Beatrice and Virgil

Critics

• Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

  Scholars have long debated the relationship of art to the Holocaust, a debate often referred to as "the limits of representation". Does the sheer scale of the Holocaust mean that attempts to turn it into art always risk trivialising it, reducing the ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

• Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

  What a perplexing mixture of opposites Yann Martel's long-awaited new novel turns out to be: clarity and confusion, insight and banality, boldness and a persistent, self-monitoring nervousness. The nervousness, at least, is understandable. What autho ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

6 Reviews

• 

  SHOKING!!
  A quite heavy (depressing) book that need full concentration to understand it, yet it's beautifully sad.

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  xYang said on Jan 24, 2012 | Add your feedback

• 

  中譯《標本師的魔幻劇本》

  Although I didn't like the last part of the story
  The book was well-written, the play was good (except the last massacre part) and the last piece Game for Gustav was a mind-blown!

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  Noami said on May 23, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

  

  Talking about the Holocaust

  This book has had some negative reviews but as far as I'm concerned it does what it set out to do, i.e. find a new way to talk about the horrors of the holocaust although I might have preferred if it had done that in a more coherent way. The other quibble I had was with the taxidermist. Why wasn't ... (continue)

  This book has had some negative reviews but as far as I'm concerned it does what it set out to do, i.e. find a new way to talk about the horrors of the holocaust although I might have preferred if it had done that in a more coherent way. The other quibble I had was with the taxidermist. Why wasn't he redeemed?

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  Top of the pile said on Mar 9, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Much like his previous novel, the groundbreaking "Life of Pi", Yann Martel's latest work is a sort-of modern-day fable heavily featuring animal characters. The book quickly sucks you in with its relaxed prose detailing the life of a successful novelist starting anew in an unidentified foreign city w ... (continue)

  Much like his previous novel, the groundbreaking "Life of Pi", Yann Martel's latest work is a sort-of modern-day fable heavily featuring animal characters. The book quickly sucks you in with its relaxed prose detailing the life of a successful novelist starting anew in an unidentified foreign city with his family, all of which sounds suspiciously autobiographical. What happens next is the most surprising turn of events and change in narrative tone in recent memory. How Martel jumps from the familiar and routine to the fantastical and horrific so easily and seamlessly is a testament to his brilliant imagination and magnificent writing skills.

  What he has accomplished with "Beatrice and Virgil" is an immensely ambitious work, blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction, blending elements of such different platforms of expression as the diary, novel, theater and poetry. My 3-star grade is by no means a denial of this mind-blowing effort, which I think he pulled off beautifully. What turns me off in this book is the gruesome feeling Martel cultivates with his detailed depiction of the taxidermy process and later the even more disturbing description of suffering on another level. These long looks at the uncomfortable, the cruel and the perverse may be critical for the big plot reveal at the end, but how much it unsettles and almost disgusts just about surpasses my limit of acceptable gruesomeness in a novel and becomes overkill. In addition, while I was certainly taken off guard by the big surprise ending, I do think this particular subject matter has been dealt with abundantly and does not need to be lashed upon again. Somehow that just feels a little disrespectful and cheap to me.

  Nevertheless, this is a novel that's theatrical, philosophical, existential and carrying an unexpectedly high shock-value. It's a jolt to the heart much like "Life of Pi" but far less confidently merciful.

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  Tony Su said on Mar 7, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  what a unrestrained philosophical journey of life, of matters, of humanity. yann martel is one of a kind, his story-telling skill and imagination is without any boundary; yet he is exploring the fundamental issues of, as the synopsis says, life and art, truth and deception. this is a book with great ... (continue)

  what a unrestrained philosophical journey of life, of matters, of humanity. yann martel is one of a kind, his story-telling skill and imagination is without any boundary; yet he is exploring the fundamental issues of, as the synopsis says, life and art, truth and deception. this is a book with great depth, i plan to re-read it.

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  helyip said on Aug 2, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  rant

  The literary blogger Edward Champion posted "Why Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil is the Worst Book of the Decade", stabbing Yann Martel's latest book.

  As for myself, I am still unsure if I was manipulated, outraged, bored by this rant - sorry, novel. I followed it with passion until the mechanism ... (continue)

  The literary blogger Edward Champion posted "Why Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil is the Worst Book of the Decade", stabbing Yann Martel's latest book.

  As for myself, I am still unsure if I was manipulated, outraged, bored by this rant - sorry, novel. I followed it with passion until the mechanism cracked open revealing an author trying to survive himself.

  Yes, there are animals and mayhem like in "Pi". And it's more even more overblown than Paul Auster.

  http://www.edrants.com/why-yann-martels-beatrice-and-vi…

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  Plucino said on Jul 16, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (30)
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• English Books
• Others
• ISBN-10: 1847679323
• ISBN-13: 9781847679321
• Pub date: Mar 03, 2011
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Libros en Español, 한국 책

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