Silk

Rating:
Summary: Heartbreak and Voluptuous Pleasures
Review: Alessandro Baricco isn't a prolific writer, but what he does produce is perfect. "Silk" is one very good example. In "Silk," what is not written is far more powerful than what is and, despite this book's slim size, it contains a very complex plot.

The story in "Silk" revolves around Herve Joncour, a 19th century French silk merchant and his quest to find new silkworm eggs in faraway Japan. On the first of many visits to Japan, Joncour encounters a beautiful woman, a woman to whom he never speaks and will never know, but with whom he falls hopelessly in love, despite his faithful wife who waits for him in France.

"Silk" is a book about the struggle of daily life, the struggle to survive, the interior struggle to do what is morally right, yet the style of the book is extraordinarily elegant, enigmatic and very, very deliberate. The silence of "Silk" simply "is." We are never privy to Joncour's desire for the woman in Japan, a woman with a curious Western face, but we know it's there. In the same vein, Baricco never tells us of Joncour's wife's knowledge of her husband's longing, his secret desires, his feeling for the woman in Japan as well as his feelings for her. I think mature readers will derive the most from "Silk" for this is a book that is highly individualized; much depends greatly on a reader's intuitive understanding of human nature and all its nuances and the more life experience a reader has, the more he or she will understand what Joncour and his wife understand.

What is really amazing is how much plot Baricco manages to pack into this beautiful, quiet, slim, little book. We learn about 19th century travel with all its pleasures and its perils; we learn about the dependence of a small French village on a small Japanese one; we learn about the secret longings of the heart that can never be fulfilled; and we learn about the communication that can exist between a man and wife, a communication born of many years of marriage and one that needs no words.

The two storylines, the one of Joncour as he travels to Japan and the one of Joncour who lives in blissful domesticity with his wife, Helene, eventually meet in an enigmatic letter written entirely in Japanese. Joncour, of course, cannot read it, and he thinks it looks "like a catalogue of the footprints of little birds, fantastically meticulous in its compilation." This letter, which proves to be a tiny masterpiece, is the key to the enigma of Joncour, Helene, and the mysterious woman in Japan.

When we finally realize what has been going on, when the mystery of the letter is finally solved and both we and Joncour know what it says and who sent it, we have to ask ourselves: Whose love was greater, Joncour's or Helene's?

"Silk" is a beautiful book, one of the most beautiful I have ever read, but it is also heartbreaking. Still, this story is worth every tear that we may shed over its telling and, in the end, we must ask ourselves if love is worth the voluptuous pleasure we attach to it or is it simply, in the end, something that will break our heart time and time again.

Rating:
Summary: light flowing poetry in motion
Review: As most other readers seemed to have done, I read this book in about one hour, and it was a pure delight. A tale well told, and the rhythm of the text is indeed like poetry. Or a piece of music with a repeated cadence like a train on rails, indicating at the same time the broad rhythm of ongoing life and the uniqueness of events. I loved the dry and sparse style, e.g. of the recurrent travel description going from France to Japan or vice-versa in one paragraph, the unexpectedly broken or repeated sentences. The story is like a watercolor with some stark ink strokes (very Japanese and Zen, of course) which makes the driving force of human love and will come out all the more powerfully. A short, romantic and elegant tale of love and commitment, light sensuality (what fabric is more sensual that silk?) and an eroticism slowly throbbing under the tale like lava. Pleasure to read, and it makes a very good gift, too.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed....
Review: Having finished _Ocean Sea_ shortly before reading _Silk_, I was hoping it would be as well written and poetic. Perhaps it was the use of a different translator that failed to reflect the beauty of the original writing. It might have been that the story was not as intriguing. In any case, if you're looking for a repeat of the sensual, luscious writing from _Ocean Sea_, I would not recommend this read.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I am not sure why i liked it, but i did. I read it in an 11 hour strecth in an airplane. It is an excellent book of an old story told in a new way.

Rating:
Summary: A STORY IS LIKE THE WIND..
Review: I believe it is a proverb of the African bushmen, "A story is like the wind, it comes from a far-off quarter, and we feel it."

Those words were invented to describe this stirring gem from Baricco.

His prose feels much like a light autumn breeze, soft yet wondrously mermerizing. With ballad-like refrains and sublime descriptions of the harmonious way of Japanese life, we are drawn into an evocative portrait of what it means to be human, at our most elemental, and the effect is awesome.

The hypnotic curiosity of a distant unrequited love leads the novel to its stark and tempestuos end, which lingers in your mind long after you've turned the last page in bewilderment.

I have never read such an effortlessly haunting saga of compassion, obsession, intrigue. Kudos to the translator for retaining Baricco's original Italian delicacy.

It takes about 2 hours to journey between the novel's shores, but I bet you'll take the voyage more than once.

Rating:
Summary: A book with the guile and beauty of Silk
Review: I have read the first chapter of this book in used book stores several times, but I am stuck in Saudi Arabia and found it in a small libary here. As I read it I got very hooked.

The story is about a man traveling around the world looking for silk worm eggs. At first the fates seem to drag the man from place to place year after year. But when he finds a forbidden woman in Japan he takes charge of his fate.

There are two letters which are translated to the man which change his life. Each one changes his direction when it seems unchangable.

The use of repitition of his journey is exciting because every trip the man has changed and the same journey does not lead to the same place or time ever again.

The best short read in years. A great one day book. The language and the story are beautiful excellent translation.

EJB

Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: I was simply overwhelmed after having read this book, which was a very pleasant and challenging introduction into Alessandro Baricco's world.
This is more than a book, it is a soft touch which tells you the beautiful story of nostalgia for a love that can never be lived.

It will not take you more than one hour to read it, but it will be one hour full of peace, in which you will discover the mistery of a life, of a country, of sensual love, of an illusion.

Baricco is very poetical and his simple and delicate manner of story telling, which flows like a river, is what makes the book great. The beauty comes also from the understated sensuality and passion that derives from the plot, as well as from the "silence" that this book gives off. You can feel there is no need for too many words - too much has already been told.

The whole story is written with a soft pen, as if instead of ink, the writer used silk. This is perfect to create the a subtle and exotic atmosphere. In only 100 pages one can find out about Herve Joncourt and his life, his wife, his business partners, his travels to Japan, the imposibility to fight and win his love and touch his dream.

I don't want to say too much about Silk, as I would like you to convince yourselves that it is just breathtaking.

Rating:
Summary: Silk
Review: In 1861, an epidemic swept Europe. Silkworms, formerly a source of great wealth, were diseased, the eggs rotten, and nobody knew why. Lesser quality eggs were to be found in the Middle East, or - with great danger - in China. But the greatest eggs were to be found in Japan, a country all but isolated from the world, voluntarily secluding itself from everyone and everything. Recently, a small port has been opened by the government, for very limited trading. Silkworm eggs are not allowed. Herve Joncour has been commissioned to travel from France to Japan, a three-month long expedition, to smuggle eggs from Hara Kei, a famous - infamous - smuggler, thief and warlord. In Japan, he falls in love with a girl whose eyes are not slanted.

Baricco's novella is a beautifully written piece, dripping with magic and charm. Sentences are short, sharp and insightful, yet they focus upon events and descriptions that would not normally warrant a mention. We never learn the colour of Joncour's hair, or how tall he is, yet we are told the colour of the handkerchief he wears in his suit. There is a strain of magic realism running through the novel. One character, with no reason given, stops speaking. Baldabiou, the man who introduced the Japanese silkworms into France, speaks with the wisdom of the world, unable to communicate in the mundane way of ordinary people. 1861 is `the year Flaubert was completing Salammbo, electric light remained hypothetical, and Abraham Lincoln, beyond the Ocean, was fighting a war of which he was not to see the finish'. By using short sentences, Baricco is able to make grand statements, quiet pronouncements and immensely small insights into people and places. It is an interesting technique, and one that is used to great affect. Joncour's wife is described as, `She was a tall woman, she moved slowly, she had long black hair that she never put up. She had a most beautiful voice.' That is what we learn of her early on in the novel, that is how she stays: elegant, soft, feminine.

When Joncour is in Japan, the novel's language becomes more flowery, the sentences longer and with greater detail. Perhaps this is because Joncour is familiar with his own land, yet an alien to this new country, so the narrator needs to be more descriptive. As the years pass, he becomes more familiar with Hara Kei and his township, and the lavish details decrease and slow until they are no more. There is a young girl, nameless, voiceless, and captivated with the Frenchman. They avoid eye contact one year, then share glances the next. A note is passed, then another. The courtship is long, ultimately fruitless, and achingly beautiful. Whole pages - of a 100 page novel - are devoted to her grace, her physiognomy, her manner. When he first sets eyes upon her, the narrative becomes disjointed, as though the narrator - and Joncour - is too shocked by this beauty for coherency. There is a passage, a dense, long paragraph with description and internalised thought, but then:

Suddenly,
Without the smallest movement,
That young girl,
Opened her eyes.

The narrative resumes, but Joncour is shaken. Love blossoms, for both, instantly.

There are other characters, mostly in France. There are to be considered more as aspects of the story than real characters. They exist to help clarify - or obscure - the mysteries of Japan and the nameless girl. The nine months when Joncour is home in France are covered in a page, the week in Japan laid out in detail. His life revolves around his trip, as does the narrative. The affect is nothing short of amazing.

The ending is both sad and lovely at the same time, and not to be lessened by the description of `bittersweet'. The magic remains until the very last page, and stays once the book has been closed. For Joncour, and the other Frenchmen, Japan is a mystery, an enigma, a riddle. For the novel, it is the same: something to be described with loving detail for its wonders, but never to be understood.

Rating:
Summary: Hapiness is a flight of exotic birds.
Review: Other reviewers have said it much better than I. I only want to cast my vote and tell anyone considering the book to buy it now. It is beautiful and heartbreaking.

Rating:
Summary: A nice enough short story
Review: People have called this a "fairy tale for adults." However, the main separation between this and "fairy tales for children" is some rather explicit (although well written) sexual scenes. If Prince Charming awoke Sleeping Beauty by lifting up her skirt, that would be a fairy tale for adults, too...

In other words, this is a nice enough short story that is sweet and charming and fun to read, but not exactly complex. Don't read it thinking its a novel. With wide margins and plenty of chapters that are 1/2 page (or less in length) the publishers manage to get it to almost 100 pages, but its still a short story. Maybe Baricco just didn't have any other short stories to include in the volume. Maybe the publishers wanted to make a buck.

Take a look at Baricco's Ocean Sea. Its a much more challenging, much more complex, and is a great book.

Better yet, consider picking up a volume of Italo Calvino's stories instead. They have the same historical grounding and modern Italian style, are just as clever, just as reminiscent of fairy tales, and you get a lot more for your dollar (or lira.)