Thread: Literary Silk by Alessandro Baricco
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Old 04-09-2015, 11:27 AM   #12
BelleZora
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I also liked the repetition of the voyage. I'm not sure I would have appreciated it nearly as much had I not interspersed my reading of Silk with a couple of chapters from The Iliad. When I returned to Silk, the cadence and repetitions felt like an echo. Had I been reading The Odyssey I wonder if the sense of déjà vu would have been even stronger.

There is a lot to think about in this short novel beyond pondering any relationship to Homer, and I'm early in the process. Hervé Joncour's obsessive attachment to a woman he doesn't even know, and who is therefore not herself in his mind, but his own fantasy, is tragic and only too human. His great passion was hopeless on so many levels. It led him to an imaginary life lived somewhere other than where Hervé Joncour's body actually resided.

Hélène appears to be a minor character until the end. But enough said about that until everyone has a chance to read Silk. Lots of good material for discussion here.

I liked this book a lot because it is clearly a parable in which the meaning, or lesson, can only be grasped by implication, through the story itself. It is likely to stay in my head until I get it all sorted. What about the poor hung boy who took Hervé Joncour to find the mistress of Hari Kai? Then there is the powerful symbolism of silkworms which I haven't got worked out yet, but surely has to do with metamorphosis.

We got it right in choosing this book for the literary book club.
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