fiction/philosophy, intro Colin Wilson
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This unusual novel is a rigorous intellectual exercise in probing the nature of consciousness. Piero Tallini, a cinematographer exploring a filming site in southern Spain, finds himself communicating inexplicably with the first humans to live there. Through Tallini's mystical contact with these ancient people, he is taken on a cerebral trip through their understanding of reality and their development of language. At the same time, Tallini comes to realize his own cosmic connection to his physical environment and to all life forms. VandenBroeck introduces ancillary characters?Tallini's best friend in Paris, a mysterious woman, a gypsy?but the primary plot is Tallini's solitary conversion experience. This is not for the general reader, and VandenBroeck (Al-Kemi) doesn't pretend it is. The heady issues?and the intricate writing style ("Beyond the sustaining of the gaze, there is no representation in this case, though the effect of symmetry peculiar to a horizontal mirror image is obeyed: in sustained eye contact, a right eye gazes into a left, and vice versa")?is for fans of the philosophical novel and maybe a few ambitious New Age readers. The unconverted may feel upon the novel's completion, however, that the piousness here, while dressed up in the author's obvious intelligence, has begun to wear thin.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
These days, novels touted as "genuinely philosophical" should cause red flags to go up, particularly if edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. VandenBroeck, whose previous titles include Philosophical Geometry and A Memoir: Hermetic, Occult, Political and Private Aspects of R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, has written some pretty cerebral stuff. In Breaking Through, Tallini, an Italian filmmaker searching for his next subject, becomes obsessed with the Paleolithic culture of southern Spain. The novel is an allegory on the conflict between science and spirituality. Ultimately, Tallini learns to look for life's meaning not through science, but in the consciousness of the present. At times, Breaking Through could refer to the author's occasionally dense prose. Overall, the book is impressive for the diversity of intellectual subjects it covers. Recommended for libraries serving readers of the avant-garde. Ted Leventhal
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Read Al-Kemi, not this,
By king wolf (Jotunheim) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Breaking Through: A Narrative of the Great Work (Paperback)
This author's strength is his prose. It is dense as a fruitcake but rewarding. He used it to great effect in his classic hermetic biography of Schwaller de Lubicz, Al-Kemi.But here his weaknesses are more on display. Vandenbroeck is not on the level of his mentor, but, like Schwaller, is obviously an upper-crust dilettante with too much time on his hands. The nature of this novel reflects this - the characters are all well-to-do Europeans flitting about making films, working in the arts, and indulging in endless philosophizing. Hard to imagine any of these characters getting their hands dirty. The larger problem is, his characters can only do philosophizing as well as the author himself - who despite his intellectual brilliance and occasional inspiration is, at the end of the day, just another left-leaning bourgeois modernist, as opposed to Schwaller, a real aristocrat. In Al-Kemi, he likes best what is least in Schwaller, and rejects what is best, but that book is as much Schwaller as Vandenbroeck, whereas this one is almost all Vandenbroeck. The difference is telling. In Al-Kemi we get something of real esotericism, for despite his unfounded projection of higher knowledge onto the necromantic cult of Egypt (a weakness countless occultists have shared with him), Schwaller had some real insight. His disciples, not so much. The covers to both books are by Vandenbroeck's wife, another telling little vanity, since they are both atrocious modern-art type collages. But you can't always judge a book by its cover - in this case we have one classic and one dud that look identically ugly from the outside. Al-Kemi would get my highest recommendation; this novel you can skip.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dense but wonderful book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Breaking Through: A Narrative of the Great Work (Paperback)
This book had to be one of the best books I have ever read. The journey that Vandenbroeck takes the reader on, is a unique one and will definitely result in a "breakthrough". Started reading his other book "Al-Kemi", and I must say I should have been reading them at the same time. A lot of things from Breaking Through become clearer in conjunction with the other book. Enjoy the journey!
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