Never has learning been so much fun!
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Having read Findley's 'Spadework' and enjoyed it, I decided to try 'Pilgrim', which I knew would be totally different. What I didn't know, however, was how brilliant, original and truly timeless this novel would turn out to be.
Set convincingly in the backdrop of a Swiss mental hospital, Findley weaves seamlessly between fact and fiction, a summary of which is thoughtfully included at the back of the book. It features such illustrious characters as Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa herself, Oscar Wilde and various others. Although a lot of it is fact, Findley's incandescent imagination lights up periods and events of history which would appear so dull in a textbook. Not only was I enthralled and gobsmacked at this truly fantastic novel, I learned a lot too and it has affected me profoundly. There's something here for everyone, and the writer's style is accessible to all. I suggest that if you stumble across 'Pilgrim' on these webpages, you add it to your list and proceed to checkout before everyone else discovers the secret and it sells out! What a fabulous, fabulous novel!!!!
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Pilgrim the Nietzchean hero?
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This book has similarities with Woolf's 'Orlando' & Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray' in that it's about a man who is immortal. But I felt Findley's novel goes further with its examination of Nietzche's ideas of the eternal return and the Ubermensch (the Superman). Basically, the eternal return is the theory that there is infinite time and a finite number of events, and eventually the events will recur again and again infinitely. Consider the world as a super-complex chess game. If games of chess are played one after another forever, eventually a game will be repeated since there is only a finite number of possible games - it is the same with the world; eventually events will recur in the same order. The world is an eternal process of coming to be and passing away. This idea is explored with the character of Pilgrim. Pilgrim has witnessed one war after another, for example, throughout his eternal life. He has witnessed the mistakes that we mortal human beings have made over & over again. And one of the novels main focuses is concerned with Pilgrim's prophecy of the Great War. As the novel finishes, we realise that we mortals are to go to war again - like we have done again, and again, and again in the past. One way in which this endless cycle can be overcome is to smash the beliefs and ideals that we humans have followed throughout our history. This is where Nietzsche's idea of the the Ubermensch or Superman comes in. It is only by overcoming traditional religion that we can reach our true potential by becoming a race of Supermen. This Nietzchean idea is explored, for instance, when Pilgrim sets out destroy the Madonna & Child image in the stained glass windows of Chartes cathedral. He believes that human beings must overcome the constraints of our longly held beliefs if we are to move on and escape the eternal recurrence. For the immortal Pilgrim, his quest is to aid mortals to move beyond their simplistic concepts of good & evil.
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A seductive mystery of humanity.
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The book is misleading right from the start where it claims to be a story of a man who cannot die. We meet Pilgrim at the climax of his suffering when one of his many and varied attempts of suicide has failed. He is taken to the Alpine Insititute by a friend/believer/prophet/angel where he excites the interest of the radiantly arrogant Jung. As much the story of Pilgrim, this book follows the development of Jung, whose comfortable acceptance of his own faith and methods is gradually and painfully stretched, resulting in the flash of brilliance that becomes his understanding of the collective unconscious. The book is like a rich, rude afternoon dream. Peopled with Saints, messengers, artists as diverse as Da Vinci and Oscar Wilde it is still the "real" humans in the book that give it honesty and that makes it as sad as it is funny.
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Compelling.
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From it's somewhat (dark) atmospheric start the book unravels gradually to expose the (weird & wonderful) life of Carl Gustav Jung & the Alpine sanatorium where he practised. The tale of "Pilgrim" & his many lives is both entertaining & educational... I for one will look at the Mona Lisa in a different light from now on. Top Stuff.
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An excellent and highly-recommended read
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This is an excellent novel. Its subject is original,and the writing is excellent. Once you begin reading it, you will find it difficult to put down. It doesn't matter whether you have any prior knowledge of Jung and his work, or whether you're interested in it or not, as the story is in itself a masterpiece, and opens up many different avenues of knowledge to the reader. Don't take my word for it - buy this book! Truly amazing!
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