BBAW 2010 - Day 4 : Forgotten Treasure

Today is the fourth day of the Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

Every day there is a blogging topic we can write about on our blog.

Today's topic is Forgotten Treasure
Sure we’ve all read about Freedom and Mockingjay but we likely have a book we wish would get more attention by book bloggers, whether it’s a forgotten classic or under marketed contemporary fiction. This is your chance to tell the community why they should consider reading this book! (BBAW)

 The book I've decided to put under the spotlight today is:

The Solitaire Mystery

by Jostein Gaarder

When twelve-year-old Hans Thomas and his father set out by car from Norway to search for Hans Thomas's mother in Greece, he is unaware that his life will be changed forever. The bewildering disappearance of his mother many years earlier to "find herself" is just the first of many mysteries he will encounter.

Punctuated by frequent cigarette stops that allow Hans Thomas's father both to smoke and to philosophize about the universe, the journey also features some unusual occurrences: a midget presents Hans Thomas with a magnifying glass and gives them directions that take them miles out of their way to a village named Dorf; the baker in Dorf gives Hans Thomas a bag of sticky-buns, the largest containing a miniature book that is the memoir of a sailor shipwrecked in 1842; and a strange man reappears inexplicably several times along the way. Hans Thomas begins to read the tiny book with the magnifying glass and discovers an amazing connection between himself and the sailor, who describes finding himself on an island where a deck of cards has come to life. Gradually Hans Thomas unravels the mystery of the cards, and the knowledge he gains of the distant past sheds a surprising light on his own life. (summary taken from Penguin)

I've read this book several times during my teenage years, and re-read it not that long ago. I'd loved Sophie's World, which is the most famous book written by Jostein Gaarder. But, somehow, I loved The Solitaire Mystery even more. The main difference between the two is that in Sophie's World, it is obvious that you're reading about philosophy. In The Solitaire Mystery, philosophers or theories are not directly quoted, and it brings the reader to read about philosophy without being completely crushed by informations, thoughts and quotes.

I think the book was written for young adults, but honestly it's great to read it as a younger child or as an adult. There are some things that didn't touch me when I was 15, but that now absolutely ring a bell...!

The atmosphere is one my favorite thing about the book. It has an Alice in Wonderland feel, but in a modern and less mad world (even though there are some mad things happening!). I remember how, when I read it the first time, I could feel everything that was written: the colours, the smells, the textures,... The whole imaginary is extremely well depicted.

I absolutely adore the philosophical content of The Solitaire Mystery. Everything comes naturally, and we get to think and read about the meaning of our existence and of destiny throughout actual discussions between the father and his son, but also powerful yet subtil metaphors.

Every time I play cards, I can't help thinking about this book. I'll never see a set of playing cards the same way now!

I'll end this post with a extract from a review I've read on Amazon, that completely fits with my feelings towards the book : "I recommend this novel. It's fun and fantastic, but leaves you feeling pleasantly full of ideas and reactions, as well as appreciative of the life we get to live."