book review: sophie's world by jostein gaarder

I am finally finished with this book! Dad bought this book for me five years ago and I've only ever gone partway with reading it. My excuse? Education got in the way. Joblessness is a blessing in disguise.









From the back cover:

One day Sophie comes home from school to find two questions in her mail: Who are you? and Where does the world come from?Before she knows it, she is enrolled in a correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre and beyond, with a mysterious philosopher. But Sophie is receiving a separate batch of equally unusual letters. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up in Sophie's world?To unravel this riddle, Sophie must make use of the philosophy she is learning. But the truth is far more complicated than she could have imagined...

The mysterious philosopher first engages Sophie into the course by describing adults who are comfortable and accepting of this world as it is, as microscopic insects, buried deep down inside a rabbit's fur - and how philosophy is like climbing up this fur to its tip, and viewing the world from there.

This course is then covered in chapters on philosophers such as Democritus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Darwin, Freud and philosophical ages such as Hellenism, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, the Enlightment, Romanticism, up to own current era. Their correspondence also discusses concepts such as fate and influence of cultures towards the history of philosophy.

If you feel intimidated - don't. The book has been well-written in concise chapters (say 5-12 pages each?) with any monotony broken with intermittent distractions. Any part of this book that would have made it a hard read was simplified by the use of ingenious examples that are relevant to our everyday lives. I will now refrain from adding excerpts of my favourite parts of the book so as to make this entry no longer than it already is.

On the contrary, I had my issues with Sophie. Sophie was suppose to be a fifteen year old. Although, she is rather rude and obnoxious and seemed a little too enlightened on the works of religion, history, geography and philosophy for a fifteen year old. But maybe Norwegian kids are born smart, or have excellent school syllabus. This may be the reason Gaarder plots his story as so, and then uses the plot to make up for its own flaws.

And poor Sophie, sometimes I feel as if she was just a character thrown into the book to keep the reader awake through the boring bits by intercepting conversational lectures with "I guess it does" or "Tell me about that". There are even times when Sophie asks directional questions, just to break long paragraphs up, as well as to lead focus to other aspects on a topic, such as " Does that mean that Kant's philosophy is nevertheless more right that Plato's?" or "Explain that, please".

On top of all that information to digest, the first half of the book was as confusing as it gets. The storyline drew a near borderline for me. I was so close to just throwing the book down and giving up in spite of my curiosity. But that wouldn't be me. In addition, the storyline gets a bit fluffy (in comparison to confusing) towards the end of the book, however the same can't be said about its substantial content.

All in all, a twisted book right from the start (in a good way). It will contort and refresh all you have ever thought about humanity. Yes...those thoughts you had about the world when you were once little are legitimate philosophy. A book that I can see myself reading again in a few years, just to make sure I'm at the tip of the rabbit's fur. I will just have to resolve my issues with Sophie in the near future.