Somebody gave me this book around eleven when I started riding. I didn't read the lock aches then what I do now and after coming across this. I want to get my hands-on that book because writing is a big part of my life. Hi all this wonder what it was about
Very strange narrative - McGregor is so skilled at this gestural, almost throwaway style that looks deceptively simple. I know this part of the world well - the claustrophobic villages, the towering hills and the silent reservoirs - he’s has completely nailed it. Thanks for posting
Koestler's 'The Act of Creation' is one of my all time favourite book, cognitive science just recently has caught up with his mind but not with the beauty of his writing! The sleepwalkers is on my reading list, what a joy it must be to read it and follow Koestler in his journey through time / space and the universe of human ideas since antiquity!
That's interesting. As well as Sleepwalkers and Act of Creation, he wrote The Ghost in the Machine as part of a loosely formed trilogy and I found that one the most impressive of the three (with lots of cognitive science in it).
@@andychristophermiller951 Will check it out to see where he went beyond 'Act of Creation' there, I think he wrote Ghost in the Machine a couple of years after 'Act of Creation'. I really enjoyed 'The Way We Think' by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner. Two cognitive linguists embarking on a journey to decode the patterns of human creativity and imagination. They went well beyond Koestler's 'bisociation' with their idea of conceptual blending networks. A masterwork imo! :-)
Interesting, I've regularly read Toynbee in the Guardian without knowing about her background. Did she write about what she gained from working in low paid jobs?
Yes, she did. I think she is repeating some of what she had written before but also goes back to where she worked originally and comments on what has changed.
Excellent review of a favorite book of mine, read decades ago. Thank you. You reminded me of all the reasons I loved and was imprinted by this book. His Kepler was especially touching and memorable. Now I have to read it again.
Thanks so much for this review. Much appreciated. I've just begun the book. Brilliant so far. The writing and the characters and the history. And the story of the authors life and the repression of this novel so moving.
I found your channel some days ago after I read this book and wanted to see some discourse on the internet (your video is one of few I could find here on youtube). I really enjoy your reviews and find your way of speaking really endearing. Thank you for this sweet internet corner, book grandpa!
Yes, a worthy read. A friend started Life and Fate and told me about it, so I bought a copy. It took a couple weeks to finish. There are segments I re-read again and again - I have those pages marked. A masterpiece.
Met Ted in Cartagena Colombia during his 2nd RTW ride, and he stayed in my apartment. He was kind enough to come to the school where I taught and give a talk. He is exactly as you describe. And having ridden a few years around South America myself, he and all the other people who ventured to foreign lands without the luxury of GPS deserve a lot of respect.
Thank you so much for this, I saw something on "X" Twitter with the russian war in ukraine, someone who posts commented about this maybe they were russian, anyway I was drawn to it somehow it called to me. I'm starting to read it and I believe it's a wonder first hand account of horror of all sides and regimes war and politics. Thank you!
Just finished the book and really appreciate your review. It was challenging and it also took me around 3-4 months to finish. Beautiful prose, vast expanse of human emotions and experience, and a striking examination of the dangers of both Nazism and Soviet Communism under Stalin. It's the most moving book I've ever read.
I loved this book and listening to your review was a pleasureable reminder. Having come late to the party as it were, I didn't have to wait years for the sequel, 'Olive Again!' as it had already been published. Just been watching the TV miniseries on RU-vid which is also excellent, except that Frances Mcdormand is not a large woman and in my mind, that was a big (!) part of who Olive is. In every other way, though, she is excellent as Olive.
I love it and have read it many times. I hope to get to meet Ted sometime, and maybe like you share a bottle of wine. Many thanks and best wishes. Gérard lacey in Ireland.
I read this book many years ago, though I was in my mid twenties at least when I did so. I also read the dramatic version which did very well. Ditto Tobacco Road. I never felt the characters were to be admired, but I found it, as you might find a little oasis in a desert, delightful, but very strange. It blooms with strange flowers. As such it has a beauty that you would reject if written large. I think Steinbeck's world view hard to accept in Grapes of Wrath, but in these short little slices of life in Bohemia quite entrancing. I liked that quote from the book. What we believe in and what actually goes on in society are quite different. Children are told never to lie and always tell the truth. In home and school children will be punished more harshly for denying they did something than they would be if they admitted their guilt. Try that in a court room. Our system rewards liars and cheaters quite often, and frequently punishes those who naively think that they are still in school and will be punished more lightly when they tell the truth. Nice review.
I recently discovered your channel. It's been quite a while since you posted this, but it interests me because I adapted this novel into a play. I was pleased that you noted right up front that Raskolnikov killed 2 people, the nasty old pawnbroker or money lender and her sister who was retarded and dependent on her. The book starts out that way but soon the sister is almost totally forgotten and ignored by just about everybody and the discussion focuses on Raskolnikov's defense of himself which never seems to include the sister. Dostoevsky is intent on proving to his own satisfaction that Raskolnikov's conviction that he is a superior person entitles him to commit crimes of this sort with impunity. It's Dostoevsky's way of attacking the Russian intelligentsia and trying to blame it for crimes that are certainly not unique to atheists and freethinkers, since religious people have been around a long time and committing crimes with about the same frequency as freethinkers do. But as I recall no one seems to care about the poor retarded sister and she drops out of the argument almost immediately. Because I had a severely retarded daughter I really find that hard to swallow. And since neither Dostoevsky nor Raskolnikov make much of it, I think they just don't think she matters. But real Christians would not agree because all souls are equal before God. It reminds me a bit of Madame Bovary. When the novel is discussed no one ever mentions the fact she is in fact a mother. It's like the kid doesn't exist. A whole dimension is lost or ignored.
Thanks for taking the time to add such a detailed and considered comment. I think you are quite right in that the sister’s murder is barely mentioned as the novel goes on and the moral implications of this not considered to any extent.
Thank you for this review. Read Darkness at Noon last year. Now I have picked up Dialogue with Death. Mr Koestler had a varied life. Would like to read more of him. Anyway again thank you for this posting. The most intelligent thing have run across on YT in months.
Well done and thanks. We need Grossman today, just as we need Orwell and Borowski and Shalamov and Arendt and Mann and Douglass and Le Guin, etc. I hope I can clear out three months of my life (and fate!) to jump into this novel! I’m a slow reader too, by choice, more or less. Speed reading is overrated!
thank you very much indeed for your brilliant review...The heart of the matter has been my favourite book for a couple of years now....I can also whole heartedly recommen "Travels with my aunt" which is one of his more humorous works but it still contains key themes like family and finding oneselfe even in old age
I really enjoyed The Ghost in the Machine which I also read a very long time ago. For ages afterwards I thought it was the most profound book I had ever read and I did mean to revisit it and maybe do a review on here.
@@andychristophermiller951 i’ve read it now and wasn’t disappointed. Bit of a slog in places but overall a very fascinating and rigorous book about human function and evolution etc. I’d be interested in any review that you do. Cheers.
