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Title: The Alchymist's Journal
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Manufacturer: North Point Pr
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $1.49
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| Customer Reviews: |
| The Alchymist's Journal by North Point Pr brilliant | | This is a short, challenging, brilliant book. It's not a traditional novel in the sense that it lacks a discernible plot. It is, rather, a series of journal entries each written by a different imagined character. The characters are developed only through the words they use in their journals. The characters are distinct personalities, what they have in common is that they are all practitioners of alchemy, or alchemical medicine, and as such, have world views quite different from that of any (well, most, at any rate) modern readers. Connell's writing perfectly captures the tone and spirit of arcane writings from the Renaissance and early modern period. Perhaps it helps to have studied the works of real historical alchemists to fully appreciate the feat of mimicry that Connell has achieved here. That he has crafted several distinct voices and characters in this fashion is nothing short of amazing. | | The Alchymist's Journal by North Point Pr alchymists journal not for all | | 3/4 through this i still periodically wanted to throw it at the wall. The author practices the mystification of old alchemists and contemporary language artists. While sometimes it seems to be a word salad gleaned from six obscure thesauruses, he really does unfold the world view of pre-scientific thought from superstition through rudimentary experiment to mysticism. Its Ken Wilbur's evolution of consciousness in antifiction form. Alchemy is not a material science; it is a qualitative knowledge all but lost to our time. In the tone of ecco and borges but more challenging. It wouldn't hurt to read a few histories of alchemy and medieval northern europe first. Check out What IS Painting for a much more accessible treatment. | | The Alchymist's Journal by North Point Pr Best left Out-of-Print! | | The Alchymist's Journal, by Evan S. Connell, according to the inside cover is a fictional tour de force of rich historical re-creation and spectacular prose. A love for historical fiction, the description on the sleeve, and all of the great reviews on the back of the book convinced me to purchase this book. I need not have bothered. I found this book to be unreadable. This book was most definitely not a rich historical re-creation. There was absolutely no historical atmosphere in this book. This alone would not make the book so terrible. I have read other historical novels that did not have a good medieval feel and still liked them. However, Connell seems to have gone out of his way to make this a hard to read book. The prose is not spectacular, it is incomprehensible. After attempting to read this book, I am convinced that all of the reviews on the back could in no way be about The Alchymist's Journal. They must be describing a different novel. |
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