Jostein Gaarder builds wonderful worlds where magic meets mystical and the philosophical. But this isn't the fantastic part. The fantastic comes in when you realize how well this world fits in with our own. When one character's exposure to all manner of fantastic sights and tastes leads to, I sat thinking how terribly sad it was that people are made in such a way that they get used to something as incredible as living, you know that Gaarder is absolutely trying to teach you about a little bit more than the possibility of fate and destiny.

Gaardner weaves together an incredibly clever tale. This is at first a story of a father and son on a journey together in search of the mother that left them years earlier. Along the way, they take a detour and young Hans Thomas comes into possession of a magnifying glass and a tiny book where the story within a story starts. Within the pages of this tiny book, a tale of fate, the Solitaire Mystery and Hans Thomas's destiny await. Shades of Gaardner's better-known Sophie's World are all over this book, but this story is far more accessible. ( )

Absolutly magical! ( )

This novel, which was published in Norway before "Sophie's World", is another offbeat, delightful ontology masquerading as an ingeniously constructed fairy tale. It tells the story of the 12-year-old Hans Thomas, who is driving with his father from Norway to Greece in a quest to retrieve his errant mother.

I was captivated by the twin storyline of Hans Thomas who left Norway with his philosophical father in search of his mother who had "went out into the world to find herself"; and that of Baker Hans, Albert Klages whose mother died when he was a child, Ludwig the German soldier and Frode who found himself stranded on an island with nothing but a pack of cards for company. This is a story-within-a-story in which fantasy and reality, the past and present, are brilliant mixed. Encapsulated is the advice that we should all try to be "jokers" in order to appreciate what is in front of us. "A joker is a little fool who is different from everyone else. He's not a club, diamond, heart, or spade. He's not an eight or a nine, a king or a jack. He is an outsider. He is placed in the same pack as the other cards, but he doesn't belong there. Therefore, he can be removed without anybody missing him."

Very few books make one want to sit down and re-read them all through again after the first reading, but this is one of them. It is deceptively simple, yet the ideas are so striking that you can't work out why nobody ever pointed them out before. As the story progresses, the themes of the essence of being, of God's role in the world, destiny and the joy of being alive or of the beauty of the world resonate in both stories. "Our lives are part of a unique adventure. Nevertheless, most of us think that the world is 'normal' and are constantly hunting for something abnormal. But that is just because we don't realise the world is a mystery. As for myself, I felt completely different. I saw the world as an amazing dream. I was hunting for some kind of explanation of how everything fitted together."

Gaarder, a former philosophy teacher in Norway, concentrates on these aspects of philosophy, using both stories to illustrate his themes and intrigue his reader. At one point -- during their visit to Athens -- I was reminded of a theme utilized by a lot of authors (e.g. Gaiman) to explain the intertwining of religion and the passing of time: "But in a way they were in the world, as long as people believed in them. People see what they believe - the world didn't grow old or frayed at the edges until people started to doubt."

Once you've read it you'll wonder why you never read it before. A classic plot, yet such a very new one. Simple yet incredibly complex, yet an intelligent child could understand it. "It's because the world has become a habit. Nobody would believe in the world if they hadn't spent years getting used to it. We have seen everything so many times before that we take reality for granted." A novel of ideas that is coherent and striking and memorable.

Book Details:

Title The Solitaire Mystery
Author Jostein Gaarder
Reviewed By Purplycookie ( )

Eines meiner absoluten Lieblingsbücher! ( )

I found this book frustrating at first, but as I started understanding the dual story line it became much more interesting. Hans Thomas, 12 years old, is on a trip with his father to find his mother in Greece. He is part of a much larger scheme, which unfolds as the book progresses. The numbers and 'coincidences' associated with a deck of cards, jokers, goldfish, and Rainbow Soda, are all enchanting.

The philosophy is easy to swallow and the book is very creative and thought provoking. ( )