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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SAVAGE BEAUTY,
By A Customer
This review is from: Ocean Sea (Hardcover)
Alessandro Baricco's Ocean Sea is a lyrically beautiful, but cruel, allegory of the secret hopes, dreams, fears, quests and horrors that drive us all and often, against our wishes, consume our lives. And, no matter how hard we deny it, there comes a time in every person's life when he or she must confront his deepest, darkest secrets, a time when they can no longer be suppressed. For it is only when we confront our fears and our obsessions, our hopes and our dreams, and yes, even our horrors, that they lose their power over us and we are finally restored to wholeness. Alessandro Baricco has assembled a cast of broken, disparate characters, each seeking the restorative powers of the ocean sea, that elusive place where fantasy meets reality, where love and horror become inexorably woven into the fabric of life. Baricco's prose is certainly not the flowery, overwrought "purple prose" of Anne Rice or Michael Ondaatje. Instead, it evokes the lyrical skeletalness of Debussy--beautiful and difficult, yet barely there, like the edge of the sea, itself. Savigny's narrative, in Book II, is one of the finest examples of the power and beauty of language I have ever encountered. If I have any criticism of Ocean Sea, it is the fact that the ultimate fate of Professor Bartleboom did not seem in character with the savage beauty evoked in the rest of the book. I almost felt as though I had been dropped inside another story altogether. But allegory is difficult to write and even more difficult to read, and Ocean Sea is no exception. I doubt that anyone alive can absorb this exquisite book's impact in only one reading. Like Silk, another of Baricco's works, Ocean Sea is a masterpiece. A small, but flawless, gem that will astound you and haunt you, but will never, ever let you alone.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotionally honest "realistic" fantasy,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Ocean Sea (Paperback)
Baricco has written a tremendous story of the truth of our human condition - individuals with a variety of obsessions - revenge, art, science, sensual experience - who are seemingly unrelated come together for the healing of the sea. They come together in a small ocean inn run by fay children. At the center of the book stands a horrofic story of humanity at its worst. . . .The structure of the book is a difficult one but one Baricco has fashioned into the absolutely correct form for his story. The prose ranges from very lush, descriptive prose to very taciturn conversation, from art catalogue entries to poetic prayers. Occasionally a sentence or two will misfire, but Baricco has exquisite control over his medium. This book belongs on any must read list.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really worth reading,
By Laura (Milan, Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ocean Sea (Hardcover)
I think this is probably the best book I have ever read. Actually, I have read everything by Baricco more than once (in Italian, since this is my mother language), but Ocean sea is by far his most impressive work. I mean, it is poetry turned into prose. That's not easy to explain. At the very beginning, the reader seems to be wandering in the middle of nowhere, but then he starts understanding that he's following a hidden path. It's like a puzzle, you never see anything clear until you get to the end, but when you do, it is just as if you had found a treasure. While reading, you are under the spell of something quite strange, something that puts you in touch with yourself, with your life somehow. The feeling is the one of being in the middle of a painting by Dalì or Magritte: something seeming supernatural, superreal, but that is in fact incredibly true and near. It touches you so deep within that it takes you to a higher level, where everything gets meaningful and where one's rediscovers his sensitivity. Baricco's style is perfect, too. The fact is that he's really good at telling stories, and I am sorry for those who couldn't listen to him live on TV or in theatres. As for the book anyway, it would be a pity to miss it. Most people think it has been written after Silk (a masterpiece, too, but completely different). I just wanted to point out this is untrue, since he wrote it later. But worth reading as well.
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