Book Review: Sophie’s World; Jostein Gaarder

Title: Sophie’s World
Author: Jostein Gaarder
Type: Fiction
Genre: History/Mystery
Number of pages: 513, + an index.
Link: @ Barnes & Noble.
Rating: 36/50 - 72% - C.

From the back:
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…

Also, apparently this book was made into a movie in Norway.

Plot:
With the exception of the philosophy portion of the book, it was… innovative. And maybe I mean that in a good way, but maybe I don’t. I’m not even sure yet. The plotline itself was interesting, and original, I’ll give it that. But by the same token, it was so buried in philosophy that the actual plot of the story was kind of hard to find.

I can’t complain about the content of the philosophical portions; they seem to be (from what I remember from class) fairly accurate. I didn’t appreciate that the whole first 1/3 of the book was dedicated to Greek philosophers and scholars, and the author seemed to gloss over some of my personal favorites (Nietzsche was mentioned twice, and never really explained). I don’t know if that was because he felt like the book was getting too thick or if the plotline got in the way, but it made the whole novel seem a little biased toward ancient philosophy and against the more modern stuff.

Aside from that, I actually found it a little dry. I already knew most of the philosophy portions because I’d already taken a class, but I did kind of want to know what happened in the end, so I kept reading despite getting repeatedly annoyed at the twists the plotline was taking. It did make me think, though, which I suppose is the whole point of the novel.

I suppose for a person who knows little or nothing about philosophy, who also enjoys a little bit of mystery, this is probably a good choice to read. But if you have no interest in philosophy, forget it. It’s what the novel’s centered around. It’s probably an excellent book for a Philosophy 101 course (or the equivalent), if the professor had enough time to go through and teach the ideas along with the reading.
Total points: 13/20.

Characters:
The actual characters in the novel aren’t so abundant that they’re impossible to remember, and they’re mentioned enough times that they’re not easy to forget, either. I only forgot who Sherekan was (the cat), and I figure that’s probably a pretty good sign. Sophie Amundsen (the main character–kind of) was typical 14 going-on-15 until she starts studying philosophy, which actually makes her rather interesting and amusing. I found Joanna to be a little dull–I have no idea why they were friends, to be honest–at least until the end of the novel, or Sophie’s garden party. But by that point, the whole plotline is running rampant and it’s kind of hard to hate any of Sophie’s friends.

On the other hand, I found that I really didn’t like Hilde, and that’s sad. It wasn’t her fault, but I think the main difference between her and Sophie really irritated me. (I don’t want to give away any main plot points, what little there are.)

There weren’t any real ‘villains’ (the only person I’d classify as a villain turned out to be a good guy, kind of), but I did actually feel things for the characters, especially when they were doing something outside of the philosophy course. I have read that Sophie’s mother is supposed to be comic relief, and if that’s true, she fails miserably. Out of everyone, she was the most forgettable. At times, I almost felt bad for her for being so two-dimensional and dull, but everyone else was kind of fun to read about.
Total Points: 8/10.

Readability:
The only difficulty I had reading this book was the fact that I don’t really know too much about Norway, or Norse myths, or the language at all. The only parts where the language comes into play is with the names, and I could just guess on how to pronounce those. There weren’t any glaring grammar issues (I’d be disappointed if there were), and it was very well-translated. I didn’t even realize I was reading a translated novel until the author started mentioning Norway and I thought to check. That part, at least, was very well handled.

The philosophical portions, while accurate, were boring and kind of hard to read. I realize this is a personal fault (I’ve already mentioned that it’s mostly review) and that someone else might find it absolutely fascinating. The philosophers I hadn’t heard of were easier to read about.

It also felt, just a little, like the author might have been pushing his personal ‘favorite’ philosophical point of view on the readers. I prefer to go through all of the movements and choose for myself, and that was annoying. I felt like I didn’t have a choice. I’m willing to give credit where credit is due (yes, we owe a lot to Socrates; yes, he had some valid points), but it’s altogether too optimistic for me and the fact that the more cynical aspects of philosophy were glossed over irritated the hell out of me.
Total Points: 8/10.

Re-readability:
I’m not sure if I could not read this book again–but to be honest, I don’t want to. Not right away. Maybe sit and think about it, or look something up every once in a while, but this book feels like it was meant to be read and then immediately re-read, and I don’t have any desire to do that.
Total Points: 3/5.

Anything Else:
–Would I recommend this book to a friend?: Probably not. None of my friends are interested in this kind of thing, and they’d probably think I was nuts (or sadistic) if I handed this off to them.
–Do I want to see a sequel or a series from this book? Am I going to look for more material by this author?: I kind of do, actually, want to see a sequel. It ended well, but a little sad, and I would have preferred something a little happier. I don’t see myself actively looking for any of Mr. Gaarder’s other books.
–Would I like to see fan media for this novel?: Believe it or not, I am interested in seeing how the movie came out. Unfortunately, it’s only available in Norwegian and German, so that might have to wait a bit.
–Is it worth paying the cover price? (on the back of the book): ($7.99 US/ $10.99 Canada) I got this book as a gift, but if I’d seen it on the shelf I would have probably picked it up for myself. And I probably would have been twice as pissed off if I’d spent my own money on it. So yes, if you’re seriously interested in philosophy, or if you’ve taken an intro course and it confused you, it’s probably worth the money. If you’re not interested in philosophy or you’ve done well in an intro course, then it’s probably not for you.
–Other impressions/things to note: The beginning is incredibly dull. It’s easier to get through once the first couple of chapters have passed. I actually got interested around the time Sophie got the video of Alberto in ancient Greece, because I wanted to know how the hell he’d managed that.
Total Points: 4/5.