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To A God Unknown (2011)

To a God Unknown (2011)

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Rating
3.92 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0141185503 (ISBN13: 9780141185507)
Language
English
Publisher
penguin classics

About book To A God Unknown (2011)

Цялото ревю е в "Аз чета"Една земя – величествена, плодородна, твоя.Една заблуда – че можеш да управляваш природата, че можеш да подчиниш събитията, че си господар и бог…че си недосегаем.Трагедия, разтърсваща съзнанието. Красиво тъжна история за света, който мислим, че създаваме, а всъщност нямаме власт да управляваме. Един класически Стайнбек, докосващ сърцето и същевременно даващ съкрушаващо усещане за реалност.“Към един незнаен бог” е история за човека, осмелил се да превърне земята в център на своето съществуване. Но не, защото Джоузеф (главният герой) е алчен за земя, както пише в анотацията на задната корица на книгата. Той просто поставя в култ зависимостта си от земята. Вярва в нея, сякаш той самият е неин творец, боготвори я, нарушавайки връзките си с околните, притъпявайки сетивата си, изменяйки на вярата си. Превърща я в духовен център на целия свят… на своя живот.Непрестанният устрем към “незнайния бог” въплътен в земята, загърбването на предупрежденията, водят постепенно до загубата на всичко ценно, на всичко истинско. А това неизменно поражда и неговата трагедия. Книгата е изпъстрена със завладяващи картини на природни бедствия, на разрушени човешки съдби, картини на истинския живот… събужда усещания, провокира предчувствия…Краят на творбата е силен, разтърсващ – едновременно изненадващ и очакван, болезнено заключение за трагичната предопределеност на човека. “Понякога, Джоузеф, любовта за хората е силна и топла като мъката.” Тези думи на една от героините в романа описват и най-точно чувството, което изпитваш след прочитането му – едновременно болка и романтична безпомощност. И отново красота…иронията на живота. Богът, макар и незнаен, отново е по-силен, човекът е само прашинка – уязвим, малък, загубен в собствената си вяра, че може да контролира живота, света, природата... [продължава]

Wow. An arresting and achingly beautiful vision of the power of faith.Steinbeck is known for being obvious to the point of annoyance with his themes. Here, it is the story itself that lets you sink beneath the message to catch the greater tragedy that unfolds.The story is straightforward and appears at first glance like a standard Steinbeckian fable. A father in Vermont passes his blessing to one of his four sons, Joseph, who is leaving for California.In California, Joseph settles in a valley near a large tree that is situated in the best spot for overlooking the land. He builds a home, settles in and is so prosperous that he invites his family to join him.He gets married builds a life and is fine until he becomes a father. One of his brothers suspects Joseph of pagan worship and kills the tree that Joseph has cared for lest Joseph offer up his own son as an offering to the land.Soon, drought hits and Joseph orders his family to leave him as he watches the land die. Atonements must be made and Joseph knows what needs to be done.The brilliance in this work is how Steinbeck weaves Christianity, Greek myths, pagan rituals and simple superstition into a quite complex tale that his simple language masks only to remorselessly hit you with a deep point that is so precise that you have no room to move. As a reader, you have to deal right then and there with what the author has done.The ancient Greeks felt that the act of farming was an act of worship because you were interacting with the gods and had to show respect to them in their realm so you could prosper in yours. Christianity holds that belief is enough; acts are secondary because, like the Confucians, the right actions will lead to the right life. Steinbeck, in this work, holds that people will do what they feel needs to be done irrespective of where it came from so long as it works.This was Steinbeck’s second novella (published in 1933) and the longest one to produce (he spent five years working on it). The characters are just a step above flat, their interactions staged, and the religious references aren’t that tight. But the ideas behind them are a constant in his work and here they are on display in a tour de force that set me back on the couch to plow through.This is a book that should be re-read at different stages in life to see what new ideas can be gotten because they stick to you. The characters don’t but their situations and what they represent will.In parts, I was reminded of Garcia Marquez and Calvino in their ability to conjure up the fantastic mystery that fuels our livesThe quest for man’s place in the universe gets mystical here and to see Steinbeck take this on before “The Grapes of Wrath,” that is to venture into the shadows of the soul before tacking the world as it is in a very matter-of-fact fashion, shows a writer who is, first and foremost, a seeker. Just like the rest of us.

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Its ambiguity, a novel written in ode to an unknown god, is what originally drew me to the book. Seeing that Steinbeck's latter works tended to be pretty biographical, I got the book, curious to see whether it gave any insight into how Steinbeck viewed religion or his faith. It was surprising to realize that the book is not so much intended to be a coherent story that spawns reader admiration, but rather, as Steinbeck himself put it, a complex mesh of his ideas and musings about life, death, and destiny that doesn't quite get resolved or answered through the course of the story.There is an inherent quest for a supreme being--a crutch to rely on when things fall through--and the divergent beliefs of the characters portrayed in the novel show this, from vapid and stolid Christianity to a webbing of pantheistic nature worship, tribal superstition and Catholicism. Unlike Steinbeck's later works, the story is heavily surrealistic and relies on the mystical; it attempts to fluidly coexist with reality but fails to do so, and thus, the dichotomy fails and leaves the whole story hanging in some sort of uncomfortable limbo. An interesting read nonetheless.Without giving everything away, a cryptic anthropomorphism (in my opinion never explained or developed) was central to the plot, of man inhabiting the spirit of nature. In a somewhat puzzling but satisfying ending, the clock ticks backwards, and drawing from paganism (the symbolic rock) and ritual ceremony (blood), man proves that he is indeed nature itself. Or does he?Here, I think, is up to the interpretation of the reader. One could view the final sacrifice as enough to undo all wrongs, but the finals words of the priest hint otherwise. While drawing admiration from the townsfolk for his wisdom, the text shows that he is still as confused and emotionally inexperienced as any child. I believe that Steinbeck hints at a more cynical and darker interpretation of man's destiny. As much as men wish, pray, and search, he ultimately has no control over the course of nature. The humans cry, but the sun laughs on. And when the "spirits" of nature crumble to ash, the unknown god that governs all still refuses to reveal itself.
—Hosanna

Steinbeck wrote a number of California novels. The early ones feature lyrical descriptive prose of the land, whether of the Salinas Valley or the Pacific Coast. Clearly Steinbeck loved the area, had a real passion for the valleys, the vegetation, the animals and the people who lived there. But while almost all of his other California novels that focused on the land and the people who lived on it were gently affectionate, To A God Unknown is a very different bird. The title is taken from an adaptation of a hymn to the god Prajapati from the Hindu Rig-Veda. And while the hymn is innocuous enough, it really is a foreshadowing of what is to come.[return][return]Steinbeck used his initial chapters and prefaces to set the emotional mood of his works. In To A God Unknown, practically from the first chapter, the mood is one of a foreboding, as Joseph Wayne takes leave of his father who blesses him in a vaguely described but clearly unusual way, deliberately meant, I m sure, to evoke Hebrew Testament patriarchs. From there on, the mood just intensifies, as Wayne finds land that is his so much so that there is a passage that can easily be interpreted as his copulation with the earth.[return][return]From old-timers, Indian/Hispanic residents of the valley, Joseph learns of years when there was a terrible drought when the land died and the cattle died and the people left. But Wayne is convinced that it will never happen again to his land. There is an old oak on the land, underneath which Wayne builds his house. One day, he feels a presence in the oak, and is convinced that somehow his father is there. He receives a letter from his brothers telling of the passing of the old man and how at the end there was nothing more the father wanted than to see John s new land. The brothers, two of whom are married, come out to join Joseph in California, buy adjacent land, and jointly farm. One brother, Burton, is a fundamentalist Christian, and in his religious fanaticism lie the seeds of the outcome of this story.[return][return]The years pass Joseph takes a wife, Elizabeth the farms prosper but still there is no relief from the absolute certainty that disaster is ahead, that some appalling calamity awaits. Partially, Steinbeck achieves this in his dialogue, which seems perfectly natural to the characters but is off somehow not right, strange. [return][return]The tension becomes practically unbearable; the catastrophe strikes. And the resolution is both inevitable, satisfying, and unsettling at the same time.[return][return]I did not find To A God Unknown an easy read on the contrary, I had to put it down for a while because I just could not bear what I knew was coming. This is one of Steinbeck s most powerful and disturbing works, and will throw off those who are used to his more affectionate books such as Tortilla Flat. Yet it is an outstanding example of how mood can be determined and sustained by great writing.
—Joyce Lagow

John Steinbeck leaves such a legacy of literature inclding his classics "Grapes of Wrath", "Of Mice of Men" and "Cain and Abel" that it seems impossible that I missed one of his books. And, yet, I did. This third novel is a strong, early work of a man whose talent would only become stronger. Along with fellow Nobel Prize winners, Faulkner and Hemingway, he valued the creative process of literary writing.Although, I am quite familiar with the Salinas area, this book has special meaning for me. The basis of this story happened in Mendocino County where I live and he reset into the Central Valley of Calif. This is a love story of the land. Joseph Wayne loves his land above all else. He is aware of everything that happens on his land and it matters to him. He has an old Oak tree on his property that he starts to believe holds his father's spirit. He practices a form of paganism that creates barriers between him and others. One of his brother's, in order to save Joseph's soul, kills the tree and the land turns against him. It's a very thoughtful book on beliefs and a search for a soul.
—Susan Johnson

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