Chrissie's Reviews > Narcissus and Goldmund

Free for Audible-UK-Plus member!!!!!!!
It might be free for Audible-US-Plus members too.
It’s very well read by Simon Vance, a favorite narrator of many.

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Having read books by Herman Hesse in the past and having been confused by them, I have avoided other books by the author. Recently told by Rosemarie, a GR friend whose opinions I trust, that this book was not confusing and had wonderfully descriptive prose, I decided to give it a try. For goodness sake, it’s now free, so why not?

This is a book about two men, Narcissus and Goldmund, friends of very different personality types and temperaments. One is a scholarly ascetic thinker, religious and analytical (Narcissus). The other is turned on by the sensory and the physical. This is Goldmund. He is intuitive, sensual and artistic. Women have a strong attraction for him. The two meet at a monastery boarding school for boys. One becomes an abbot. The other leaves the monastery to experience and live life to the brim. Both ponder life’s meaning. You might say, Goldmund lives life while Narcissus thinks about life.

The setting is German areas during the Middle Ages. We observe both how people behave during and after the years of the Black Death. Years pass. The two friends meet up again. What has life taught each of them? How do the two relate, now, so many years later?

The prose is beautifully descriptive, both in relation to people and places. At the start I liked the writing very much, but its freshness wore off for me. Goldmund’s flirtations and infatuations become repetitive. The manifest beauty of health, spirit and the desire to live to the fullest began to wear thin the further the book progresses. I found the ending trite. Goldmund, as he ages, is unable to deal with the (view spoiler)[loss of his virility and sexual attraction. When women are no longer turned on by him, but view him instead as an old man, he falls apart both mentally and physically (hide spoiler)].

The story becomes repetitive. Goldmund’s string of girls begins to blur. I began to forget exactly which woman was which. The female characters are not the prime focus, and as such, they are not fully developed.

The book started out strong but began to go downhill for me.

There are philosophical discussions between the two friends. Some captured my attention, for example the importance of having a goal In life and the value of art. Other discussions go off in directions that flounder. That images have no place in mathematical reasoning is not something I would agree with. The reasoning here is diffuse.

Simon Vance reads the audiobook. He’s popular, but he is not a favorite of mine. For this book though, his narration is very good. He captures mood well and how different characters think, feel and react. I have given his narration four stars.

So, what am I saying? The story and the prose grab the reader’s attention at the start, but both peter out the further one progresses. What at the start seemed worthy of five stars fizzled down to three. I express merely how I have reacted to this book.