The Chess Garden

by Brooks Hansen, Miles Hyman (Illustrator)

In the fall of 1900, Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven left the chess garden that he and his wife, Sonja, had created together in Dayton, Ohio, and journeyed to South Africa to serve as a doctor in the British concentration camps of the Boer War. Over the next ten months he sent twelve chess pieces and twelve letters back to Sonja. She set out her husband's gifts as they arrived and welcomed all the most faithful guests of the garden to come and hear what he had written - letters which told nothing of his experience of the camps but described an imagined land called the Antipodes, where all the game pieces that cluttered the sets and drawers of the garden collection came to life to guide the doctor through his fateful and wondrous last adventure.

Brooks Hansen offers a tale of spiritual progress disguised in the most exotic visions of the imagination. And yet The Chess Garden encompasses a very real world, too. Alongside the doctor's visions of the Antipodes, the story of his life gradually unfolds as well. History and allegory are expertly woven until finally both lead back to the chess garden itself, a place where ideas give way to vision, reason meets faith, and fact and figment are finally reconciled.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Literature, Chess, Historical, Speculative Fiction

480 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Brooks Hansen is an American novelist, screenwriter, and illustrator best known for his 1995 book The Chess Garden. He has also written one young adult's novel. He lives with his family in Carpinteria, California. He attended Harvard University and was the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005.

Reviews

[William2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading. It is a novel, as all good novels must in part be, of subtle and beautiful patterning. There are two storylines. One is told in a series of twelve letters the good doctor Gustav Uyterhoeven's sends home during the year 1900 from a British-run refugee camp for displaced Boer women and children in South Africa. These letters, written for the children back home in Dayton Ohio, are fantasies about the doctor's travels in a magical land of games called The Antipodes. A second storyline is of the life and times of the Uyterhoevens themselves. Their history, courtship, marriage, the doctor's religious conversion as a young man, his thoughts on the great Christian activist and thinker Emanuel Swedenborg through the letter readings of 1900. The subtle patterning I mentioned before is shared by both storylines. It's the glue that ties the book together.

The prose reminds me of Thomas Mann in some ways. It is not that strenuous but there is a certain manner in which the narrative unwinds that puts me in mind of Buddenbrooks and parts of The Magic Mountain. It's easygoing opening slowly takes on rigor and greater philosophical density as it moves forward. One cannot call its movement or drive propulsive in any sense, it is more ruminative or, better, contemplative. Dr. Uyterhoeven, enters into a research partnership with two colleagues in the 1850s, the team later discovers cell division. For Dr Uyterhoeven "life is somewhere in the chaos, untraceable, like heat in fire." To my mind this echoes William Paley's enthusiasms earlier in the nineteenth century. The good doctor is searching for nothing less than the what might be called an animating spiritual principle. Yet he is not saying so yet. The word god never passes his lips. He fears the soulless rigor of his fellows at the laboratory where he works.

Then we're hit with the opaque cause and effect chapter, entitled "The Friedrich Wilhem Institute." I see what Hansen wants here. The movement from a crystalline clarity and simplicity at the start of the novel to this passage of intellectual rigor. However, on second reading I found the chapter an absolute slog. My impulse was to skip to letters four through seven coming up. I think if Hansen wants to address issues of epistemology in his novel then he has to define his terms. Like most people, I was not a philosophy major. I don't want to google concepts when reading novels like I do when reading nonfiction. That's because fiction is supposed to be the dream which bears us along. By introducing such an erudite, turgid chapter Hansen throws cold water on the dreamer. Narrative pleasure goes out the window.

...So I have elected not to finish the second reading. I'm stopping at p. 210. Apparently my tastes have changed since I first read this novel sixteen years ago. I find I have less patience with it now. I find that it is not delivering the sort of narrative joy I crave these days. I'm going to leave the rating at 4, however, since that was my response to the text on first reading. One wants, I suppose, to be true to one's younger, more naïve self.

[Velvetink · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Ohio at the turn of this century, the wife of Dr Uyterhoeven receives a series of strange letters from her husband, who reports being shipwrecked on his way to South Africa, and landing in a fantastical country inhabited by chess pieces, dominoes and dice.

Intercut with these letters, the story of his life unfolds: his youth and marriage in Holland, his troubled scientific career in Berlin, the genesis of his unusual philosophy and of the chess garden. History and allegory are expertly interwoven in this tale of spiritual progress, a novel of dazzling imagination.

A wonderfully bewitching compendium of stories told in a lucid prose that is free of any stylistic gimmickry. A highly absorbing and endlessly inventive antipodean adventure.




*note to self. Copy from A.

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 STARS AND NO REVIEW! good grief, mark, get with the program! you loved this book and you want other people to read this book too. you want them to share your excitement, right? well, write a review. share that enthusiasm, you can do it mark!

[GoldGato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew, this was a read of a book! It required patience and fortitude resulting in some nice rewards along the way. Published in the mid-1990s, when we all had more time, it’s historical fiction that mixes harsh reality with the fantastical. Saddle up.

Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven is a retired physician living a quiet life with his wife in Dayton, Ohio, circa the early 1900s. Although he is an elderly gentleman, he decides to volunteer to serve as a medical specialist in a British concentration camp during the Boer War, helping the refugees. He sends a dozen letters back to his wife and their readings become a neighborhood event. This is because the good doctor isn’t describing his wartime experiences but instead is relating his adventures on a mysterious island where game pieces (chess, dominoes, checkers) live and love and fight just as humans do. Meanwhile, we also learn about the doctor in alternating chapters, where his life and profession bring the real world to the book. One minute he is a fast-rising medical star in Europe, the next he is talking with a chess bishop on the magical island of the Antipodes.

What will become of my memories, I wonder, and of the things I love when everything surrounding them has lost its meaning – the shoes you lace up, the hats you wear in winter, the saucers which hold your cup?

This book is an adventure and sometimes I just had to walk away in order to gather my senses. I wondered how the author managed to keep everything straight and to have such an imagination. The fantastical chapters were my reward, as I eagerly looked forward to the doctor’s next interactions with yet more game pieces. But it’s more than just an intricate piece of historical fiction, the subject really being a sub-set of the nasty Boer War conflict. It’s also a rumination on getting older and not letting our chances just slip away, like a candle dying in a remote chamber of the castle.

I recommend the book for any reader willing to spend the time to truly appreciate it. A Publishers' Weekly Best Book of the Year in 1995, this volume has enough surprises and intrigue to keep the pages turning. We are all of us, whether we have the courage to admit it or not, waiting.

Book Season = Spring (cool grottoes of the soul)

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is why I read.

[Shelton TRL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me of Th Wizard of Oz books, as well as Wicked by Gregory MaGuire. It is a fascinating study of how a sensitive physician copes with the horrors he experiences in wartime, by use of his love of chess.


"In the fall of 1900, Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven left the chess garden that he and his wife, Sonja, had created together in Dayton, Ohio, and journeyed to South Africa to serve as a doctor in the British concentration camps of the Boer War. Over the next ten months he sent twelve chess pieces and twelve letters back to Sonja. She set out her husband's gifts as they arrived and welcomed all the most faithful guests of the garden to come and hear what he had written - letters which told nothing of his experience of the camps but described an imagined land called the Antipodes, where all the game pieces that cluttered the sets and drawers of the garden collection came to life to guide the doctor through his fateful and wondrous last adventure. Brooks Hansen offers a tale of spiritual progress disguised in the most exotic visions of the imagination. And yet The Chess Garden encompasses a very real world, too. Alongside the doctor's visions of the Antipodes, the story of his life gradually unfolds as well. History and allegory are expertly woven until finally both lead back to the chess garden itself, a place where ideas give way to vision, reason meets faith, and fact and figment are finally reconciled."

[Marci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was immediately drawn to this book by the title, the illustration, and the summary. Unfortunately as I read "In the tradition of J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Brooks Hansen offers a tale of spiritual progress disguised in the most exotic visions of the imagination", I had automatically set ridiculously high hopes for this book.

The book is divided into the parts that switch between Dr. Uyterhoeven's letters which are amazing, and the other parts which are more science filled and less fantasy. I do enjoy the style that this book was written in but got distracted by so much scientific terminology and lack of connection to those who aren't necessarily scientist or whom have not studied the sciences in detailed.

The first part was breathtakingly beautiful and with gusto allowed me to dive into the second but coming out of the second put a damper on my enjoyment. It took me a really long time, weeks in fact, of picking the book up reading a few pages and setting it down. I am glad however that I did not put the book down because the end sections are quite lovely.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of this book before my stepdaughter mailed it to her sister along with several other books she'd read. I am so glad I was introduced to the Chess Garden--it was wonderful. I'm not going to get into any spoiler details here, but let me say that I am blown away by Brooks Hansen's mind. The creativity that went into this novel is just amazing--it is, after all, a tale heavy on fantasy. But it also qualifies as historical fiction, as a good percentage of the novel is set in turn-of-the-century Europe (Holland and Germany) and South Africa during the Boer Wars. Hansen manages to also create very believable, compelling characters in some clearly impossible situations. This is one of those novels that I didn't want to end. Love, love, love it.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several stories are concurrently told about different times in one man's life. As each portion of his life unfolds, we begin to understand every important stage of his spiritual growth and only then can we appreciate the deeper spiritual meaning of the letters he has written home about his fantastic travels in the Antipodes.

This is among the very best books I have ever read. However, I don't expect that everyone who reads this book will get as much from it as I did, at least not without deep contemplation and possibly some further research into the works of Emanual Swedenborg (a key influence in the spiritual life of Gustav Uyterhoeven).

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical. Magical.

[Wendy Wax · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. I always recommend it and, still, no one I know has read it. It's amazingly abstract, visual, humorous, poignant--read it and let me know what you think.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Chess Garden" by Brooks Hansen showed up for quite awhile in my recommendations at Amazon. Every time I read the description, I grew more and more interested, finally obtaining this trade paperback edition from a trading sit. (The hardcover edition of the book was subtitled "The Twilight Letter of Gustav Uyterhoeven".)

Here is a quick description to help me from Amazon.Com and Publishers Weekly:

... set in 19th-century Dayton, Ohio, in Europe and South Africa during the Boer War and on an imaginary island, the Antipodes. During his journey to the heart of the war, where he has volunteered to serve in a British-run concentration camp for forcibly displaced Boers, Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven sends 12 letters to his wife, Sonja, in Dayton. The letters, fabulist explorations in the manner of Poe, Chesterton and Borges, describe a world where chess pieces, including a queen trapped in a tree, live, die, love, battle and philosophize. Uyterhoeven is a remarkable character, dapper yet heartbroken, civilized, swinging his cane, journeying through sundry marvels with an air of concern and wonder that the reader comes to share. Meanwhile, back in Dayton, the reading of each new letter becomes an event; and, mysteriously, chess pieces mentioned in the letters begin to appear in the Uyterhoevens' garden.

The first thing that grabbed me with this book was Hansen's writing style and prose. I have read very little Poe, and nothing by Chesterton and Borges at the time of reading it (I have since read some of the works of Borges). But from the descriptions I had read of Poe and Borges, Hansen captures them. The character of Dr. Uyterhoeven is also influence greatly by philosopher / scientist / theologist Emmanuel Swedenborg, or at least in his stories in the 12 letters are since he reads Swedenborg's work late in his life. Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with his works, so any influences were lost on me.

Dr. Uyterhoeven is one of the leading pathologists of his time in the middle and late 19th-century. Pathology at the time was a new science. For sections of the book that go into Uyterhoeven's earlier life, there is much philosophy and questions of the direction of the science. He "argues" his beliefs, which differ from others in the field, particularly those of fellow faculty of the school he teaches at in Berlin. Quite frankly all the discussion between the parties was lost on me and made those sections quite boring at times, though it did do a great deal in developing his character, as well as his colleagues who become close friends.

The book seems like two different books at the same time. There are the 12 letters of his journey to find and within the Antipodes, and then the part of the book that is Uyterhoeven's and his wife's life. He writes the letters during his time in South Africa. You find as the book goes on that they are mirroring what he is going through. As one character puts it, he feels useless by just watching over his chess garden in Dayton, so he volunteers to serve. But he knows that his life is drawing to an end. His letters reflect this, though it wasn't easy for me to pick out until these revelations are made.

It is a very deep book. It is a very well written book. For instance, the story of how the chess garden came to be is very late in the book, yet you still get a great sense throughout the whole book of what it meant to the people that the Uyterhoeven's hosted and what it meant to themselves. Unfortunately with some influences that I am not familiar with, and with philosophies and sciences that I am not familiar with, or too terribly interested in, it took some effort to read through many parts of this. His letters are captivating, though sometimes starting slow. I can understand why so many think highly of this book, but at the time I read it, it didn't reach me the way it probably should. This is a book ripe for a re-read ..... someday.

[Jaspreet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I began The Chess Garden or the Twilight Letters of Gustav Uyterhoeven by Brooks Hansen all the way back in May 2010; it was the second selection in the Natick book club I joined. While the member who selected the book was very enthusiastic and excited about the story, I had a very hard time getting into it. At our book club meeting in June, I loved her perspective so much that I was determined to finish the book. It took me almost a year to finish the book. I finally got into the story during my third attempt.

The process of reading the book also tested my commitment to the public libraries of MA, VA, and MD. All of the libraries have a two term renewal limit. I was super slow in reading, so I had a lot of pauses in my reading.

While I questioned my decision to finish the book several times, I am glad that I continued. In the end, I loved learning about the Doctor and his wife. His personal journey and the way he used to stories as a way to cope with the horrors he was witnessing in concentration camp. I liked the way the letters were a way for him to connect with his wife and also to continue the sense of community they had created in Ohio. I even cried a little towards the end of the book.

[Jim Maher · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual novel. It’s a fictional biography, an allegory of ten tales, a spiritual discourse, an end-of-life reflection, and a love story.

To me, it was unutterably sad.

Mind you, it IS well written. The voice is slightly archaic, befitting its setting in the late 19th century. The style is suitably moderate and well-paced for a work that could be presented as a spoken narrative. Quite descriptive prose paints clear images for the reader, but seldom overwhelms the storyline.

Of course, it is the characterization that sparks the emotional content. As a reader, I instantly identified with the protagonist, and found myself increasingly unable to break that binding tie. But I wanted to. The hero’s perspective of remembrance, for me, engendered an uncomfortable melancholy, nearly to the point of regret. His philosophical development seemed too familiar; but here it is articulated, and that is unsettling.

I usually inhale books whole, especially novels. This one was consumed in bite-sized vignettes, over a five week period, chewing just a little at each sitting.

I will never re-read this, but it will live with me daily. I will never forget it.

[refgoddess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my great finds. Part fantasy, part family saga, part history of medicine, part religious awakening (Swedenborg-style), it is a compelling read. The descriptions and stories of the Antipodes Island of Games are fabulous, from the random tumbling of the dice to the lusciously gorgeous candletree, to the discovery of the Goods and the creation of Totem....it's a world that beats Oz for sheer imaginative virtuousity. And the writing is much deeper, of course. I find the representation of Swedenborg's philosophy to be convincingly persuasive, and the sense of time and place is perfect. I learn my history and religion best through fiction, and this is the perfect vehicle. I discovered it on the new book shelf in 1996, and have been re-reading it ever since. I find myself quoting it whenever deep thinking is happening, which is why I've pulled it out yet again. It makes a nice break from Morrison-Reed and Wallis' intense memoirs, but it keeps up a sort of connection with the musing they evoke.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a shining example of how the English language should be used. Reading this book was totally awe-inspiring from a grammatical point of view. The story is quite interesting, as well, in that the main character tells many stories, some of which have their main character telling stories – so there are multiple levels of stories going on all at the same time. I have read other books by this same author, but this is by far his finest.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a little afraid to reread this book after more than a decade, because I had such wonderful memories of my reading experience the first time around. I need not have worried. This book is absolutely remarkable in its emotional and imaginative scope. It is truly one of the best books I have ever read, and a cracking read to boot!

[liza · Rating 5 out of 5]

the whole point of the book didn't hit me until about fifteen seconds after i closed the back cover. this almost never happens to me.

you can read this book and peel away layers like it's an onion.

i am SO going to grow my own chess garden!

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book. It has some sad overtones, but uniquely explains Platonic philosophy using the imaginative land of The Antipodes. Again, all of the interesting characters are pieces from different kinds of chess sets. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[BeesReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I loved this book. It is a novel (though with nice big chunks of 19th century philosophy and science chucked in) about a 19th century Dutch physician (living in Dayton, Ohio). In parts it reads like the biography of a real person (in fact I googled to see if it was!). He and his wife keep an open garden for chess players -
and other board games - which is well used by the locals.
After losing his son sets off for 'the Antipodes'. He goes to South Africa arriving at the time of the Boer War and works in a refugee/concentration camp (the Boers were refugees from the British - I enjoyed finding out some new info about the Boer War which is one of those wars great grandfathers would speak about). He writes a series of letters home - 12 of them - and these are read at communal gatherings in the garden. The letters are fantastical in the way of Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, CS Lewis and perhaps a touch of John of Patmos and the majority of characters are game pieces divided into 'effigies' and 'totems' and particularly very different sets of chessmen, from the Staunton (usual model) to Gwyddbyl - an ancient Welsh board game (though the word now refers to chess). I feel there is also a touch of the 'platonic archetypes' too.
A lovely book. (PS you do NOT need to know how to play chess to enjoy it. It is helpful if you know the names of the different pieces - king, queen, bishops, knights, rooks (castle), pawns.
I read it in 3 days (no facebook :D )
PS I don't think it is REMOTELY like Tolkien despite some reviews. I think they just slap that comment on all sorts of books with a fantastical element.

[Sophie Glazer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lured cunningly into "The Chess Garden" by Brooks Hansen’s deceptively plain narrative about the Dayton flood of 1913; flood victims taking refuge in the attic pass the time reading aloud some playful letters from the Antipodes, whimsically recounting the adventures a local doctor had encountered in his travels. Brooks Hansen’s protagonist is a Swedenborgian, a man committed to the notion that this world is only a precursor to the true world; his chess garden, an edenic retreat for the town’s children, is a heavenly spot, full of games and toys, flowers and fish ponds, frogs, birds, and butterflies, good things to eat and drink and best of all, harmonious good will among the people who gather there. From his antipodean retreat the doctor sends back small tokens of his love: the strange creatures he has met find their way back to his chess garden; an origami knight re-folds himself into a crane, and flies to safety in the garden; a sleeping mariner floats somehow across the ocean, through lakes and rivers, into Dayton, transformed into a tiny effigy of the boy he once was; a diamond, a musket-ball, a tiny ivory statue, a set of dominoes, all present themselves to the children in his garden. As we listen to his tale of surreal adventures, we hear, beneath the antic masquerade, the true, heartbreaking narrative of his losses and suffering, the necessary minor notes in the lovely harmonies of his garden.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is very thought-provoking. Some chapters deal with the lives of the main characters, Gustaf and Sonia Uyterhoeven, Europeans who live at the end of the 19th Century and eventually emigrate to Dayton, Ohio. The garden of the title is their garden in Dayton, where townspeople are welcome to visit and play chess and other games. The other chapters are comprised of fairy tale-lime letters that Gustaf sends to Sonia while helping in the refugee camps resulting from the Boer War in South Africa, which Sonia reads to visitors to the garden. All of the chapters are instructive about the good and bad ways in which people treat each other, individually, nationally, and internationally. I will be thinking about the themes and lessons of this novel for a long time.

[Andrew Heilman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written fantasy, but I found the "real" life part about his wife and his introduction to Swedenborg the best part of the book. At times I could not follow the meaning of the fantasy, and only once did he misread Swedenborg. In the fantasy part, the concept of use and what is good was well illustrated. He showed in the fantasy part that what is good and useful is also eternal. I also appreciated the way he worked the story by John Bigelow into the book. I am happy my brother recommended the book to me.

[Te-ge Bramhall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I've read several incredible books this year, and this one might be my favorite of all. "The Chess Garden" is like a story within a story (and sometimes it goes even deeper than that). The "letters" could easily be read to children (and in the book, they are written to be shared with children and adults both), while the backstory is incredibly detailed...to the point that I looked up Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven to see if he was a real person.

I'm looking forward to rereading this one.

[Mark Mehochko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a good read. The parts that worked, worked well. The various settings particularly caught my interest. Seeing how a person’s life shapes their work is something I’ve always been fascinated by. The parts that didn’t work were generally fine rather than bad. The philosophical theory at its heart didn’t resonate much with me, but that doesn’t mean it won’t resonate with other readers. 3.5/5 Stars

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tell people that this is my favorite book. It is a fantasy story, a vignette from the history of science, and a study in the two-sided coin of love/loss. It always gives me something new. This is a rich book, written with skill, by a writer who knows humanity in its wonder and foible. This book is a gift.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, thoughtful story of the power of storytelling to create the realities we might wish. Soft intro to the mystical reform movement begun by Emanuel Swedenborg in Sweden - writings that inspired the American Transcendalists of the 1830s and 1840s. Really fun and compelling narrative.

[Steven W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not get into it...

[Adrienne Classen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adore this book!

[Michael Tigges · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to push through. sparks and flashes of brilliance, ground to dust