Η ψευδαίσθηση της μοναξιάς

by Simon Van Booy, Ουρανία Παπακωνσταντοπούλου (Translator)

Η Ψευδαίσθηση της Μοναξιάς, εμπνευσμένη από πραγματικά γεγονότα, αφηγείται τις αλληλένδετες ιστορίες ενός παραμορφωμένου Γερμανού στρατιώτη, ενός μοναχικού Βρετανού σκηνοθέτη, μιας τυφλής επιμελήτριας μουσείου, ενός νεόνυμφου ζευγαριού Αμερικανοεβραίων που τους χώρισε ο πόλεμος και ενός επιστάτη σε οίκο ευγηρίας για παλαίμαχους ηθοποιούς στη Σάντα Μόνικα.

Κατοικούν στον ίδιο κόσμο, αλλά δεν αντιλαμβάνονται αυτά που τους συνδέουν, ώσπου, μέσα από φαινομενικά τυχαίες πράξεις ανιδιοτέλειας, ένα πέπλο ανασηκώνεται αποκαλύπτοντας τον ζωτικό ρόλο που έχει διαδραματίσει ο ένας στη ζωή του άλλου. Είναι η στιγμή που –λίγο πριν βυθιστούν στο σκοτάδι του φόβου και της απομόνωσης– ανακαλύπτουν πως δεν είναι μόνοι, πως δεν ήταν ποτέ μόνοι, πως κάθε ανθρώπινο πλάσμα είναι κι ένας κρίκος μιας αόρατης αλυσίδας. Είναι η στιγμή που αποκαλύπτεται η ψευδαίσθηση της μοναξιάς τους.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, World War II, War, Literary Fiction, Historical

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2013

About the author

Simon Van Booy is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than a dozen books for adults and children, including The Illusion of Separateness and The Presence of Absence. Simon is the editor of three volumes of philosophy and has written for The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC. His books have been translated into many languages and optioned for film. Raised in rural North Wales, he currently lives in New York where he is also a book editor and a volunteer E.M.T. crew chief.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It happens from time to time that, as with people, the first impression one has of a book changes when one expends some energy, and looks more closely. I remember a girl who glowed like the sun to my heart when light shone through her hair. But I will spare you those details. I was struck with a similar sort of smitten on my first reading of Simon Van Booy’s The Illusion of Separateness, my reaction a Some Enchanted Evening experience. Wow, what a great book! Moving, poetic, artfully constructed. Curves in all the right places. Oh, sorry, yeah, the book. While I may move from point A to some other point over the course of this pondering, I should let you know up front that I end up still liking the book, so there will be no trash-talking, Dear John letters, or years of pain and regret here. Oh, damn, yeah, the book.

Remember the Oscar winning film Crash? Yeah, I think Brokeback should have won too, but the structure was one of separate tales intersecting. Ditto here, with the added element of time, like three-dimensional (or would that be four-dimensional?) chess. There are two primary players.


Simon Van Booy - image from PBS

The book opens in 2010 with Martin, an elderly caretaker at the Starlight Retirement Home in Los Angeles. We learn in short order how he came to be with his adoptive parents in Paris, or at least some of the story. Then how he came to be in the USA. We see Martin learn something significant about his heritage. In 2010 he is awaiting the arrival of a very disfigured man.

That would be Hugo. His is the main story here. When we meet Hugo in 1981 he is a middle-aged maintenance man at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. He is asked by a Nigerian immigrant neighbor to watch her seven-year-old son, Danny, and this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. (We do follow Danny a bit later) Hugo does not really have friends. A sizeable chunk of his head was blown away during World War II in Paris, and people tend to keep their distance. He grows tomatoes to give away, and seems a decent sort. But he has very troubled dreams, or are they memories?

There are others. John is a US bomber pilot in WW II who crashes in France. Amelia is his blind grand-daughter whom we meet later.

The core connection here is between Martin and Hugo. There are other goings on, but their impact, IMHO, is either barely related or serves to manipulate events to a foregone conclusion. Still, the first time I read this book I was all choked up at the end. Hanky-worthy it was. And I will not try to take that away. This is a very, very moving story. You will feel, for sure. I will get to my concerns in a bit. But first some internals.

The story connects from character to character like a back-stitch. When one chapter ends, the last bit connects to the following chapter and a different character. And so on. There are plenty of parallels working here. Some characters feel hated, Hugo in different times for different reasons, Danny as a black child in Manchester. Memory and imagination get a lot of attention. Kindness is on display in diverse locales, as some who have feed those who do not. Artistry pops up multiple times too. John draws, as does Danny. Amelia works at an art museum. A briefly noted schoolboy in France also draws. Both Hugo and Martin work as maintenance men. Memory and imagination figure in this story as well, as does a contemplation of the eternal. Van Booy has a gift for language and it is no shock to learn that he publishes poetry as well. So there is plenty here to hang your feeling of content on. It is not only a story, but one that carries some greater weight. It also has its very own tone and cadence. One might associate clipped sentence structure with a writer like, say, Cormac McCarthy. Which carries certain dark implications. But that clippedness is used to very different purpose here.

Sometimes a priest would come and sit with me, talk to me, touch my hand. It felt nice. I wondered if His hand touches all, or if ours touch His. I remembered then, books in an attic. A small hand. Forbidden but they crawled through boxes anyway. Boxes of books and other boxes. Then I thought of the boy who brings cakes to the park for us. I wanted to boast to the priest. I felt proud to know someone like that, he knows Him, but I know Someone too. A child with the power to save us.

On the other hand, some of the sentiments expressed here sounded a bit Hallmarkian

Lives are staged from within

We’re all famous in our own hearts

What people think are their lives are merely its conditions. The truth is closer than thought and lies buried in what we already know.

So what’s the gripe? The title of the book is The Illusion of Separateness and we are meant to see that we are all connected somehow. Six degrees or something. Which is fine. I am sure there are many ways in which the paths of our lives cross each others. Sometimes in meaningful ways, most times not. The gyrations Van Booy went through to link Martin and Hugo seemed to me, on my second reading, forced. Not their first encounter, but latter ones. As with some Spielberg films, you get the sense that the writer/director is leading you by the nose and maybe pulling too hard sometimes on the reins. It felt less like something was being revealed than that something was being constructed. And sometimes it did seem a bit on the goopy side. I know, I know, makes it sound bad. And I do not really mean for the overall take to be a huge negative. We are manipulated by writers all the time. It is part of their job. But sometimes the beams are not well enough hidden behind dry wall or plaster.

So, bottom line is that if you can suspend your disbelief for a short time (I really do mean a short time. This is a short book, and a very fast read.) you will be well-rewarded by an amazing and incredibly moving story, told in beautiful language.

Not so with the girl. We did get together, but it ended badly, very badly. This book, however, will cause you no harm at all. Who knows? Maybe you will feel a connection and it really will be The One for you and not an illusion at all.

Review first posted - 2013

Published - June 11, 2013



=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
This is the third book I have read by Simon Van Booy, and it is the third one that I have found to be beautifully written and so emotionally affecting. It evokes thoughts about how we are connected perhaps by having touched other’s lives by chance or fate if you will, or simply connected by our human condition. This collection of connected stories, a novel in effect reminded me that I should read more of his stories. The narrative moves from character to character, from one place to another through different years in mixed voices from first to third person. As the links between the characters unfold, Van Booy delivers a stunning story of characters who are a part of “someone else’s story “, a part of someone else’s life. Aren’t we all ?

There is so much here from the atrocities of war, to the instinctual kindness of people, extended to those hurting, how people are saved by the kindness of someone else, horrific deeds that haunt until someone eases that guilt and pain, to love and the bonds of family. A diverse cast of characters from a worker at an assisted living facility in Santa Monica, to an American fighter pilot downed in France, to a blind young woman in New York City, to a lonely young English boy who becomes a famous film maker to the former Nazi soldier, coming full circle as Van Booy skillfully weaves together their stories. I’m always thrilled to add an author to my list of favorites and even more so when I have more of their stories to read in the coming year.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend that when you start this book be ready to read it cover to cover, because you will find yourself not wanting to put it down.

(More good news: It is a short small book and fast read.)

Why?

Because... This book is a commentary on what connects us, even when we think we are alone and unloved in the world. It is about the chance occurrences that happen throughout our lives that can change our fate (either for the worse or the better), and the power of love and humanity.

Wow, what a great book!

It is...Moving, poetic, artfully constructed. Curves in all the right places. You will be well-rewarded by an amazing and incredibly moving story.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it a part of the human condition that we feel isolated and alone? This is a fundamental question of Simon Van Booy's novel The Illusion of Separateness.

Van Booy tells his story in a series of vignettes that shift non-linearly in time and place, from 1939 to 2010 and from America to Europe . I see how this sense of separate stories is an illusion as these seemingly unrelated individuals and events eventually connect in a chain of invisible links that shape the lives of these characters. The Illusion of Separateness doesn't focus on the details of the everyday, but rather is built around a handful of moments that shape the lives of its main characters. Van Booy's slow revelation of each part of the story develops a tension that keeps me turning pages to understand all of the connections.

Van Booy's writing is sometimes poetic:
"Then dreams break against the rocks of morning."
A boiling kettle is "driving ghosts into the world."
A boy wakes to "rain on the window like a thousand eyes."

And in other places his writing is sparse, quickly capturing a scene; yet still the idea of a poem lingers:
"He had been reborn into the nightmare of truth. The history of others had been his all along. The idea of it was more than he could bear. People hiding in the sewers; women giving birth in the dark, in the damp and filth, then suffocating their babies so as not to give the others away.
Families ripped apart like bits of paper thrown into the wind.
They all blew into his face."

These are a few quotes that resonate with me.

"His drive home is a long boulevard with many lights. Sometimes people next to him glance over. When he smiles, they mostly look away. But Martin likes to think they carry his smile for a few blocks--that even the smallest gesture is something grand."

Have you ever been having one of those days and then someone held a door when your arms were full or let you go ahead in line at the deli when you were running late getting back to work? That little thing can totally shift a mood and change a day.

"Yesterday on the bus, someone was wearing perfume. Sometimes I can smell the person who occupied the seat before me. Whether you know it or not, we leave parts of ourselves wherever we go."

Sometimes it's a scent, sometimes a mood, sometimes a thought planted through a casual conversation with a stranger--these pieces that are left behind and linger without our ever knowing.

"Many things are hard . . . . Life comes at you in pieces sometimes too big to avoid."

"Everyone was searching, he thought--trying to unravel the knot of their lives."

"That's one of the things I loved about Grandpa John--he was always asking questions and trying to make connections."

One complaint - there are 6 main characters and their voices all sound the same to me. I would have loved more differentiation.

I do have a few questions, so if anyone has read this work and has an answer, please chime in. Why are Mr. Hugo and Amelia's sections told in first person narrative while the others are told in the third person? I think Van Booy uses rain as a symbol, it occurs frequently in the novel, and I'm not sure what he is trying to convey with its use.

Despite this gap in my understanding, I love this slim novel, Van Booy's prose, and the concept that despite a feeling that we each live individual lives at some level we are connected to a larger whole.

Publication 2013

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book may be the best literary example of why even small acts of kindness may well change someone else's life, and how connected we all truly are, whether we realize it or not. Everything we do matters, so why not make it matter in a good way, "leave the fragrance of our lives in the world", as one character realizes.

Each short chapter is from the point of view of different people, winding back and forth in time and place, and leaving clues in their wake as to who fits in where, and why. A very complex 212 pages, but written so simply it doesn't seem that way at all, until you turn the last page and put all the pieces together. I picked this up at a book sale a couple of years ago, and was led to read it because of two GR friend's recent reviews. They were both right, this is so worth the short time it takes to read. To Sara and Jim, I owe you.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is perfectly titled, for it is a series of seemingly unconnected persons stories, ah, but they are connected in the subtlest and most profound ways. Each story is interesting in its own right and each of the characters comes to life vividly in Van Booy’s hands. There are moments of startling brilliance as well.

And as he stood there, not moving, his heart opened upon the many fields of dead, with their helmets on and their eyes pretending to see.
Love is also a violence, and cannot be undone.

I found this to be poetic and vivid imagery, and I sat and pondered that last line for some time before I could move on. I believe he was saying, in the midst of all this hatred and evil, there was also love, and its effects were indelible.

And, this, about following orders:

He did what they told him to do. He would have done anything they told him to do. He hid inside the pronoun “we”.

How many people make that excuse, then and now?

The construction of this novel is unique and marvelous, there is a sense of mystery as you begin to try to connect the carefully laid clues, there is a sense of real satisfaction as they begin to reveal themselves and the story fleshes out into the mosaic made from all the parts, that only God can see. As I am sure Van Booy wished, I closed this book wondering how I might be connected to others and never know.

[Debbie "DJ" · Rating 4 out of 5]

I keep going back and forth on this book. There are a lot of characters, and I kept trying to connect them. Some do, others, only faintly. I would say to read this as more of a short story collection. Also, the writing really threw me. A paragraph starts out in the most simplistic of language, then ends with such a profound statement I had to highlight. I never felt close to the characters, but those philosophical statements can't be missed.

[Erika Robuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine watching an artist begin painting on an empty canvas.

He starts on one of the lower corners with a dark shade that does not seem connected to the light on the top, the texture on the side, or the splash of vibrant color between the two. But slowly, as he works with meticulous brush strokes, the canvas becomes animated by the picture he creates. Those things that are not connected begin to show cohesion, and when he is finished, you can’t imagine any part of the painting existing on its own without the power it possesses as part of the whole.

This description applies to Simon Van Booy’s latest novel THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATENESS. The characters are rich and diverse, separated by age, time, culture, and geography. But like many divergent streams meeting in a river, their stories and longings, loves and losses find one another at different places on the trail.

Van Booy is fast becoming my favorite contemporary author. He has a gift for balancing language and story, and never sacrificing one for the other. The novel is short–just over 200 pages–but it must be read carefully and with reflection, and the reward is great.

If you enjoy literary fiction like that of A S Byatt or Ian McEwan, you will love THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATENESS. I highly recommend it and all of Van Booy’s novels and short stories.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning. I don't want to talk about it. It's that good. This is writing that is meant to be breathed in like lilac air and absorbed.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that I should have liked but for me it never quite came together. The writing style was many short sentences, actually kind of brisk. Put together they often made brilliant paragraphs, but it also kept me from bonding with any of the characters. The novel is meant I know, to show how even though we can feel alone we are always connected to someone, somewhere and that small acts can have effects felt later in time. It went back and forth in history, time periods, different places, which didn't really bother me, I just could never quite feel that this book came together.

[Shakiba Abdolvand]

" وهم جدايى "
سايمون ون بوى - انتشارات هيرمند - ترجمه عرفان مجيب

مدت ها بود كه داستان كوتاه خوب نخونده بودم ، خيلى فضاى داستان ها رو دوست داشتم


به نظرم آدم ها خوشبخت تر مى بودند اگر خيلى چيزها را زودتر اعتراف مى كردند . همه ى ما به تعبيرى زندانى فلان خاطره ، يا ترس يا سرخوردگى هستيم - هويت ما ساخته ى آن چيزهايى است كه نمى توانيم تغيير دهيم .

[مهسا · Rating 5 out of 5]

فرم روایتش متفاوت بود، خوشم اومد ازش. زنجیره‌ی پیچیده‌ای از علت و معلول‌های ساده که از فرط سادگی، پیچیده می‌شدن. زاویه‌ی دید بین اول شخص و راوی در سیلان بود...نظیرش رو نخونده بودم.
پاره‌ای از زمان وقوع داستان، همزمان با جنگ جهانی دوم و پاره‌ای در زمان حال بود؛ شرح اتفاقاتی که خواسته و ناخواسته در گذشته رقم خورده‌بودند و اثرشون روی حالِ شخصیت‌ها...سرباز آمریکایی‌ای که در عملیات کارپت‌بگر، هواپیماش سقوط می‌کنه، پسربچه‌ای که بیست‌سال بعد توی لاشه‌ی هواپیما ماجراجویی می‌کنه،سرباز آلمانی‌ای که گلوله‌ای به جمجمه‌ش می‌خوره ولی زنده می‌مونه و یه نوزاد توی بحبوحه‌ی جنگ فرانسه پیدا می‌کنه و...

بریده:

هر کسی درمانده یا تنها باشد، تصدیق می‌کند که روزمرگی مایه‌ی آسایش است.
...

به نظرم آدم‌ها خوشبخت‌تر می‌بودند اگر خیلی چیزها را زودتر اعتراف می‌کردند، همه‌ی ما به تعبیری زندانی فلان خاطره یا ترس یا سرخوردگی هستیم.
هویت ما ساخته‌ی آن چیزهایی‌ست که نمی‌توانیم تغییر بدهیم.

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+ 👥👥
Started this morning, finished this afternoon. Maybe my favorite by Van Booy.

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddhist Influence In A Contemporary Novel

The doctrine of dependent origination is at the heart of Buddhist teachings of all schools. It is a profoundly difficult teaching in its implications. In the Suttas, the Buddha rebukes even the most learned of his disciples for thinking they understand dependent origination. Broadly, dependent origination teaches that persons and things lack substantiality and fixity and are invariably changing. There is nothing substantial, fixed, and independent in, for example, personal identity; rather things and persons are inextricably interconnected to each other, with one thing flowing and changing from another. The Buddha also tries to teach a way to break the cycle of interconnectedness through the Four Noble Truths.

Although Simon Van Booy's novel, "The Illusion of Separateness" (2013) does not mention dependent origination, Buddhism, or the Buddha, at least part of the teaching pervades the book, as Van Booy says in a short oral presentation on the book that may be found on the Amazon product page. In addition, the book opens with an epigraph from the Vietnamese Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh: "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness". Born in Wales but living in the United States, Van Booy has written novels and stories with a strongly philosophical bent and has also edited three books of philosophical essays.

Van Booy's novel gives a novelistic account of the "illusion of separateness" by showing the interconnected character of the lives of people apparently separated in place, time, and culture. Each of the short chapters of this short book focus on one of six individuals: Martin, Mr. Hugo, Sebastien, John, Amelia, and Danny. With the exception of Amelia, a young blind woman who works as a curator in a New York City art museum and who speaks for herself, the events in the lives of each character are recounted in the third person. The individual chapters at first appear episodic and the characters separated. As the story unfolds, the connections among them gradually become clear.

The story centers upon events in France in 1944, shortly after the allied landing at Normandy. The characters include a severely wounded German soldier and an almost as badly wounded American fighter pilot and a French family of resistance fighters that protects a Jewish baby boy. In addition to the WW II settings, chapters of the book describe the subsequent lives of the characters, and of others who become connected with them, in Britain and America.

The book is beautifully written in a spare, minimalist style. Van Booy tells his story with a great deal of skill that reveals the relationship of his protagonists to one and another with a great deal of authorial cunning. Much of the book is moving and convincing. In places, the coincidences in the book seem jimmied together and forced.

Van Booy writes thoughtfully in a way that encourages readers to reflect of the ties and commonality that people share with one another. The book also has a degree of sentimentality. It lacks the toughness and depth that might come from a fuller consideration of the Buddhist teaching of dependent arising, which stresses a profound path out of everyday life's character of dependence.

Robin Friedman

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I might not enjoy this book due to its gimmicky format and what I thought would be pabulum sentimentality.

I really liked it though, in part and despite the above. I found it to be a really fast read.

It helped me to make a list. As I got to them, for each of the 15 chapters, I wrote down name of the person, their location, and the year that appear at the front of each chapter. I probably didn’t need to do that, but it helped me keep track of who was who and where and when they were at the time.

This book screams to be reread. Reading it a second time would make it even more fun to see how everything comes together, knowing in advance what is not known until later on/the very end.

The writing is beautiful and I enjoyed the writing style. The characters are interesting. The times/places held my attention too. The book’s chapters take place (not in order) between 1929 and 2010, at several places in the U.S. (New York and Los Angeles, California) and Europe (England and France). The storytelling is wonderful. A lot about the characters and their circumstance are skillfully conveyed in relatively few words.

I did get a tad irked at the central message (see the title) but sort of liked it too. I also got irritated because I think the story was meant to elicit certain emotions and thoughts from readers and that assumption was not suitably or sufficiently subtle for me.

The book completely held my attention when most books these days are not doing that. I think it’s a story that will stick in my mind. Very cleverly crafted.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are all connected. Van Booy begins his novel with a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh: We are here to awaken fro the illusion of our separateness. This beautiful, short novel provides the reader with ideas of how we are (could be) connected. It begins with Martin, who is a caretaker in a retirement home in current time Santa Monica. The home receives a new resident, Mr. Hugo. Next, we learn a bit about Mr. Hugo and through him we learn of Danny, a boy of a single Mom. Another young French boy finds a the remains of a WWII B-24 on his land. In it is a photograph, which we learn of a young newly married couple from New York. These lives become interwoven in such a beautifully lyrical way. It’s not always obvious, but the reader eventually sees the connections. The ending is breathtaking.....in fact, I needed(wanted) to read the first story again. Van Booy switches from current time to historical time with ease. It did take me a while to get into his rhythm, as he’s very lyrical in his writing. But once I did “get with the flow”, I enjoyed the book so much that I read it in one sitting. It’s a small novel, 208 pages, but it’s packed with thought provoking material. A great read.

[میعاد · Rating 4 out of 5]

فكر كردم اگر من به دنيا نيامده بودم الان كى توى خانه ى ما زندگى ميكرد؟
فكر كردم كى هرروز روى صندلى ام در اتوبوس مى نشست؟
كى كنارفيليپ توى وانتش مى نشست و به ماشين سوارى طولانى مى رفت؟؟

وقتى من و فيليپ بميريم ديگر كسى نخواهد بود كه پدربزرگ جان را به خاطر بياورد و بعد هم ديگر كسى نخواهد بود كه مارا به خاطر بياورد، چنان خواهد بود كه انگار اين همه هرگز اتفاق نيفتاده، هرچند كه اكنون ، همين اكنون، در حال اتفاق افتادن است!

مانده ام كه وقتى پير ميشويم بدنمان چه تغييرى ميكند!
مانده ام نسبت به آن چه هنوز رخ نداده چه احساسى خواهيم داشت!!

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Illusion of Separateness is the best book yet of the gifted Simon Van Booy. The prose is as beautiful as ever-lines so breathtaking you want to memorize them-and the story is both meaningful and inspiring. Taking its title from words of the famous Vietnamese monk and spiritual leader, Thích Nhất Hạnh, the book follows a group of seemingly disparate individuals and lifts the veil at the end to reveal how connected they really are. The feeling inside this book and its revelation is the connection we all have to each other, no matter how separate we seem or feel.

Based on a true story, the book follows the lives of a Jewish American couple, a Jewish boy born in the midst of the Nazi holocaust, a blind girl, a German soldier severely wounded in the war, and an American film director. Despite their seeming unrelatedness, they are deeply connected.

With his story, and his words, Van Booy weaves a web that draws these characters together and brings us in as well to the linked destinies of us all.

Highly recommended.

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

.
این را همان اوایل فهمید و این را هم فهمید که آنچه مردم زندگی خود تصور می‌کنند، چیزی نیست جز حالات ناپایدار زندگی.حقیقت نزدیک‌تر از خیال است و دروغ‌ها نهفته است زیرِ آنچه دانسته می‌پنداریم.
#وهم_جدایی
#سایمون_ون_بوی
#ترجمه#عرفان_مجیب
📝داستان در مورد افرادی است که به نوعی با هم ارتباط دارند البته در زمان‌های مختلف و ارتباط بین این افراد و زمان‌ها از کودکی گرفته تا میانسالی ایده‌ی بسیار خوب نویسنده برای جذاب‌تر کردن داستان بود.روزی که استوری گذاشتم که می‌خوام این کتاب رو بخونم خیلی از دوستای هم‌سلیقه‌ایم پیام دادند که کتاب قشنگیه و من واقعا از خوندنش لذت بردم😊شخصیت آمیلیا،دختر نابینای داستان رو خیلی دوست داشتم و از اون شخصیت‌هاییه برام که دوست داشتم میدیدمش😅💓
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📝 گاهی بیدار می‌شوم و آن‌قدر همین‌طور می‌مانم که صدای افتادن گلبرگی از گلدان را می‌شنوم. گاهی بیدار می‌مانم و آرزو می‌کنم کاش کسی بود و صدای فروریختنم را می‌شنید. در حریم امن تختم، بر این طناب بندبازی میان رؤیا و بیداری، تخیلاتم خیلی واقعی می‌نماید ـ فقط چند قدم آن‌طرف‌تر ـ همین نزدیکی‌هایی که هر چه می‌روی به آن نمی‌رسی.
پدرم پرده‌ها را آرام باز می‌کند تا از روز پرده‌برداری کند. هر روز شاهکاری است، حتی اگر آدم را له کند.
متن پشت جلد کتاب

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series of interrelated short stories about unseen connections among people. It is written in short chapters focused on one person’s experiences, rotating among five main characters. The overarching storyline is oriented around one man’s actions during WWII that ripples through the lives of many. By the end, the reader understands what has happened and how these people are connected.

This is a poignant story that had the most impact after completing and reflecting on it. It portrays the importance of the acts of a single person, even when that person’s self-perception is one of insignificance. This is a book that is best read fairly quickly, since it is difficult to recall all the connections if it is spread out over too long period of time.

[Carmel Hanes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a difficult experience to capture.

The book blurb gives you a sense of what this book involves: a small cast of characters who, on the surface, appear to have nothing in common. The title hints that the reader will find perhaps they do. The magic is in the way this life portrait comes together.

It offers prose that seems deceptively simplistic and abrupt, but carries all the weight necessary to bring you into the experience of the characters; a story line that bounces between characters, time, place and events but never disoriented me; a gradual pealing of layers to reveal connections that give an aha catch of breath... all leading to a satisfied sigh of recognition in how life moments and choices can carry far more influence in the life of another than we may believe or understand or ever even know.

It reads a bit like a cohesive group of short stories, but with patience and attention, it all comes together by the end. I sat for a moment, fighting the urge to start it all over again. And then I pondered some magical moments or people briefly in my own life who had influenced my own path and may never know it. This was a book that got under my skin.

[Arash · Rating 5 out of 5]

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به نظرم آدم ها خوشبخت تر می بودند اگر خیلی چیز ها را زودتر اعتراف می کردند. همه ی ما به تعبیری زندانی فلان خاطره، یا ترس، یا سرخوردگی هستیم - هویت ما ساخته ی آن چیز هایی است که نمی توانیم تغییر بدهیم. 
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اران هر چه را که ما نمی توانیم به هم بگوییم، می گوید. صدایی است باستانی که حیات را به هست شدن می خواند، اما مدت ها بر عدم می بارد. سکوت، بعد از باران همیشه بلند تر است. از آن پایین، از روی شاخه ها صدای پرنده ها می آید که دعای خیر می کنند. قلب هایشان را از ذهن می گذرانم و یکی شان را مثل دانه ای گرم در دستم احساس میکنم.
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چقدر خوب بود این کتاب، چرخه ای از شخصیت های مختلف که اتفاقی مشترک همه اونهارو بهم مرتبط کرده. پر از احساسات و توصیفاتی زیبا. بخش مربوط به هر شخص از دید و زاویه خود شخصه و این به درک بهتر احساسات متقابلشون نسبت به هم خیلی کمک میکنه.
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یکی از بهترینهای هیرمند که تا به امروز خوندم، اگه زیادی تعریف میکنم برای اینه که خیلی مجذوبش شدم و شاید از نظر دیگران جور دیگری باشه. پس اگه با سلایق من آشنایین حتما بخونید کتاب رو

[George K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Βαθμολογία: 7/10

Ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο, με τον συγγραφέα να αφηγείται τις αλληλένδετες ιστορίες έξι διαφορετικών ανθρώπων, οι οποίοι συνδέονται με τον έναν ή τον άλλο τρόπο, μέσα στο πέρασμα του χρόνου. Δεν αντιλαμβάνονται πλήρως αυτά που τους συνδέουν, όμως μέσα από κάποιες πράξεις τους αποκαλύπτεται ο σημαντικός ρόλος που έπαιξε ο ένας στη ζωή του άλλου. Η ιστορία αυτή καθαυτή και ο τρόπος που είναι δομημένη με το μπρος-πίσω στον χρόνο και τη συχνή εναλλαγή αφηγήσεων, δείχνουν έναν συγγραφέα με καλές ιδέες και ένα κάποιο ταλέντο. Όμως, προσωπικά βρήκα το βιβλίο αρκετά προβλέψιμο, κάπως άνευρο για τους στόχους που έθεσε ο συγγραφέας του, σε λίγα σημεία εδώ και κει ένιωσα κάτι παραπάνω από απλό ενδιαφέρον, ενώ κανένας από τους χαρακτήρες δεν με άγγιξε ιδιαίτερα, ίσως γιατί δεν υπήρξε ο κατάλληλος χώρος για να έχουν το απαραίτητο βάθος. Η γραφή είναι αρκετά καλή, πότε ποιητική και πότε πιο ρεαλιστική, με λιτές περιγραφές και πολλές σύντομες λυρικές προτάσεις, από τη μια όμορφες, από την άλλη χωρίς να βγάζουν πάντα νόημα. Ωραίο και ευκολοδιάβαστο βιβλίο, με τα θετικά να είναι σαφώς περισσότερα και πιο σημαντικά από τα αρνητικά, όμως δεν με ικανοποίησε στον βαθμό που περίμενα. Αν υπήρχε η δυνατότητα, θα του έβαζε τριάμισι αστεράκια, αλλά μιας και δεν υπάρχει, του βάζω τρία.

[JimZ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had one ingredient that had something going for it, and that whetted my appetite. Supposedly it was about different characters who did not know one another but who in the end it would be revealed were inextricably linked. And each chapter was titled with the name of one of the characters.

The writing was good. But I did not like the book too much.

In the beginning there is a 20-page chapter with the title “Martin, Los Angeles, 2010”. And it describes a caretaker at an old folks home. It is told in the third person. Some elements of the past are described incoherently so I really do not know who this character is. Then there are many other chapters in which there is a narrator in the first person and then other times there is a narrator who is in the third person and there are dates and locations in the titles of the chapters (2005, 1944, 2010, 1944) but not in an orderly fashion (e.g., a narrator in one year can be in one city in one chapter and in another city or country 30 years before or later in another chapter - so take into account different characters, different years, different locations, a character reappears 5 times, another character is only mentioned once). It was just too much for me. By the end Martin’s identity is revealed and again not in a clear-cut fashion and therefore my rating of 2 stars. Because the first chapter that was to set the stage was too confusing; because there were multiple narrators who spoke in the first or the third person; and because years and names and locations bounced around. All of that together was a smorgasbord of thoughts and narratives.

Here are some reviews and they are favorable so maybe I am turning into a curmudgeon ☹:
The Independent (UK): https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...
Washington Independent Review of Books: http://www.washingtonindependentrevie...
JimZ: I should note this reviewer at the end of her very favorable review echoes one of my complaints.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was part of my BookTube Recommends project, and was suggested by the lovely Brooke Lee. Thanks for the recommendation Brooke!

This is not the type of book I would normally pick up for myself unless prompted. I'm not typically a fan of wartime literature, which is what I assumed this would predominantly be going into it. However, Simon Van Booy's The Illusion of Separateness is so much more than that. It is a commentary on what connects us, even when we think we are alone and unloved in the world. It is about the chance occurences that happen throughout our lives that can change our fate (either for the worse or the better), and the power of love and humanity.

The book at times feels like a collection of interlocking short stories, but as you see certain characters return (albeit at varying points in time throughout the 20th and 21st century) you can begin to piece together a cohesive narrative and the ways the narratives link together are beautifully and subtly done.

Van Booy's writing is simple yet has real beauty at points, and for the first time I highlighted several passages while reading this on my Kindle. He manages to speak of relatively mundane things with real clarity and gets it exactly right. Many things I've thought of just in my own head are put down on the page with real understanding, and it almost feels like the writer is speaking your own mind.

This was a suprisingly quick read, and one that was touching and sad at times. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good character study, even if wartime literature isn't really your thing. I'm glad I took the time to read this.

[Mij Woodward · Rating 2 out of 5]

An elongated short story, without much depth or feeling.

Felt like I was reading a recitation of circumstances in various character's lives in a cool detached way.

The story line had some interesting coincidences, some ironic connections between the characters, stemming from an incident in France during WWII.

I needed more.

I wanted to know the characters better. I wanted to care about the characters.

[Larry Berthold · Rating 5 out of 5]

received an advance copy of this via Powell's Books Indiespensible series...thus far its pure poetry.

on finishing: Wow! loved it from end to end...distinct writing to character, a timeline encompassing the last century, and the graceful exposure of how seemingly mundane and life-altering moments both have affects for generations to follow...sheer poetry and grace. Will return over and over for short passages and re-discovery...highly recommended. oh, and the most perfect title.

[Argos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kurgusuyla, etkileyici kısa cümleleriyle ilginç bir kitap, keyifle okunuyor.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin, a widower, works at the Starlight Retirement Center in Los Angeles, listening to the residents, mopping the floor, fixing things. On this day in 2010, he helps prepare for the welcome party for a new resident, Mr Hugo. When Mr Hugo arrives, a very old man with a deformed head, he has a heart attack and dies in Martin's arms. The world is a small place, and connections are all around us.

Mr Hugo once lived in England. His neighbour was a boy called Danny whom he taught how to read. Danny went on to become a film director and arranged for Mr Hugo to move to the States - Mr Hugo, who barely remembers who he is but knows that he once wore a grey uniform and raised his arm to the Führer. And that somewhere, somehow, he lost half his head and became homeless, living in a park in Paris, fed leftover bread by a boy whose parents owned a nearby bakery.

And from America comes John, a pilot shot down over France and believed to be dead until his wife received a telegram some time later. What do these three men have in common? Where do their stories intersect? As we get to know them and other characters who connect to them and to each other, we learn the important roles they inadvertently played in each other's lives, and "the illusion of their separateness".

The Illusion of Separateness is a beautiful story, one loosely bound by the fluid reach of time and place, dipping into the lives of various people around the world until a whole picture forms and, at the end, all the threads come together. The feeling this rather short novel leaves you with is one of almost lightheadedness, of a kind of satisfaction - the kind that comes with a mystery solved - yet also sadness, the sadness of isolation, persecution, senseless death, misery, survival, abandonment, revenge and mercy. This novel is woven of sadness, but it is the kind of sadness that tinges rather than taints, that makes a story not depressing but uplifting, inspiring. Van Booy has done a simple magic trick, making a complex story told in lyrical prose look simple and easy.

There is a lot to love here. The sense of the world and our short human lives both leaving marks upon it and also being so easily dismantled, swept aside, built upon, is a prevalent theme. Here one moment, gone the next. Transient, but not transparent. And of course the theme of interconnectedness is a strong one. We're all familiar with the idea of "six degrees of separation"; this is like that, but how the characters' connect with each other is often a matter of life and death. One of the special qualities of the novel is how all the individual stories gain so much meaning and weight when brought together and linked up, creating a powerful feeling of wholeness and rightness and, again, sadness - the complicated kind I mentioned above.

I noted some of my favourite lines to share with you, beginning with Martin, who had been adopted by his parents in Paris during WWII when, according to them, a man had thrust the baby into his adoptive mother's arms - he knows nothing about where he comes from or who his parents are, a mystery that preoccupies him greatly. He's a university student when he realises that he's actually Jewish.

He had been reborn into the nightmare of truth. The history of others had been his all along. The idea of it was more than he could bear. People hiding in the sewers; women giving birth in the dark, in the damp and filth, then suffocating their babies so as not to give the others away.
Families ripped apart like bits of paper thrown into the wind.
They all blew into his face. [p.8]

Twenty-six year old Amelia, in New York state, is John's granddaughter, and became permanently blind as a child.

Sometimes I inhale the scent of her makeup as though trying to lift the veil of who my mother is. [p.62]

In summer, I sleep with my windows open. Night holds my body in its mouth.
In this second darkness, my desire flings itself upon a world of closed eyes.
Then dreams break against the rocks of morning. [p.63]

I think some people would be happier if they admitted things more often. In a sense we are all prisoners of some memory, or fear, or disappointment - we are all defined by something we can't change. [p.82]

There's definitely a temptation to read this book quickly, because it's fairly short and reads so smoothly and fluidly, but to do so would be to do yourself a disservice. As it is I feel like I need to re-read it several times to understand and feel it all. Van Booy has successfully captured the chaos, the bloodshed, the fear and anger of World War II, but also the beauty of the individual, the sense that each person is someone of value and whose life is not that cheap, should not be taken away so cheaply. Even Mr Hugo, once a German soldier who did what he was told, is not so easily dismissed as the enemy.

The only section that didn't quite work for me was Danny's chapter. It seemed like the only purpose Danny had in the whole story was a way to get Mr Hugo to America and in Martin's company, and as such it felt a bit contrived - a disappointingly weak link in an otherwise very strong story. All the other connections felt right and meaningful, but this one just didn't quite make sense.

Told in a classic "tell" style, in the case of The Illusion of Separateness the narrative style works very well. Often it's an alienating style, making it hard for me to connect with the characters or feel like I'm needed rather than a passive audience. Not so with this book. Instead, the prose sweeps you up and it is like watching a complex dream unfold, an epic story spanning generations, eras, continents, always managing to leave you plenty of breathing room for active reading. Always there is that sense of layers, of time leaving footprints, and that history isn't a story with a beginning and an end, but an ongoing organic process that not only binds the world together but also connects us, so that no matter how isolated, how separate, we seem to be, in truth it is an illusion, and connections abound all around us.

A deceptively simple story about ordinary people that, when the separate stories are woven together like this, becomes a rich tapestry of interconnected lives showing how deeply a person can affect our own life, making it all the more richer for that connection.

My thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book via TLC Book Tours. Please note that quotations are taken from the uncorrected proof and may not appear exactly the same in the final copy.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six characters weave their way on and off stage; I’m immediately reminded of Pirandello’s "Six Characters in Search of an Author". Do they have a story to tell? Martin seems to have some as yet undefined connection with Hugo, a man whose origin is unknown but one who has clearly led a traumatic existence. John seems to be a man who has lived several very different lives. Sébastien unwittingly becomes a link, tying several of the other lives together; Danny, on the other hand acts with deliberate intent. We learn more about Amelia than about any of the others; partly because she speaks her own lines. She becomes more settled in one place, more complete. Her account of how, as a blind person, she experiences the world around her through sounds, tone of voice, touch and especially through smells is especially striking:
It often rains suddenly and my mother runs upstairs to open the window in my room. She sits with me on the bed. It’s something we have always done. Sometimes her hands smell like dinner. Sometimes I inhale the scent of her makeup as though trying to lift the veil of who my mother is.
Rain says everything we cannot say to one another. It is an ancient sound that willed all life into being, but fell so long upon nothing.
The silence after is always louder. Birds whistle from low branches, tying their wishes in knots. I imagine their hearts and feel one in my hand like a hot seed.
How separate, how OTHER can each of us be? The degrees of separation may, in the end, just be a convention that enables us to tolerate the daily tragedies of our fellow man simply because he is not US. While reading this book, it occurred to me that I’ve had moments when memories float up into my consciousness, episodes from years ago in former times that seem in retrospect to have happened to someone else; they seem so foreign, so unlikely in the light of my current reality that I wonder if what I recall might just be something I’ve read about. Conversely, I stumble upon passages in a book that seem so real to me that it might be my own life being retold to me.
Van Booy has presented us with a shadow-theater. Shades, encounters, versions of our former selves appear — and fade into the wings. Echoes, scraps of conversation, moments of recollection — then silence again. He explores the haphazard threads that connect us in ways we may not comprehend: how each of our lives are touched, intersected and thereby changed. There’s not really a plot here; the existence of one would imply that some of this was planned, that the randomness of life is somehow under our control. But at best, we simply adjust — or not.
It’s impossible not to be dazzled by Van Booy’s prose. There are passages that may seem to just be throwaway lines that add little to the narrative but they’re so striking that the book would be immensely poorer without them.
Moonlight sharpens the garden outside Sébastien’s window. He opens his window a crack. The cold fills his bedclothes like a flapping tongue. He listens for animals and sometimes he hears them. Sparkling lines of tinsel tie the house together. Cards hang on strings above the fireplace.
Asked what it’s like to be blind, Amelia says:
I confess the cool smoothness of a window — but the idea of glass is something beautiful and unknown. I ask him to tell me about stars, but what I really want is to be kissed.
Winter evenings out here are quiet. The air smells of wood smoke and seawater. The Golden Pear Café fills up early with retired bankers and once-famous artists who sit alone by the window, turning the pages of morning.
The book simply took me by the hand and I had to keep reading. Almost finished it in one sitting, pausing only for dinner.