Customer Reviews

The Other Side of the Mountain

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I first read this book as a teenager over 30 years ago, and it has remained with me ever since, always disturbing, always demanding to be examined more deeply. When I found a paperback copy at a used book sale two years ago, I found that my memories had not played me false - if anything, it was even more troubling now that I was old enough to better comprehend it. Is the author describing life as Hell or Purgatory? I waver between the two, even as the book's grotesque images appear in my mind, appalling but powerful. Well worth reading ... but be prepared to be haunted afterward.

This is one of the eeriest and most moving books I've ever read. The author recounts his experience on a merchant vessel that is becalmed and then wrecked. The voyage is obviously an allegory of life and Bernanos probes some of its darkest corners. The jacket notes describe the tale as a descent into madness and a voyage into hell and both of those descriptions are apt. I particularly enjoyed the friendship of the old cook with the author even as their end approached. This is one of the rare books that left me wishing I could have met the author.

The Other Side of the Mountain was one of the scariest books I have ever read in my life. It is part horror and part fantasy and part sci fi. The story is so interesting but so short. Too bad the auther is dead. The ending of the book is so--so unusual.

I'm french and I've only red the book in the original version. I know that the form used is rather simple so I guess the translation must be good. (Better than the translation of the title I hope). I've never red books of the christian father, Georges, but the direction of the son is obviously *not* christianism. It was the first time I could see this in an author. He's free of any influences except for the magnificence of Nature. So I think he's a sort of heathen, a pagan writer.

I can't really compare him with other authors, but I've seen this freedom and particular lyrism in the books of Tarjei Vesaas (Norway). Both of them influenced me a lot, so beware if you want to read "The Other Side of the Mountain" !("la Montagne morte de la Vie" in french, that mean "the dead Mountain of Life"). Even if the words are simple, the spirit goes very deep and far beyond all.

I read this book 25 years ago, and its story still haunts me. Read it for the first time waiting for a plane in the Azores. During the flight, I caught myself surveying the ocean, looking for an island with a single tall mountain, and a ship wreck near.

I read this book 27 years ago in 7th grade. I have often looked for it, but have never found it. I read it only once, it has changed my life. Scariest thing I've ever read, I still find elements of this book in my nightmares.