Customer Reviews

The Absolute At Large

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Perhaps as a companion piece to War with the Newts this one should have been titled War with God, since this book attacks religious intolerance with the same gentle, sad, hilarious ridiculousness that he employed with devastating effect against racial intolerance in Newts. As a novel it violates most every rule of how a "good" novel should be written, in terms of structure, plot, cohesiveness, restraint, character development, etc and as such it is a fine book. And, of course, it is very very Czech.

Reading the The Absolute at Large, and knowing what we know now and what Capek(the best Czech author of the 20th century) could only imagine in 1922 was fascinating. Here was a man who had just witnessed the crumbling of the Austria Hungarian, German and Russian empires and the enormous waste of human life, especially of young men. Life in Central Europe in the early '20s was bitter and people saw a bleak future and their view of God "the Absolute" was hardly positive. Looking 20 years into a future four years after the end of "The Great War" and foretelling "The Greatest War" between 1944 and 1953 was amazing, and unfortunately very close to what actually happened. But it was Capek's biting satire on how man always believes he is right and others are wrong, especially when it comes to religion, that was especially interesting. The failure of man to think broadly and see the world through other's eyes is a story as old as man. Capek tells the story brilliantly. The book itself is poorly published and obviously photocopied from another source. Buy the paperbook instead of the hard copy.

I agree in part with both of the previous reviews. This was a very good book and I'll read more of Karel Capek. It has a very clever theme and is not only good fiction but a social commentary as well.

However, I would buy the paperback instead of this hardback edition. It has obviously been photocopied and has many defects, including almost no periods at the ends of sentences, very strange spacing and a few duplicated paragraphs. Some pages were truncated at the edges (copy machine), and there were many extraneous marks.

Note that the preview on Amazon is the paperback and does not display those defects.

That being said, it was still readable. If you can't get a better print copy, get this one. It is still readable and the content more than makes up for the defects.

First, buy the paperback instead of the photoprinted hardcover. Easier to read and much cheaper.

Science fiction is at its best when well constructed with futuristic visions based on predicted fact and a novel point of view (no pun intended). "The Absolute at Large" was first published in the 1920's (remember Czech author Karel Capek was born in 1890), but uses remarkable futuristic telling that presages atomic fusion while commenting on the ethics and spread of power and mass production that Karel Capek saw in the technological and political revolutions occurring around him. In addition, he raises theistic-antitheistic arguments that are still going on today. And, lest I forget, he also includes comments on communism, national socialism, and free market capitalism.

But the real kicker is that this book is funny. The novel is written with a tongue-in-cheek style that will often have you laughing out loud. It's only when you finish the book that you realize just how much philosophy was covered while you were having so much reading fun. Humorous science fiction wrapped in a thoughtful core - just the right thing for the thinking reader.

This is definitely worth adding to your reading list. The concept is quite unique. If every object is a portion of the great creation, then all objects contain an inherent remnant of the power/genius/God of creation. So what if a device, "The Kaburator" could consume matter entirely and in doing so release the "Absolute" held within it. And once the absolute is released into the world, what is its impact on us?

This question and its answers are what Capek weaves into a very entertaining read. I highly recommend and can promise a great read.

Have just started it, but I was immediately struck by the quirky, but wonderful English. However, I can find no mention of a translator. Did Capek translate it himself?

I know nothing of the book because I could not get that far. My copy was clearly a photocopied hunk of junk in a badly bound hard binding. There were multiple photocopy stray marks throughout the book (random blobs like you get with a photocopier). There was at least one page where the type was wavy like what happens when you photocopy something that is not totally flat. The margins were too big so it looks more like a photocopy of the actual book. The binding itself was actually uneven. The page that tells you who published it and when said 1944, and did not mention a more recent printing which indicates to me that it is possibly a pirate even. It is total crap. I had to send mine back.