical decisions to annihilate this planet's biological existence – as we know it, anyway. Trojanow rehabilitates this strange relationship. Take one glaciologist, angry and old. Add him to the crew of a cruise ship that profits from the disappearing beauty of the Antarctic world. Mix with a celebrity artist whose risible plans take up no more narrative space than they deserve. Narrate the inevitable history of environmental destruction as a prism for social relationships. Set the controls for cruise...
March 18, 2019
Poetic book about a grumpy glaciologist who joins an Antarctic cruise ship as a guest lecturer after the glacier he has spent a lifetime studying melts and disappears. Each chapter ends with a garbled section of radiospeak, in which it becomes clear that Zeno, the glaciologist, will hijack the ship in a last, desperate bid to draw attention to the planet's plight. Some of the writing is quite beautiful and the translation skilfully done. An example: 'every glacier has its own voice ... A dying glacier sounds different than a healthy one, it gives off a powerful rattle when it bursts along a crevasse, and if you listen closely you can hear the melt flowing into the underground lakes ...'.
February 17, 2017
Not my typical style. It took several chapters before I got into the rambling at the end of each chapter but eventually it hooked me. I definitely understood why Zeno did what he did- as a climate scientist I often feel like I am screaming into the darkness.
September 18, 2016
A great short novel that manages to bring together themes of personal heartbreak, the aimlessness of life and the destruction of the earth without cheap moralising.
November 30, 2021
Every once and a while, climate change makes me feel a lot like Zeno.
July 26, 2019
He aquí una novela que pone de manifiesto en una manera de escritura particular, capítulos que intercambian tiempos a la inversa, pues parece un diario primero para adentrar a un monólogo de la realidad que vive, o la realidad impuesta en un diario; El profesor Zeno Hintermeier, geólogo, se embarca como guía turístico hacia la Antártida argentina; una vida personal en decadencia, un matrimonio acabado la edad existencial que lo aqueja por su sentir hacia la tierra y su conservación, o la no por la mano del hombre la más depredadora, según el mismo pretende comprobarse.
Un texto de ficción bien construido, porque lo humano sigue siéndolo, el imaginario de Zeno, no está lejos de la realidad que nos depara nuestra situación casi impúdica hacia el bienestar de nuestra tierra y su naturaleza; es como si en el viaje dejara su propia conciencia, frente a la destrucción de la naturaleza , en el caso que lo ocupa el derretimiento de los glaciares; la culpa de cada hombre que el observa de frente por su falta de compromiso, de ignorar lo que todos a voz en cuello gritan, nos lleva de alguna manera a esta realidad que nos involucra a todos, siente miedo de no transmitir de no ser lo que quisiera ser para su mundo, sin la mano destructora del hombre. Zeno, nos manifiesta en este escrito la soledad a que se verán muchos entregados por que se comprometen pero su voz no tiene eco.
Sí, hay anotaciones con datos que precedemos reales sin ser una tratado sobre el tema, es la información para entender a Zeno, pero no te fíes, es un libro de leer con cuidado, hay frases largas, unas complejas para poder ubicar su contexto o para hacernos realmente pensar en el asunto; tanto como para querer saber si todo esto que con alguno detalle en algún punto nos cuenta existe o tan solo es su imaginación. Pero es lo que la tierra tiene y no conocemos.
Muy interesante, si quieres saber que se ve, que frió te hiela hasta el alma por esas tierras que nos parecieran de ficción, pero que están más cerca de nuestra verdad de supervivencia.
Muy interesante, eso me mereció toda mi atención, aprender y creer. Ilija Trojanow, autor de Bulgaria, pone un dedo en la llaga, hay que tenerlo en cuenta.
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