Silk
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Review
"An intensely powerful and perceptive drama of the deepest human desires... One of the most astonishing and moving novels I have ever read." Daily Telegraph "A heart-breaking love story told in the form of a classic fable... A literary gem of bewitching power." Sunday Times "Silk is the perfect pick-up book... A book of startling images and ideas." Observer "Deeply moving - A delicately crafted love story and an anatomy of desire." Guardian"
Mail on Sunday
‘A haunting and delicately erotic novella’
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After medieval attitudes to outsiders and two large fantasy tomes, my most recent read was something of a change of pace: Silk, by Alessandro Baricco - a brief, moving, utterly beautiful fairytale of longing and loss, set predominantly in mid-19th-century France and Japan (& which, I hear, is to be made into a film, with Keira Knightley).
The story centres on Herve Joncour, a young French silk breeder. When silk production in his home town is threatened by disease, he travels to Japan in order to smuggle out uninfected silkworms. There, he finds himself captivated by the concubine of his local contact. Despite the danger, as Japan erupts in civil war, and despite his marriage to the loving but childless Helene, Herve finds excuses to return, repeatedly. Lacking a common language, never exchanging a mutually-intelligible word, and venturing little beyond stolen glances, Herve and the concubine fall in love.
It is told, with an elegant simplicity (one of the review quotes on the back compares the language to that of haiku, and I concur), in the rhythms and logic of fairytale. Lines and passages recur, becoming motifs, like the stylised repetitions of Herve's journeys to and from Japan, which punctuate the two poles of his life, his encounters with the concubine and his repeated reunitings with Helene. In a such a stripped-down narrative, the flashes of imagery - in particular, colours - are especially striking and resonant as evocations of mood and theme. The characters, likewise, are made archetypes, their longings and lusts universalised, larger-than-life.
And the conclusion, of course, is desperately poignant - bringing home, finally, how longings for things that will never be can obscure the things that are.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Barrico’s ‘Silk’ is the story of Herve, a young man working in the silk industry in Europe. Every year he must return to the orient to replenish the supply of silkworms because they cannot be bred in Europe. He develops an overpowering desire for his Japanese supplier’s daughter, despite only glimpsing her briefly. Back in Europe, Herve fantasises about her constantly, and is filled with longing for this girl who he has never really met. Each year is spent looking forward to his next trip to the east. Eventually he receives a letter in which the girl tells him of her desire for him, only to be shocked when he finally understands its source.
‘Silk’ is an achingly beautiful. It is sensual and erotic without being at all pornographic (except, perhaps, for the letter that eventually arrives). Herve’s love for this mysterious oriental girl is brilliantly contrasted with the loving familiarity provided by his wife in France. It is an examination of passion and the foolishness which accompanies it, and it is told in such plain language and simple style that it is instantly accessible to anyone who has every desired the unknown and mysterious.
‘Silk’ is only a small novella, but it completely blew me away. It is succinct, beautiful, familiar and powerful. Its sensuousness is overwhelming, and the denouement startling. One of the best novellas I have ever read.
‘Silk’ is an achingly beautiful. It is sensual and erotic without being at all pornographic (except, perhaps, for the letter that eventually arrives). Herve’s love for this mysterious oriental girl is brilliantly contrasted with the loving familiarity provided by his wife in France. It is an examination of passion and the foolishness which accompanies it, and it is told in such plain language and simple style that it is instantly accessible to anyone who has every desired the unknown and mysterious.
‘Silk’ is only a small novella, but it completely blew me away. It is succinct, beautiful, familiar and powerful. Its sensuousness is overwhelming, and the denouement startling. One of the best novellas I have ever read.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Only 100 pages long a mere haiku of a book but intensely poetic and emotionally charged and very re-readable. In translation from the Italian I personally will never know what it has lost if anything but a wonderful, peaceful, wistful thoughtful read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hypnotic short story
A19th century French trader visits Japan to buy silkworm eggs. He attracts and is attracted to the courtesan of his Japanese tradig partner, a local warlord. Read more
Published 9 months ago by William Jordan
Review by Patricia's Particularity
Like many books that are turned into movies, I feel compelled to read the book first. I read this book in a matter of hours - of course the size of the book lends to that but also... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Patricia Leppla
Silk
What a strange small read! Enjoyed this light hearted story which had a twist that I didn't see coming. Very poetic, easy read, great for a thoughtful quick read, different.
Published 13 months ago by Helen
A beautiful and lyrical love story
Silk is a beautiful and lyrical tale about love set in France and Japan in the 1860s. It's a very quick read (148 pages in my edition) and I'd recommend trying to read it in one... Read more
Published 13 months ago by H. M. Holt
Silk - review
I was very disappointed in this book. The story sounded fasinating on the reviews, whoever has given this 4 *+ must have been reading a different book. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Enid Blyton
I just did not get it .
I bought this book after reading the reviews and was looking forward to some beautiful prose . I have to say that I was disappointed and this book's merits have completely passed... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Gemini1789
A Love Poem.
Around 1860 there is an epidemic disease among the silkworm eggs in France. Hervé Joncour organizes - in the course of four years - four expeditions to japan to buy healthy... Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2009 by Jan Dierckx
A True Masterpiece
A sensuous, eloquent, rhythmic narrative that reads like poetry. Beautifully tragic.
It very rarely happens that you can pick up a book and once you have read it, you... Read more
It very rarely happens that you can pick up a book and once you have read it, you... Read more
Published on 10 April 2009 by S. Carter
You can't be human if you don't shed a tear or two at the end
Without doubt my favourite short novel. If you've seen the Kiera Knightley film, although it tried to stick firmly to the story it failed to capture the beauty of the novel, and... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2009 by D. J. Keyworth
Poetic and sensual
`Silk' by Alessandro Baricco is a poetic, sensual novel set in 1862, France. The book is moderately short, but the quality of the writing transports you with the descriptions of... Read more
Published on 12 July 2008 by Farah Yousif
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