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The Sound of One Hand Clapping
A sweeping novel of world war, migration, and the search for new beginnings in a new land, The Sound of One Hand Clapping was both critically acclaimed and a best-seller in Australia. It is a virtuoso performance from an Australian who is emerging as one of our most talented new storytellers. It was 1954, in a construction camp for a hydroelectric dam in the remote Tasmanian highlands, where Bojan Buloh had brought his family to start a new life away from Slovenia, the privations of war, and refugee settlements. One night, Bojan's wife walked off into a blizzard, never to return -- leaving Bojan to drink too much to quiet his ghosts, and to care for his three-year-old daughter Sonja alone. Thirty-five years later, Sonja returns to Tasmania and a father haunted by memories of the European war and other, more recent horrors. As the shadows of the past begin to intrude ever more forcefully into the present, Sonja's empty life and her father's living death are to change forever. The Sound of One Hand Clapping is about the barbarism of an old world left behind, about the harshness of a new country, and the destiny of those in a land beyond hope who seek to redeem themselves through love.
425 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
308 people are currently reading
4927 people want to read
About the author
Richard Flanagan
30 books1,628 followersRichard Flanagan (born 1961) is an author, historian and film director from Tasmania, Australia. He was president of the Tasmania University Union and a Rhodes Scholar. Each of his novels has attracted major praise. His first, Death of a River Guide (1994), was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, as were his next two, The Sound of One Hand Clapping (1997) and Gould's Book of Fish (2001). His earlier, non-fiction titles include books about the Gordon River, student issues, and the story of conman John Friedrich.
Two of his novels are set on the West Coast of Tasmania; where he lived in the township of Rosebery as a child. Death of a River Guide relates to the Franklin River, Gould's Book of Fish to the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, and The Sound of One Hand Clapping to the Hydro settlements in the Central Highlands of Tasmania.
Two of his novels are set on the West Coast of Tasmania; where he lived in the township of Rosebery as a child. Death of a River Guide relates to the Franklin River, Gould's Book of Fish to the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, and The Sound of One Hand Clapping to the Hydro settlements in the Central Highlands of Tasmania.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 445 reviews
September 23, 2022
The title is a Zen koan philosophical question based on what………? It is over a week since I have finished and I am still thinking about this at times very sad tale and the title that goes with it. Read up on what that question means and read the premise of the book as I am not that capable of explaining in a particularly articulate manner.
With that mea culpa on my inability to write deeper thoughts, I can communicate to anyone that peruses my occasional scribblings that I have found this is an exceptional read indeed. It should/could be very rewarding in allowing some of the citizens in this continental landmass that is the nation of Australia to maybe have more understanding of the plight of the refugee as to reasons to leave the brutality of a past life and with that how they deal with that past, this present and their future. I suspect that many hardly care, in fact, have any ability to care, but hey! How much more arrogant can I be with a statement like that. The sound of one hand clapping? Vacuous statements on my part? Others can be the judge.
Read other reviews for want of better depth.
For me, I can do no other than highly recommend.
With that mea culpa on my inability to write deeper thoughts, I can communicate to anyone that peruses my occasional scribblings that I have found this is an exceptional read indeed. It should/could be very rewarding in allowing some of the citizens in this continental landmass that is the nation of Australia to maybe have more understanding of the plight of the refugee as to reasons to leave the brutality of a past life and with that how they deal with that past, this present and their future. I suspect that many hardly care, in fact, have any ability to care, but hey! How much more arrogant can I be with a statement like that. The sound of one hand clapping? Vacuous statements on my part? Others can be the judge.
Read other reviews for want of better depth.
For me, I can do no other than highly recommend.
December 2, 2022
4.5★
“For Sonja, the town of Tullah did not so much nestle in that high valley with wild mountains around all sides, as appear to be an industrial accident swept up into orderly piles, left sinking into swampy ground. Everybody, everything was temporary. Except the rainforest and the buttongrass that would come back when this brief intrusion was over.”
Sonja grew up in Butlers Gorge, a construction camp in northwest Tasmania, not far from Tullah, where her father now lives. Her Slovenian parents had migrated to Australia after WWII for a better life, and ended up living in a worker’s hut in the camp where Bojan would labour building a dam, and Maria would raise their daughter.
“In those cowering corrals of huts had to live the workers, for in this remote highland country of the remote island of Tasmania that lay far off the remote land of Australia, there was no other human settlement for many miles. There were just wild rivers and wilder mountain ranges and everywhere rainforest that only ceded its reign over the land to intermittent buttongrass plains, or in the higher altitudes, to alpine moorland.”
They may have left war-torn countries, but this was hardly the better life these men and families hoped to find. They came from all over the world, many speaking little or no English, and many not understanding each other either.
“Bojan did not like words, the insufferable swamp of the English language, through which he had made his long, awkward way in a rude raft constructed of a few straggly branches of phrases he had torn from a scrubby tree here and there.”
The men in the camps drank, the women persevered. When Sonja was only three, her mother walked out into a freezing night, disappearing into a gale, leaving forever.
Some chapters are of Sonja’s early life, around 1954, and others are about her later life, from about 1989, when she had been living in Sydney. She adored her father when he was her “artie”, her daddy. But when he was drunk and violent, he was terrifying. She longed for her mother.
There is no denying the beauty and power of the language. I have always loved Flanagan’s writing, and there are parts of this that are magnificent. I have strong mental images of some of his characters. These are three very different men.
“Jiri, dressed in khaki overalls, big chest pushing out a bigger belly like a bulldozer blade a boulder, fat fingers like salamis delicately holding a piece of toast…”
. . .
“He put the fingers of his right hand under his drooping fringe that sat across his face like some outflow of sulphurous bitumen, and flicked the hair back into its correct position.”
. . .
“The suit hung off the old man’s small frame at odd angles, as if he and the suit were not on the most familiar of terms.”
I have read that the title is taken from a Buddhist ‘koan’, a kind of thought-provoking concept to meditate upon. Here, someone had clapped when they overhead young Sonja singing a Slovenian lullaby to baby chicks. Later, in that person’s absence, I think Sonja used it to describe how that felt – hard to understand.
Please take that comment with a grain, or a handful, of salt, since I am only guessing from a position of ignorance. But I was curious enough to look it up.
This is a hard book to read. It’s a depressing story, and there is so much sadness and despair, that I don’t recommend it to anyone who needs something uplifting. I think it is also longer than it needs to be. I feel that Flanagan told the story more than once, and a hundred pages less wouldn’t have diminished its power.
He is a Tasmanian who knows the place and the history better than most. This is only his second book, and in spite of its length, he is still one of my favourite authors.
[P.S. On a personal note, the father of a friend of mine worked on such a site for the Snowy Hydro Scheme (on mainland Australia). supervising men like these, using interpreters, gestures, drawings and whatever he could think of to explain what was needed to be done. It sounded like an incredibly difficult but rewarding exercise for him, bringing such diverse people together for such a massive project. They were certainly not as remotely located as those in Tasmania.]
“For Sonja, the town of Tullah did not so much nestle in that high valley with wild mountains around all sides, as appear to be an industrial accident swept up into orderly piles, left sinking into swampy ground. Everybody, everything was temporary. Except the rainforest and the buttongrass that would come back when this brief intrusion was over.”
Sonja grew up in Butlers Gorge, a construction camp in northwest Tasmania, not far from Tullah, where her father now lives. Her Slovenian parents had migrated to Australia after WWII for a better life, and ended up living in a worker’s hut in the camp where Bojan would labour building a dam, and Maria would raise their daughter.
“In those cowering corrals of huts had to live the workers, for in this remote highland country of the remote island of Tasmania that lay far off the remote land of Australia, there was no other human settlement for many miles. There were just wild rivers and wilder mountain ranges and everywhere rainforest that only ceded its reign over the land to intermittent buttongrass plains, or in the higher altitudes, to alpine moorland.”
They may have left war-torn countries, but this was hardly the better life these men and families hoped to find. They came from all over the world, many speaking little or no English, and many not understanding each other either.
“Bojan did not like words, the insufferable swamp of the English language, through which he had made his long, awkward way in a rude raft constructed of a few straggly branches of phrases he had torn from a scrubby tree here and there.”
The men in the camps drank, the women persevered. When Sonja was only three, her mother walked out into a freezing night, disappearing into a gale, leaving forever.
Some chapters are of Sonja’s early life, around 1954, and others are about her later life, from about 1989, when she had been living in Sydney. She adored her father when he was her “artie”, her daddy. But when he was drunk and violent, he was terrifying. She longed for her mother.
There is no denying the beauty and power of the language. I have always loved Flanagan’s writing, and there are parts of this that are magnificent. I have strong mental images of some of his characters. These are three very different men.
“Jiri, dressed in khaki overalls, big chest pushing out a bigger belly like a bulldozer blade a boulder, fat fingers like salamis delicately holding a piece of toast…”
. . .
“He put the fingers of his right hand under his drooping fringe that sat across his face like some outflow of sulphurous bitumen, and flicked the hair back into its correct position.”
. . .
“The suit hung off the old man’s small frame at odd angles, as if he and the suit were not on the most familiar of terms.”
I have read that the title is taken from a Buddhist ‘koan’, a kind of thought-provoking concept to meditate upon. Here, someone had clapped when they overhead young Sonja singing a Slovenian lullaby to baby chicks. Later, in that person’s absence, I think Sonja used it to describe how that felt – hard to understand.
Please take that comment with a grain, or a handful, of salt, since I am only guessing from a position of ignorance. But I was curious enough to look it up.
This is a hard book to read. It’s a depressing story, and there is so much sadness and despair, that I don’t recommend it to anyone who needs something uplifting. I think it is also longer than it needs to be. I feel that Flanagan told the story more than once, and a hundred pages less wouldn’t have diminished its power.
He is a Tasmanian who knows the place and the history better than most. This is only his second book, and in spite of its length, he is still one of my favourite authors.
[P.S. On a personal note, the father of a friend of mine worked on such a site for the Snowy Hydro Scheme (on mainland Australia). supervising men like these, using interpreters, gestures, drawings and whatever he could think of to explain what was needed to be done. It sounded like an incredibly difficult but rewarding exercise for him, bringing such diverse people together for such a massive project. They were certainly not as remotely located as those in Tasmania.]
December 6, 2013
This is a powerful and intensely sad novel, which deals with loss, alienation and the power of human beings to inflict pain on those they love most. The title comes from a Zen koan - a philosophical riddle - formulated by the Japanese Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku, who asked "You know the sound of two hands clapping; tell me, what is the sound of one hand?" As I understand it, the student of Zen is supposed to meditate on this riddle until insight or enlightenment occurs. The point is that there is no correct answer. The answer students come to depends on who they are, what they know and what they believe.
To me, the connection between the title and the narrative is that the reactions of the characters to the events that occur in their lives are formed by intricate web of history, geography, personality and circumstance. There are no easy answers to life’s questions, neither for the characters, nor for the readers who come to know them.
The novel is set in Tasmania in the post-World War II migrant community. It focuses on the relationship between Slovenian migrants Sonja Baloch and her father Bojan. The narrative goes back and forward in time from a snowy night in 1954 when Sonja's mother Maria leaves her husband and child and walks away from the dam construction camp in which they live, to 1989 when Sonja returns to Tasmania after a 22 year absence, with events taking place in various periods in between.
Although I was immediately taken with Flanagan’s writing and the structure of the novel, it took me longer to engage with the characters, as Sonja and her father are deeply damaged and not very likeable. However, the more I listened to the work, the more it packed an emotional punch. It portrays the devastation of family trauma set against a background of displacement and alienation. It’s also a snapshot of recent Australian history, that of post-WWII European migration seen from the perspective of the migrants rather than from the society into which they entered.
This not a book to read when you’re feeling down, particularly if you’ve had a seriously dysfunctional relationship with your father. On the other hand, it ends on a note of hope and renewal, so it’s not all doom and gloom, even if there is little light and even less humour in Sonja and Bojan’s story.
The audiobook version is narrated by the truly excellent Humphrey Bower, whose voices for the characters are perfect. Well, except possibly for Sonja’s voice. But younger female voices are always difficult for male narrators and at least Bower doesn’t go all falsetto.
February 26, 2016
This author's manner of writing doesn't fit me. I tried to read Death of a River Guide several years ago and gave up. I don't quit books very often! I found that one confusing and disjointed. There is such praise given to this author. I felt my dislike had to be a misjudgment on my part, so I decided to try another book, this one: The Sound of One Hand Clapping. My view remains the same. At least this time I finished the book!
I will try to be very specific about what in the writing disturbs me. The words chosen are too dramatic, meant to excite, too excessive, too exaggerated, too over-powering. I feel more can be said through subtle wording, through small events. Quietly. When you write in a more subdued manner a reader can reach insights without them being bashed in the face. Not only the words but also events are put there to increase excitement. I will cite just one example: when Bojan .
Bojan, Maria (his wife who shortly dies) and their daughter (Sonja) are the main protagonists. Bojan and Maria have Slovenian roots. They came to Tasmania to build a future after experiencing the horrors of WW2. Their parents had worked for partisans against the Germans. The past is best described as a dark shadow that hangs over the two. Bojan is one of the many refugees employed to build the hydroelectric dam at Butler's Gorge. The Butler's Gorge Power Station exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlers.... Such dams were to bring electricity, industrialization and progress to Australia. Dam construction jobs were despised by Aussies themselves. The central focus, although there is some historical content, is primarily about the complex relationship between father and daughter. It is a book about physical abuse, abandonment and screwed up family relationships. It is about communication, or more aptly lack of it. It is about how past events shape the future. Are you shaped by your past or your dreams? Half-way through I discovered I needed to understand why each was behaving as they did.
This leads to my next complaint. Sonja I came to understand. Bojan too, but Maria’s behavior is not covered with adequate depth. Way too many questions remain about her actions. What happens to her is clear, but you do not get into her head to understand her thoughts. The events are dramatically told, but the psychological underpinnings are weak. Her behavior is an essential part of the story; her actions immensely influence both her husband and daughter. I find this a huge weakness of the book.
I named above that the writing is disjointed. Its construction is too. I cannot think of another book that has such short chapters! Tons of short chapters. They disrupt the flow. With 86 chapters and a length of 10 hours and 40 minutes that yields an average of only about 7 minutes per chapter, many are only 3 or 4 minutes! Each chapter begins with a date. This I liked. The story flips back and forth from the present in 1990 to past events which are related in chronological order. The story begins in 1954, when Sonja is 3 years old and when her mother walks off into a blizzard. Many chapters could have been put together, for example those about 1954 until the story flips to 1989-1990. Honestly, reading this was like incessantly being interrupted by a hiccup.
The ending isn’t believable and too .
Some of the writing is beautiful. Landscapes, views. The skies, the forest, the beauty and utility of wood. A few events are quite touchingly told. I particularly liked when I saw the tenderness of Bojan, not just his dark side. I liked that untranslated Slovenian lullabies are sung. They create a feel, conjure an atmosphere. Remember I did give this book 2 stars, and by that I mean it was OK. It just has too many things that bothered me to give it more. I will not be reading more by this author. Writing style is important for me and his simply doesn’t match up with what I am looking for.
The narrator of this audiobook is Humphrey Bower. I have not been pleased with all of his narrations but here it was fantastic. Superb. He does dramatize events, but he is only reflecting the author’s words. You should hear his intonation for Dean Martin. I couldn’t help but smile. The Australian dialect is well done, not hard to follow for those of us who are not Australian.
I will try to be very specific about what in the writing disturbs me. The words chosen are too dramatic, meant to excite, too excessive, too exaggerated, too over-powering. I feel more can be said through subtle wording, through small events. Quietly. When you write in a more subdued manner a reader can reach insights without them being bashed in the face. Not only the words but also events are put there to increase excitement. I will cite just one example: when Bojan .
Bojan, Maria (his wife who shortly dies) and their daughter (Sonja) are the main protagonists. Bojan and Maria have Slovenian roots. They came to Tasmania to build a future after experiencing the horrors of WW2. Their parents had worked for partisans against the Germans. The past is best described as a dark shadow that hangs over the two. Bojan is one of the many refugees employed to build the hydroelectric dam at Butler's Gorge. The Butler's Gorge Power Station exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlers.... Such dams were to bring electricity, industrialization and progress to Australia. Dam construction jobs were despised by Aussies themselves. The central focus, although there is some historical content, is primarily about the complex relationship between father and daughter. It is a book about physical abuse, abandonment and screwed up family relationships. It is about communication, or more aptly lack of it. It is about how past events shape the future. Are you shaped by your past or your dreams? Half-way through I discovered I needed to understand why each was behaving as they did.
This leads to my next complaint. Sonja I came to understand. Bojan too, but Maria’s behavior is not covered with adequate depth. Way too many questions remain about her actions. What happens to her is clear, but you do not get into her head to understand her thoughts. The events are dramatically told, but the psychological underpinnings are weak. Her behavior is an essential part of the story; her actions immensely influence both her husband and daughter. I find this a huge weakness of the book.
I named above that the writing is disjointed. Its construction is too. I cannot think of another book that has such short chapters! Tons of short chapters. They disrupt the flow. With 86 chapters and a length of 10 hours and 40 minutes that yields an average of only about 7 minutes per chapter, many are only 3 or 4 minutes! Each chapter begins with a date. This I liked. The story flips back and forth from the present in 1990 to past events which are related in chronological order. The story begins in 1954, when Sonja is 3 years old and when her mother walks off into a blizzard. Many chapters could have been put together, for example those about 1954 until the story flips to 1989-1990. Honestly, reading this was like incessantly being interrupted by a hiccup.
The ending isn’t believable and too .
Some of the writing is beautiful. Landscapes, views. The skies, the forest, the beauty and utility of wood. A few events are quite touchingly told. I particularly liked when I saw the tenderness of Bojan, not just his dark side. I liked that untranslated Slovenian lullabies are sung. They create a feel, conjure an atmosphere. Remember I did give this book 2 stars, and by that I mean it was OK. It just has too many things that bothered me to give it more. I will not be reading more by this author. Writing style is important for me and his simply doesn’t match up with what I am looking for.
The narrator of this audiobook is Humphrey Bower. I have not been pleased with all of his narrations but here it was fantastic. Superb. He does dramatize events, but he is only reflecting the author’s words. You should hear his intonation for Dean Martin. I couldn’t help but smile. The Australian dialect is well done, not hard to follow for those of us who are not Australian.
May 1, 2019
Disappointed. I was warned prior not to bother reading Flanagan but I thought I'd at least gave him a go having not read him before. Whilst I was engaged in the story early on, and the tough theme of Immigrants being dislocated between two cultures was interesting, I felt within the narrative he was trying to be too poetic, maybe even showing off. The story simply didn't carry enough substance in my eye, it was all flesh, little in the way of meat and bone, and the Internal monologues were unnecessarily repetitive and frustrating. It became a strain in the end, so I skimmed parts of the last third, however, it did seem to come to a decent conclusion but the damage was already done. I can see why some would love this for it's mixture of beauty and sorrow but I found it self-conscious, and marred by a lack of creative flair. Flanagan is just not my kind of writer.
October 26, 2019
The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan was an interesting reading experience for me. Why interesting? One of my early notes read "the story is buried in too many words. At times I like the writing but other times it seems like he's trying to be too clever". Yet by the time I finished I'd flagged dozens of pages because I really appreciated his clever way with words. Interesting also because the characters were not really likeable yet I didn't dislike them. In fact as the story unfolded my empathy for them continued to grow. This is not this authors most popular work yet I still recommend it. A word of caution though, if you are looking for a light read or something uplifting I wouldn't recommend this specific title. It definitely had a melancholic, almost depressing, feeling about it and though it ended on a hopeful note, the 400+ preceeding pages were somewhat desolate.
The story revolved around Bojan and Sonja Buloh. Set in Tasmania it alternated back abd forth between 1990 and 1954 and a few other dates in between. In 1990 this father/ daughter duo are meeting up after being estranged for 22 years. In 1954 the story begins with Maria walking out and abandoning them. One wonders what would cause a mother to leave her husband and three year old daughter. As the story progressed we came to understand not only her motivations but we saw first hand the havoc her departure, and her reasons, wreaked on Bojan and Sonja.
To be fair, their life to that point had not been a bed of roses. Bojan and Maria fled Slovenia and the war bound for Australia, a country that promised freedom. They brought few possessions but so much baggage. Heads filled with recollections of the most gruesome wartime events. These memories they simply could not escape and proved to be a burden too heavy. Despite living in the lucky country they were considered reffo's (Aussie slang for refugee's), and wogs. The food they ate, the way they dressed, the way they spoke, the homes they lived in all marked them as different to the extent that they never truly belonged. Bojan turned to alcohol to supress the memories but no amount could kill them completely. Sonja had a lonesome & difficult childhood, enduring her fathers anger and violent outbursts in an effort not to lose the one person remaining in her life.
Bojan, Maria and Sonja's story was a grim reminder of the ways war has lasting impacts upon even those who survive but are displaced. Reading it had me alternating between feelings of anger, melancholy, empathy and eventually hope. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by Richard Flanagan's writing and now look forward to reading his title The Narrow Road To The Deep North
The story revolved around Bojan and Sonja Buloh. Set in Tasmania it alternated back abd forth between 1990 and 1954 and a few other dates in between. In 1990 this father/ daughter duo are meeting up after being estranged for 22 years. In 1954 the story begins with Maria walking out and abandoning them. One wonders what would cause a mother to leave her husband and three year old daughter. As the story progressed we came to understand not only her motivations but we saw first hand the havoc her departure, and her reasons, wreaked on Bojan and Sonja.
To be fair, their life to that point had not been a bed of roses. Bojan and Maria fled Slovenia and the war bound for Australia, a country that promised freedom. They brought few possessions but so much baggage. Heads filled with recollections of the most gruesome wartime events. These memories they simply could not escape and proved to be a burden too heavy. Despite living in the lucky country they were considered reffo's (Aussie slang for refugee's), and wogs. The food they ate, the way they dressed, the way they spoke, the homes they lived in all marked them as different to the extent that they never truly belonged. Bojan turned to alcohol to supress the memories but no amount could kill them completely. Sonja had a lonesome & difficult childhood, enduring her fathers anger and violent outbursts in an effort not to lose the one person remaining in her life.
Bojan, Maria and Sonja's story was a grim reminder of the ways war has lasting impacts upon even those who survive but are displaced. Reading it had me alternating between feelings of anger, melancholy, empathy and eventually hope. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by Richard Flanagan's writing and now look forward to reading his title The Narrow Road To The Deep North
February 15, 2013
I knew the title was a koan, but had to look it up......
"What is the Sound of the Single Hand clapping? When you clap together both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither sound nor smell. Is this the High Heaven of which Confucius speaks? Or is it the essentials of what Yamamba describes in these words: "The echo of the completely empty valley bears tidings heard from the soundless sound?" This is something that can by no means be heard with the ear. If conceptions and discriminations are not mixed within it and it is quite apart from seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, and if, while walking, standing, sitting, and reclining, you proceed straightforwardly without interruption in the study of this koan, you will suddenly pluck out the karmic root of birth and death and break down the cave of ignorance. Thus you will attain to a peace in which the phoenix has left the golden net and the crane has been set free of the basket. At this time the basis of mind, consciousness, and emotion is suddenly shattered; the realm of illusion with its endless sinking in the cycle of birth and death is overturned." p.164, Yabukoji, in The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, Translated by Philip B. Yampolsky,
In the winter of 1954, in a remote Tasmanian hydroelectric construction camp of migrant workers, Sonja Buloh’s mother walks out of their hut, leaving her three year old daughter alone. Her distraught father Bojan perseveres with the dream of a new life in a new country, but he is soon crushed into an alcoholic despair. By the time Sonja turns 16, she is driven to leave him. Nearly 20 years later, single and pregnant, she returns to Tasmania’s highlands and her father, in an attempt to put the pieces of her life into some perspective. Initial awkwardness and pain notwithstanding, she slowly unravels her family’s history, especially a secret she never knew about her vanished mother.
This is also about a hidden dark side of Australia's multiculturalism, of the struggle of migrants & refugees in a new unfamiliar land, in a time when there were no counsellors and people were expected to get on with living and not talk about their past. While Sonja and her family are from war torn Slovenia you don't find too many facts about it here and although Bojan does talk about it briefly, it's more their emotional limbo & pain you become immersed in as you read, & not so much the particulars of their past horrors. Personally would have liked more background about their life in Slovenia, but it isn't that kind of story - it's not a history in that sense. Flanagan manages to get inside Sonja's head so well you begin to think the writer might be a woman. On the other hand sometimes I felt Bojan's character a little typecast and undeveloped until the end of the book where he begins to blossom and find hope and redemption. Perhaps that was Flanagan's way to show him speechless & lost in a new land.
While not all migrants suffered like Bojan's family when they arrived in Australia, from what I know the hydroelectric construction camp in Tasmania was remote and conditions would have been hard & bleak. As a child I visited the Snowy River Scheme in NSW with my parents, my father thinking of working there. My mother took one look at the camps and refused point blank. Not everyone would have had that option. The Snowy River Scheme took 25 years to build and was completed in 1974. More than 100,000 people from over 30 countries came to work in the mountains. It makes you think what were their stories and were they redeemed like Bojan?.
......................................................................
About to re-read this again (2010), I was distracted the first time around (2000).
This is also a film, has anyone seen it?
Halfway through.
So far.... Infinitely sad, infinitely brutal, infinitely beautiful.
"What is the Sound of the Single Hand clapping? When you clap together both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither sound nor smell. Is this the High Heaven of which Confucius speaks? Or is it the essentials of what Yamamba describes in these words: "The echo of the completely empty valley bears tidings heard from the soundless sound?" This is something that can by no means be heard with the ear. If conceptions and discriminations are not mixed within it and it is quite apart from seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, and if, while walking, standing, sitting, and reclining, you proceed straightforwardly without interruption in the study of this koan, you will suddenly pluck out the karmic root of birth and death and break down the cave of ignorance. Thus you will attain to a peace in which the phoenix has left the golden net and the crane has been set free of the basket. At this time the basis of mind, consciousness, and emotion is suddenly shattered; the realm of illusion with its endless sinking in the cycle of birth and death is overturned." p.164, Yabukoji, in The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, Translated by Philip B. Yampolsky,
In the winter of 1954, in a remote Tasmanian hydroelectric construction camp of migrant workers, Sonja Buloh’s mother walks out of their hut, leaving her three year old daughter alone. Her distraught father Bojan perseveres with the dream of a new life in a new country, but he is soon crushed into an alcoholic despair. By the time Sonja turns 16, she is driven to leave him. Nearly 20 years later, single and pregnant, she returns to Tasmania’s highlands and her father, in an attempt to put the pieces of her life into some perspective. Initial awkwardness and pain notwithstanding, she slowly unravels her family’s history, especially a secret she never knew about her vanished mother.
This is also about a hidden dark side of Australia's multiculturalism, of the struggle of migrants & refugees in a new unfamiliar land, in a time when there were no counsellors and people were expected to get on with living and not talk about their past. While Sonja and her family are from war torn Slovenia you don't find too many facts about it here and although Bojan does talk about it briefly, it's more their emotional limbo & pain you become immersed in as you read, & not so much the particulars of their past horrors. Personally would have liked more background about their life in Slovenia, but it isn't that kind of story - it's not a history in that sense. Flanagan manages to get inside Sonja's head so well you begin to think the writer might be a woman. On the other hand sometimes I felt Bojan's character a little typecast and undeveloped until the end of the book where he begins to blossom and find hope and redemption. Perhaps that was Flanagan's way to show him speechless & lost in a new land.
While not all migrants suffered like Bojan's family when they arrived in Australia, from what I know the hydroelectric construction camp in Tasmania was remote and conditions would have been hard & bleak. As a child I visited the Snowy River Scheme in NSW with my parents, my father thinking of working there. My mother took one look at the camps and refused point blank. Not everyone would have had that option. The Snowy River Scheme took 25 years to build and was completed in 1974. More than 100,000 people from over 30 countries came to work in the mountains. It makes you think what were their stories and were they redeemed like Bojan?.
......................................................................
About to re-read this again (2010), I was distracted the first time around (2000).
This is also a film, has anyone seen it?
Halfway through.
So far.... Infinitely sad, infinitely brutal, infinitely beautiful.
November 8, 2016
Thus, it is decided now that this Book wins the most painfully depressing and heartbreaking-ly frustratingly traumatizing sad book of 2016.
Though it is written beautifully still I hated to read it. I do not recommend to all. It was so depressing that even while reading suicidal thoughts wrapped me in its gust. Thanks to Sir Salman Rushdie, I picked his books and read 20-30 pages in between to switch me into neutral gear.
The story was pretty simple between a troubled relation of a father and daughter and traumatic childhood. Around two decades of breach in their relation, reunion and past nostalgia and following trauma. But the book holds the nerves of reader the way Richard Flanagan inject emotions in the pages.
Giving this book a benefit of doubt that Sir Flanagan wrote this work as one of his initial, I must say some early traces of 'The Narrow Road To the Deep North' were very visible.
Still from next time I will be careful to pick such books.
The next Flanagan book that I will read now is : 'The Gold's Book of Fish' for sure.
Though it is written beautifully still I hated to read it. I do not recommend to all. It was so depressing that even while reading suicidal thoughts wrapped me in its gust. Thanks to Sir Salman Rushdie, I picked his books and read 20-30 pages in between to switch me into neutral gear.
The story was pretty simple between a troubled relation of a father and daughter and traumatic childhood. Around two decades of breach in their relation, reunion and past nostalgia and following trauma. But the book holds the nerves of reader the way Richard Flanagan inject emotions in the pages.
Giving this book a benefit of doubt that Sir Flanagan wrote this work as one of his initial, I must say some early traces of 'The Narrow Road To the Deep North' were very visible.
Still from next time I will be careful to pick such books.
The next Flanagan book that I will read now is : 'The Gold's Book of Fish' for sure.
July 30, 2011
Too long. Or maybe I just took too long to get into it, left it too long in between times. That is death to any book. And it is a painful story. Flanagan is stuck with a quandary: two broken protagonists, damaged by the past, unable to feel, unable to speak, unable to reach out to each other. How do you build a bridge between them and the reader? How do you show the horror and the cruelty and the violence? Flanagan uses a sweeping allegorical style, with the force and violence of nature matching the human tragedy, with metaphors of fragmentation, with dreams, with translating emotion into artifacts. But the abuse is relentless and repetitive. Redemption comes just a little too late and a little too predictably. Flanagan usually sings, but this one is off-key and over-written.
April 8, 2023
‘I like new, see, because it doesn’t remember.’
Set in Tasmania, this novel is centred around Sonja Buloh and focusses on three periods of her life: as a very young child, living with both of her parents in a remote construction camp; as a slightly older child after her mother disappears; and as an adult who, full of questions about the past, returns to Tasmania.
Sonja Buloh remembers little about the night that her mother Maria walked out of their hut at the construction camp at Butlers Gorge in 1954. Maria never returned, leaving both Bojan and Soja bereft. For Sonja, it is both mystery and tragedy. For Bojan, it is a tragedy he is unable to move beyond. As a lone parent of a three year old daughter, with memories of wartime atrocities, recruited to Tasmania to do ‘the wog work of dam-building’, Bojan is unable to deal with the pain he feels other than by trying to anaesthetize it with alcohol.
‘There were horrors that Bojan kept within him without even a story to enclose them, that he kept shapeless in the hope of dissolving them.’
After a difficult childhood, Sonja eventually escapes to mainland Australia and is estranged from Bojan. But, 35 years later and pregnant, she returns to Tasmania, full of questions about herself and her past.
The novel takes the reader on a journey, through the past and present, of both Bojan and Sonja. For Sonja to make decisions about her future, she needs to try to explore the past. And this requires Bojan’s help. For both of them, this is a journey which involves both courage and pain. The novel moves between the present and the past, filling in the gaps in our knowledge of both Sonja and Bojan. Can Bojan move beyond the past? What does the future hold?
I found myself torn between wanting to read ahead, hoping that Sonja and Bojan could find happiness, and wanting to read slowly in order to appreciate just how well Richard Flanagan crafted this story. For me, while the novel was centred around Sonja, it was Bojan Buloh’s experiences in Tasmania as a migrant from Slovenia after World War II that held my attention. Tasmania, too, has a role to play. I found this a very moving story, and one which I want to reread.
‘They were drinking not to enjoy the present, but for the more urgent reason of wanting to forget the past and deny the future.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Set in Tasmania, this novel is centred around Sonja Buloh and focusses on three periods of her life: as a very young child, living with both of her parents in a remote construction camp; as a slightly older child after her mother disappears; and as an adult who, full of questions about the past, returns to Tasmania.
Sonja Buloh remembers little about the night that her mother Maria walked out of their hut at the construction camp at Butlers Gorge in 1954. Maria never returned, leaving both Bojan and Soja bereft. For Sonja, it is both mystery and tragedy. For Bojan, it is a tragedy he is unable to move beyond. As a lone parent of a three year old daughter, with memories of wartime atrocities, recruited to Tasmania to do ‘the wog work of dam-building’, Bojan is unable to deal with the pain he feels other than by trying to anaesthetize it with alcohol.
‘There were horrors that Bojan kept within him without even a story to enclose them, that he kept shapeless in the hope of dissolving them.’
After a difficult childhood, Sonja eventually escapes to mainland Australia and is estranged from Bojan. But, 35 years later and pregnant, she returns to Tasmania, full of questions about herself and her past.
The novel takes the reader on a journey, through the past and present, of both Bojan and Sonja. For Sonja to make decisions about her future, she needs to try to explore the past. And this requires Bojan’s help. For both of them, this is a journey which involves both courage and pain. The novel moves between the present and the past, filling in the gaps in our knowledge of both Sonja and Bojan. Can Bojan move beyond the past? What does the future hold?
I found myself torn between wanting to read ahead, hoping that Sonja and Bojan could find happiness, and wanting to read slowly in order to appreciate just how well Richard Flanagan crafted this story. For me, while the novel was centred around Sonja, it was Bojan Buloh’s experiences in Tasmania as a migrant from Slovenia after World War II that held my attention. Tasmania, too, has a role to play. I found this a very moving story, and one which I want to reread.
‘They were drinking not to enjoy the present, but for the more urgent reason of wanting to forget the past and deny the future.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
August 14, 2020
After reading
Gould's Book of Fish
I was eager to discover more of Richard Flanagan's work.
In this book I found the same creative, descriptive writing style as in Gould's. And despite there being instances where the writing style blends the past and present, magic and memories and borders on the surreal, the story itself comes through as clear and real as anything, without any of the eccentricities that made the plot of Gould's rather bizarre and confused at times.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping is a beautifully told, touching and often heartbreaking story of a father and daughter, and a mother who packed a small suitcase one night and walked out into the snow.
It is also the tale of how refugees sought a free life in Australia, their challenges in living with a past of atrocities they could not forget witnessing and a new, different land they could not always understand.
I adored the description of how Sonja, the daughter, having seen lunch served at her neighbour's house, proudly makes her father baked beans on toast for dinner - an Aussie meal. Her father eats it politely "all the while inwardly cursing the infernal, comic backwardness of Australians and all the awful things they mistook for food" (p201).
I would highly reccommend this book, just don't approach it as a light read, it is afterall a sad, and for some characters, an incredibly tragic story.
In this book I found the same creative, descriptive writing style as in Gould's. And despite there being instances where the writing style blends the past and present, magic and memories and borders on the surreal, the story itself comes through as clear and real as anything, without any of the eccentricities that made the plot of Gould's rather bizarre and confused at times.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping is a beautifully told, touching and often heartbreaking story of a father and daughter, and a mother who packed a small suitcase one night and walked out into the snow.
It is also the tale of how refugees sought a free life in Australia, their challenges in living with a past of atrocities they could not forget witnessing and a new, different land they could not always understand.
I adored the description of how Sonja, the daughter, having seen lunch served at her neighbour's house, proudly makes her father baked beans on toast for dinner - an Aussie meal. Her father eats it politely "all the while inwardly cursing the infernal, comic backwardness of Australians and all the awful things they mistook for food" (p201).
I would highly reccommend this book, just don't approach it as a light read, it is afterall a sad, and for some characters, an incredibly tragic story.
December 21, 2017
A strange book, don't think I'll recommend it to my friends...
November 9, 2024
CRITIQUE:
"Because It Is Tasmania and Not Slovenia"
Throughout the body of this novel, there are many dualities, whether resembling or contrasting each other.
They start with the places Slovenia and Tasmania, the languages Slovenian and English (or sometimes, if such a thing exists, Australian).
Timber Houses and Wog Flats
Place-wise, there is also suburban Hobart and Sydney, and the Tasmanian wilderness.
European immigrants have come here to help construct dams and power stations. The Australians live in timber houses, and the immigrants in "wog flats".
Friday nights, the "wogs" end up drunk and unconscious, surrounded by smashed bottles and broken teapots. Women succumb to death and pregnancy. One woman (Sonja) names her daughter after her mother (Maria).
The Absence of Sound
These dualities suggest to the reader that the novel is not just about a singularity - consisting of the titular Zen koan, "the sound of one hand clapping".
If we think only of a single hand, we are trapped in the absence of sound, the silence of one hand clapping.
One hand, therefore, alerts us to the fact that there is something missing, there is an absence, the lack of a whole or a duality:
There's no purpose in trying to work out what is the sound of one hand clapping. The whole point is that the absence of a second hand occasions the absence of sound.
Broken Teapot
SOUNDTRACK:
"Because It Is Tasmania and Not Slovenia"
Throughout the body of this novel, there are many dualities, whether resembling or contrasting each other.
They start with the places Slovenia and Tasmania, the languages Slovenian and English (or sometimes, if such a thing exists, Australian).
Timber Houses and Wog Flats
Place-wise, there is also suburban Hobart and Sydney, and the Tasmanian wilderness.
European immigrants have come here to help construct dams and power stations. The Australians live in timber houses, and the immigrants in "wog flats".
Friday nights, the "wogs" end up drunk and unconscious, surrounded by smashed bottles and broken teapots. Women succumb to death and pregnancy. One woman (Sonja) names her daughter after her mother (Maria).
The Absence of Sound
These dualities suggest to the reader that the novel is not just about a singularity - consisting of the titular Zen koan, "the sound of one hand clapping".
If we think only of a single hand, we are trapped in the absence of sound, the silence of one hand clapping.
One hand, therefore, alerts us to the fact that there is something missing, there is an absence, the lack of a whole or a duality:
"The smell of a tree without a blossom."
There's no purpose in trying to work out what is the sound of one hand clapping. The whole point is that the absence of a second hand occasions the absence of sound.
Broken Teapot
SOUNDTRACK:
April 26, 2016
"Să bați din palme cu o singură mână" este un amestec de agonie şi momente sublime de fericire, construit pe baza relaţiei complicate dintre tată şi fiică. Sonja pendulează între dorinţa de a-şi ierta şi înţelege tatăl alcoolic, şi încrederea naivă că mama ei s-ar putea întoarce, în ciuda abandonării sale la vârsta de doar trei ani. Regresia în trecut este o călătorie spre sine ce o ajută să înţeleagă, de exemplu, de ce nu poate să menţină o relaţie adultă stabilă. Viaţa Sonjei pe tărâmul îndepărtat al Tasmaniei, un loc ce frânge destinul imigranţilor, care amorţeşte şi anihilează orice speranţă, porneşte ca un exod spre Pământul făgăduinţei, când, în urma celui de-al doilea război mondial, tinerii săi părinţi ajung aici în căutarea unei lumi mai bune. Ceea ce nu ştiau Maria şi Bojan este că, distanţarea geografică nu îi ajută să se îndepărteze deloc de ororile trăite în Slovenia, ci, dimpotrivă, este doar un loc îndepărtat în care trăiesc înstrăinaţi de propriile sentimente. Hobart, colonia postbelică, cu apartamentele sale concepute pentru venetici, este un spaţiu claustrofob, menit să întreţină nevoile de bază ale existenţei, dar orb la nevoile afective.
Citiţi aici recenzia completă: http://www.bookishstyle.ro/sa-bati-di...
Citiţi aici recenzia completă: http://www.bookishstyle.ro/sa-bati-di...
March 21, 2016
recomand...
August 14, 2022
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
by Richard Flanagan
A vehemently working-class tale from Tasmania? Sounds right up my Straße!
“Enjoyed” is not the appropriate word for this novel. For the most part – loving writing aside – this is an unremittingly bleak, sombre and dispiriting tale of intergenerational trauma and familial dysfunction. If there is a crucial lesson to be learned here, it is that alcohol, work and emotional suppression and repression are ineffective methods to address inner pain.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½
A vehemently working-class tale from Tasmania? Sounds right up my Straße!
“Enjoyed” is not the appropriate word for this novel. For the most part – loving writing aside – this is an unremittingly bleak, sombre and dispiriting tale of intergenerational trauma and familial dysfunction. If there is a crucial lesson to be learned here, it is that alcohol, work and emotional suppression and repression are ineffective methods to address inner pain.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½
June 13, 2015
This is the second book I've read from Richard Flanagan. I have to thank the World's Literature for the discovery.
The first book I read from this author for our tour down under was Death of a River Guide. In a certain way, I feel that both books are kind of the same, but with The Sound of One Hand Clapping being better. After all, it was written after the first one, so the author had time to better himself.
Both books are about poor families trying to survive in Tasmania, with jumps through times. Both are fantastically well written, with a beautiful style and powerful images. But where I was annoyed with Death of a River Guide because it felt too me too stilted and not natural enough, as if it was an exercise in style for the author and not really a story from the heart, I found it was not (or less) the case for The Sound of One Hand Clapping. The story flowed much better for me, even though sometime I couldn't help myself from wondering if Flanagan was writing for him and the readers or for critics.
Anyway, this book having rubbed out most of what was bothering me in the first one (or maybe am I getting more used to Flanagan's style?), I enjoyed it much more.
I liked the echoes between the past and present of the Bulohs tale, and the echoes between the two periods, advancing in parallel, how we can really see how the past shaped the present as it is unfolding. Sonja and Bojan are both poignant characters, at times loathable, at times pitiful, but yet so human. We can clearly see how life was hard for migrants in Tasmania at that time. But even though the book can be really hard at times, I loved how it ended on a touch of hope (even though a birth being both a redemption and a start for a new life is a bit cliché), how it finishes on a ray of light for Sonja and Bojan.
If his next book, Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish improved as much as this one, I will be looking forward to reading it!
The first book I read from this author for our tour down under was Death of a River Guide. In a certain way, I feel that both books are kind of the same, but with The Sound of One Hand Clapping being better. After all, it was written after the first one, so the author had time to better himself.
Both books are about poor families trying to survive in Tasmania, with jumps through times. Both are fantastically well written, with a beautiful style and powerful images. But where I was annoyed with Death of a River Guide because it felt too me too stilted and not natural enough, as if it was an exercise in style for the author and not really a story from the heart, I found it was not (or less) the case for The Sound of One Hand Clapping. The story flowed much better for me, even though sometime I couldn't help myself from wondering if Flanagan was writing for him and the readers or for critics.
Anyway, this book having rubbed out most of what was bothering me in the first one (or maybe am I getting more used to Flanagan's style?), I enjoyed it much more.
I liked the echoes between the past and present of the Bulohs tale, and the echoes between the two periods, advancing in parallel, how we can really see how the past shaped the present as it is unfolding. Sonja and Bojan are both poignant characters, at times loathable, at times pitiful, but yet so human. We can clearly see how life was hard for migrants in Tasmania at that time. But even though the book can be really hard at times, I loved how it ended on a touch of hope (even though a birth being both a redemption and a start for a new life is a bit cliché), how it finishes on a ray of light for Sonja and Bojan.
If his next book, Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish improved as much as this one, I will be looking forward to reading it!
October 21, 2011
This book came with rave reviews but I have struggled with other Richard Flanagan books. The slow start had me thinking this would be another tortured read. I can't define the point which it took off but before long I couldn't put in down. I now understand why this book is considered an Australian classic.
January 14, 2018
"At that precise moment. around which time was to cusp." A perfect last sentence for this particular book. The moment the newly born Maria get introduced to the forest in which the other Maria ended her life so tragically.
Very interesting depiction of immigrants life in early fifties.
Very interesting depiction of immigrants life in early fifties.
November 19, 2018
Trista, profunda, si totusi plina de speranta. Oameni blestemati, condamnati de soarta care, in ciuda asprimii vietii, a dezamagirilor si loviturilor primite, nu-si pierd blandetea si inocenta. Minunata! M-a uns pe suflet finalul.
April 9, 2018
I loved the cover. I loved the title. Both created expectations but ultimately, I was left feeling disappointed. This wasn't awful. It just wasn't what I like in a book. The story had a fair amount of family dysfunction but I needed a glimmer of something good or of something good to come and I was left unsatisfied there. This was violent and ugly. The characters were so damaged and prickly.
The story line also shifted to different times in the lives of the MCs and that is not my favorite writing style. I kept asking myself, "Why?". It wasn't until the end that the answer to that question came. I get the reasoning behind all the shifting, I just didn't care for it. I also had one major question about the reveal and I still have it, which compounded my disappointment. So 2 stars. If it had answered my question, I could have gone with 3.
The story line also shifted to different times in the lives of the MCs and that is not my favorite writing style. I kept asking myself, "Why?". It wasn't until the end that the answer to that question came. I get the reasoning behind all the shifting, I just didn't care for it. I also had one major question about the reveal and I still have it, which compounded my disappointment. So 2 stars. If it had answered my question, I could have gone with 3.
Read
July 30, 2018Is the sound of one hand clapping like the sound of free speech in a vacuum?
I don't know if I will ever read Flanagan. Too many people I know think his work is weak beyond belief. But I note today his defence of diversity and free speech in the marketplace (sic) of the 'writers festival'
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...
Understand there is no free speech in writers festival, only what the organisers/sponsors/audience want you to hear. I've never really understood why people want to listen to writers talking, but if they aren't even allowed to say what they want, it gets so much worse.
I don't know if I will ever read Flanagan. Too many people I know think his work is weak beyond belief. But I note today his defence of diversity and free speech in the marketplace (sic) of the 'writers festival'
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...
Understand there is no free speech in writers festival, only what the organisers/sponsors/audience want you to hear. I've never really understood why people want to listen to writers talking, but if they aren't even allowed to say what they want, it gets so much worse.
November 22, 2021
Toate acestea vei ajunge să le înțelegi, dar niciodată nu le vei cunoaște, toate acestea s-au petrecut demult, tare demult, într-o lume care, între timp, s-a prefăcut în turbă, într-o iarnă uitată, pe o insulă despre care puțini au auzit. A început cu puțin înainte ca ninsoarea să acopere, complet și irevocabil, urmele de pași. Când norii negri învăluie cerul înstelat și luminat de lună, când bezna fără umbre se întinde peste pământul ce încă mai șoptește. În clipa aceea de grație, când timpul încremenește, ghetele de un roșu aprins ale Mariei Buloh au coborât pe a treia și ultima treaptă acoperită de zăpadă a barăcii de lemn. În clipa aceea, pe când își întorcea fața de la cabană, Maria Buloh și-a dat seama că deja se îndepărtase prea mult și că nu se mai putea întoarce. Unii spun că în noaptea aceea a fost pur și simplu luată pe sus de furia viscolului, că furtuna cumplită, ce mătura totul în cale, a purtat-o ca pe un înger până în pădurea de lângă colonia lor, că Maria Buloh a zburat ca o nălucă spre ținuturile sălbatice ce se întind dincolo de locul acela care ardea ca o rană proaspătă, de glonț.
Dar bineînțeles că nu e adevărat.
Dar bineînțeles că nu e adevărat.
January 16, 2024
O carte trista despre abandon și familie!
Autorul imbraca toată povestea în cuvinte atât de dramatice, încât devine obositor... dar chiar și asa, am reusit sa o duc la final.
N-am crezut inițial.
Nu știu sa fi citit vreo carte în ultima vreme, care sa aibă atât de multe metafore.
Fiecare frază, are o descriere complexa a ceea ce de fapt ar fi putut spune în mult mai puține vorbe și fără atât de multe "precum" sau "ca" sau "la fel ca".
O data ce mi-ai spus ca padurea era umeda, nu simt nevoia sa-mi exemplifici ca era uda ca valurile înspumate ale râului, bla, bla, bla si iarasi bla. Am dat un exemplu tâmpit, dar atât am putut la ora asta😀.
Tind sa cred ca este o carte buna de citit pentru scriitorii aspiranți, pentru ca autorul folosește descrieri multe și mânuiește cuvintele cu măiestrie, astfel încât e imposibil sa nu "furi" un pic de meserie de la el.
Ii dau 4 stele.
O carte bunicica, ușor obositoare pe alocuri (nu ma dau eu în vânt după descrieri și metafore), dar pe care nu știu dacă o voi tine minte. 🤩
Autorul imbraca toată povestea în cuvinte atât de dramatice, încât devine obositor... dar chiar și asa, am reusit sa o duc la final.
N-am crezut inițial.
Nu știu sa fi citit vreo carte în ultima vreme, care sa aibă atât de multe metafore.
Fiecare frază, are o descriere complexa a ceea ce de fapt ar fi putut spune în mult mai puține vorbe și fără atât de multe "precum" sau "ca" sau "la fel ca".
O data ce mi-ai spus ca padurea era umeda, nu simt nevoia sa-mi exemplifici ca era uda ca valurile înspumate ale râului, bla, bla, bla si iarasi bla. Am dat un exemplu tâmpit, dar atât am putut la ora asta😀.
Tind sa cred ca este o carte buna de citit pentru scriitorii aspiranți, pentru ca autorul folosește descrieri multe și mânuiește cuvintele cu măiestrie, astfel încât e imposibil sa nu "furi" un pic de meserie de la el.
Ii dau 4 stele.
O carte bunicica, ușor obositoare pe alocuri (nu ma dau eu în vânt după descrieri și metafore), dar pe care nu știu dacă o voi tine minte. 🤩
July 24, 2008
I loved this book. I loved how the author causes you to go on a journey of self reflection with the main character and how often you are swept away by her emotions. I found I could feel every emotion that the characters feel and had no choice. When you open this bookl be prepared to be swept away by a huge tidal wave of feeling and description.
July 20, 2015
Maybe 4.5 out of 5 as it was a little long....but heart wrenching though has an uplifting ending. Tells the story of immigrants to Tasmania after WW2 and the long term effects of what they have witnessed combined with the 'strangeness' of Tasmania.
Beautifully written.
Beautifully written.
September 17, 2025
This book tells the story of the Buloh family. It primarily focuses on daughter Sonja and her fraught relationship with her father Bojan. They have fled from Communist Slovenia and settled in Tasmania. The storyline eventually reveals family secrets and what happened to her mother, Maria. The dual timeline alternates between the 1950s of Sonja’s childhood, and 1990, when Sonja reunites with her father after a long absence.
It is written in Flanagan’s usual lyrical style. The novel looks at the psychological impact of cultural change as well as individual reactions to trauma. Be forewarned that this book contains a great deal of disturbing content: . I have read a number Richard Flanagan’s books, and I find that he always does a good job of writing characters with psychological depth. It’s hard to say I enjoyed this book due to its traumatic content, but I appreciated it as one that depicts a moving story of reconciliation.
It is written in Flanagan’s usual lyrical style. The novel looks at the psychological impact of cultural change as well as individual reactions to trauma. Be forewarned that this book contains a great deal of disturbing content: . I have read a number Richard Flanagan’s books, and I find that he always does a good job of writing characters with psychological depth. It’s hard to say I enjoyed this book due to its traumatic content, but I appreciated it as one that depicts a moving story of reconciliation.
June 15, 2015
This book was recommended to me by someone at a writing class, and it didn't take much to persuade me to read it. I'd read Narrow Road to the Deep North which completely blew me away. I found this book torturous and about 150 pages too long.
Page after page of unrelenting sorrow and bleakness, coupled with detailed descriptions of the Tasmanian wilderness, just frustrated me and I had to push myself to keep reading.
On one hand I appreciated the poetry of Flanagan's writing, but chapter after chapter documenting the poor child Sonja's tragic childhood, really was too much. It just never stopped. The story didn't go anywhere and the characters only showed some development in the last 100 pages. I wondered in fact what the purpose of some chapters were - apart from describing another tree or gully or freezing cold winters day, I really didn't see the point.
I guess this is a book for those who love a story full of descriptions of landscapes and the human condition without necessarily having a plot. It felt like writing for the sake of writing. There is no doubt Flanagan is a beautiful writer and Narrow Road to the Deep North is one of my all time favourite books, but that was peopled with magnificent characters and told a story that kept moving inexorably forward. This story did not move for me; it was static and depressing with people frozen in time. I wanted it to finish. I didn’t care what happened to Sonja or her father, or what the story behind Maria was.
I’ve given this three stars because on some level I appreciated the beauty of the writing, but I can’t say I enjoyed it.
Page after page of unrelenting sorrow and bleakness, coupled with detailed descriptions of the Tasmanian wilderness, just frustrated me and I had to push myself to keep reading.
On one hand I appreciated the poetry of Flanagan's writing, but chapter after chapter documenting the poor child Sonja's tragic childhood, really was too much. It just never stopped. The story didn't go anywhere and the characters only showed some development in the last 100 pages. I wondered in fact what the purpose of some chapters were - apart from describing another tree or gully or freezing cold winters day, I really didn't see the point.
I guess this is a book for those who love a story full of descriptions of landscapes and the human condition without necessarily having a plot. It felt like writing for the sake of writing. There is no doubt Flanagan is a beautiful writer and Narrow Road to the Deep North is one of my all time favourite books, but that was peopled with magnificent characters and told a story that kept moving inexorably forward. This story did not move for me; it was static and depressing with people frozen in time. I wanted it to finish. I didn’t care what happened to Sonja or her father, or what the story behind Maria was.
I’ve given this three stars because on some level I appreciated the beauty of the writing, but I can’t say I enjoyed it.
April 30, 2016
Minunata! Una dintre cele mai frumoase citite de mine vreodata!
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