ManBookering discussion

A discussion thread for Mathias Enard's Compass.

Anya wrote: ""Boussole” (aka "Compass") had been one of my top reads last year, and (in my opinion), a very deserving Prix Goncourt winner. I can happily say that “Boussole” certainly holds up to a second readi..."

Sounds great! I am starting this today and looking forward to it after reading your comments.

Problem! I was really looking forward to this. I got a third of the way through, but I gave up. Sorry, but just not my thing.

I'm 1/4 of the way through and I really like the writing. It's really calm and reads more like a series of connected short stories, given how disconnected they seem.
It's a book that I think would be more appreciated when given some time, so I'm putting it down for the time being, although I absolutely intend to pick it back up later in the year - hopefully during the ManBooker period still!

Hi Michelle - it's very interesting seeing different people's reactions. For you it is "really calm" but for me it got me more and more agitated until I finally gave up.

I'm going to have another go if (as expected) it makes the short list, but I really didn't get on with the writing style.

The prose at time was so thoughtful that I stopped several times to contemplate on the deeper meaning: In the opening paragraph "We are two opium smokers each in his own cloud, seeing nothing outside, alone, never understanding each other we smoke, faces agonizing in a mirror, we are a frozen image to which time gives the illusion of movement, a snow crystal gliding over a ball of frost, the complexity of whose intertwinings no one can see, I am that drop of water condensed on the window of my living room, a rolling liquid pearl that knows nothing of the vapour that engendered it, nor of the atoms that still compose it but that, soon, will serve other molecules, other bodies, the clouds weighing heavy over Vienna tonight: over whose nape will this water stream, against what skin, on what pavement, towards what river, and this indistinct face on the glass is mine only for an instant, one of the millions of possible configurations of illusion – look, Herr Gruber is walking his dog despite the drizzle". But unfortunately it didn't work for me. The writing was disjointed, I did not care about the characters or the plot. I read a lot (200 books a year) and have become a better reader and know if I truly worked at it I could find more redemption but too many books and not enough time,