Chess Garden [Paperback]

Brooks Hansen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1996

In Ohio in 1900, the wife of Dr Uyterhoeven recieves a series of extraordinary letters from her elderly husband. It seems that after being shipwrecked he has found the legendary Antipodes, and describes a fantastical country inhabited by warring chess pieces, dominoes and dice.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A rare and exciting work of character and imagination, Hansen's new novel (after the highly praised Boone, which he coauthored with Nick Davis) is set in 19th-century Dayton, Ohio, in Europe and South Africa during the Boer War and on an imaginary island, the Antipodes. During his journey to the heart of the war, where he has volunteered to serve in a British-run concentration camp for forcibly displaced Boers, Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven sends 12 letters to his wife, Sonja, in Dayton. The letters, fabulist explorations in the manner of Poe, Chesterton and Borges, describe a world where chess pieces, including a queen trapped in a tree, live, die, love, battle and philosophize. With a delightfully deft touch, Hansen carries this conceit off convincingly, and without a hint of sentimentality. Uyterhoeven is a remarkable character, dapper yet heartbroken, civilized, swinging his cane, journeying through sundry marvels with an air of concern and wonder that the reader comes to share. Meanwhile, back in Dayton, the reading of each new letter becomes an event; and, mysteriously, chess pieces mentioned in the letters begin to appear in the Uyterhoevens' garden. This is a complex and powerful work that achieves meaning in the most indelible way possible, through being an extraordinarily well-told tale. Black-and-white illustrations, not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This remarkable second novel by the coauthor?with Nick Davis?of the critically acclaimed Boone (S. & S., 1990) is a masterpiece of surreal storytelling in the tradition of Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Set at the turn of the century, it is the tale of a physician who leaves his home, with its "chess garden," in Dayton, Ohio, to minister to victims of South Africa's Boer War. As he undergoes a spiritual conversion, the doctor proceeds to send his wife a series of letters chronicling an imagined parallel universe called the Antipodes where the game pieces from his garden collection have come to life to guide him through a fantastic and fateful adventure. A writer with a rare gift for evocative description, Hansen deftly weaves allegory and history in this compelling narrative, which most readers will have a hard time putting down. Highly recommended.?David Sowd, formerly with Stark Cty. District Lib., Canton, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade; 1st Riverhead trade pbk. ed edition (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573225630
• ISBN-13: 978-1573225632
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #868,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book of whimsy, wisdom, conviction, and joy., January 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chess Garden (Paperback)

The Chess Garden is simply one of the best books I have ever read. The protagonist deals with many issues confronting every one: spiritual ambiguity and conviction, passionate love, tragic loss, and one's sense of place and community. The novel moves in three timelines: the doctor's growing up in Europe and courtship of his wife, his imaginary tale of Gulliverian wanderings in the mysterious land of Antipodes, and his hometown of Dayton 13 years after the doctor's famous letters from abroad. I wanted to restart it as soon as I finished it!

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most humane (and divine) novel I've ever read., July 29, 1999

By 

"chained-to-a-computer" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chess Garden: Or the Twilight Letters of Gustav Uyterhoeven (Hardcover)

I've read "The Chess Garden" only once, four years ago. But a week rarely goes by when my heart and mind don't return to it. I don't pretend to grasp all of its themes. But as a parent, I found deep meaning in this book, wherein God's presence is revealed most fully in the love we feel for our children. And our experience of this love then allows us to turn outward to others, more completely and authentically. Mark Helprin's "Memoir from Antproof Case" touches on this theme, but not with the same power. The Doctor's spiritual quest after the death of his young son rang so emotionally true, so heartbreakingly real, that I've been unable to read it again. (Though I'm sure I will eventually) It's a sad and hopeful book. For those of us who struggle with doubt and strain to glimpse a loving, personal God, we should spend a few summer afternoons in The Chess Garden. Of course, it's only fiction. It merely points the way to what we all have access to, every day, in our real lives.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything an allegory should be..., December 21, 2000

By 

Zachary Pearson (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chess Garden (Paperback)

There is so much to this novel, it almost defies description. Part tragic love story, part allegory, and part Apology, it has the beauty that so many modern novels lack. Hansen's language is gorgeous, and his thoughts inscribe a circle around such far-flung matters as the Christian Church, Arthurian Legend, how to deal with the pain of losing a young son, and Emanuel Swedenborg. Novels like this only come along once in a very very long time, and even though I have written nearly twenty pages for an assignment and read it a dozen times, there are still parts to this that haunt me, to the point where I want to pick the novel up again every once in a while just to savor the parts I love, look anew for threads I have missed, and immerse myself in the language and times of the mid and late 19th century. It is, and will remain one of those books on my 'Books to read once a year' list.