The Sibyl

This is an amazing historical novel. Not only does it evoke a sense of mystery in life and the sacred in late antiquity, but it turns an utterly bizarre plot into something totally believable. The result is a profound and inspiring meditation on life. I felt wonder, repulsion, and a desire to learn more - there is nothing more that a reader could hope for in an historical novel. The plot revolves around a banished sybil, who has lived in seclusion for so many years with her retarded son that she has become a legend in the towns nearby. An ordinary man condemned to immortality seeks her out, and they recount to eachother their life stories. The reader feels what it was like to live then, how religious beliefs shaped their lives and world view, and how in that seminal era the gods may indeed have erred. I was totally awestruck at the way that it made me feel. Highest recommendation.

A lot of people accuse the religious of living in a nice little fantasy world where god protects them from the bad things in life and from death. The few religious who are truly mystical in their devotion to god know that "there is no joy in seeing god," as the old prophetess utters. This book reads like a fable and a poem, a myth and a tragic love story (love between whom? Has anyone ever really loved this woman?). For her, god has been volatile and cruel, like love can be. It has been said that god is love. Neither have anything to do with happiness exclusively. It has also been said that the heart sees truths the brain cannot comprehend. Like all great art, this book illuminates the heart's truths, truths that my brain left alone would refute. "I myself long for love and light, but must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?" --Leonard Cohen

The Sibyl is most certainly a wonderful piece of literature of profound imagery and mythical content. It was the first book I read from the Nobel Prize of Literature recipient for Barrabus - Par Lagerkvist, which ignited my interest in his other novels, short stories and essays. The Sibyl is a remarkable short parable about the struggles of the good and bad occurrences between the diving and human beings. A wondering Jew whose only experience with God being a negative one, was cursed by the son of God for his impatient words on his way to crucifixion. Demonstrating how one instance could change a person's life forever. He begins to believe in the curse and seeks insight form a legendary Pathia, who lives in a cave in the mountains over looking Delphi. The Pathia like himself experienced the wrath of God. She then tells a story of the blissful love to the merciless unsympathetic side which exists in the same God. Unlike the Jew however the Sibyl accepts God. The divine is not just a man on the clouds dictating people's lives but it's the impulses of nature, in animals, in lust, in every emotion humans are faced with. This book leaves us with one prophecy which is that God is both love and hate and both exist to form a connection with him. The Sibyl dives into the quest for meaning, dealing with terrors and the wonders of existence. Wonderfully written and a truly captivating read.

The Sibyl is most certainly a wonderful piece of literature of profound imagery and mythical content. It was the first book I read from the Nobel Prize of Literature recipient for Barrabus - Par Lagerkvist, which ignited my interest in his other novels, short stories and essays. The Sibyl is a remarkable short parable about the struggles of the good and bad occurrences between the divine and human beings. A wondering Jew whose only experience with God being a negative one, was cursed by the son of God for his impatient words on his way to crucifixion, demonstrating how one instance could change a person's life forever. He begins to believe in the curse and seeks insight from a legendary Pathia, who lives in a cave in the mountains over looking Delphi. The Pathia like himself experienced the wrath of God. She then tells a story of the blissful love to the merciless unsympathetic side which exists in the same God. Unlike the Jew however the Sibyl accepts God. The divine is not just a man on the clouds dictating people's lives but it's the impulses of nature, in animals, in lust, in every emotion humans are faced with. This book leaves us with one prophecy which is that God is both love and hate and both exist to form a connection with him. The Sibyl dives into the quest for meaning, dealing with terrors and the wonders of existence. Wonderfully written and a truly captivating read.

On the surface, "The Sibyl" seems to be a decent enough myth about a man who was cursed by Christ for a show of inhospitality, and his approaching an ex-prophetess of Apollo on a mountainside overlooking Delphi.This book, however, delves into the mythological implications of the human being searching for meaning in a world where gods, or God, allows pain and evil to exist. The characters have no names, a feature often found in cosmological and mystical myths to help the reader "step into" the roles found therein. A truly moving account of the pains of being not just called, but Chosen, and of ultimately finding a place for onesself in an often harsh world.Written in 1956, "The Sibyl" is full of the sense of confusion and loss of the post war era, and Lagerkvist's own, often pessimistic, philosophical debates on the nature of man's significance. There are some truly rewarding passages in this book, though one of the easy pitfalls is to assume any mention of "god" refers to the Judeau-Christian God, when often the reference is to Apollo, a contextual reference point for the use of one of the more famous Sibyls of history. The myth is ancient, but Par Lagerkvist's retelling is contemporarily bound - and the questions asked are both very old and still presently unanswered.