This was one weird book and hard to rate and really hard to review and I did procrastinate about writing a review. I decided on rating this book 2-1/2 stars, rounded up to 3 for its clever premise and general creativity. It was a disappointment though. I’m trying to read only 5 and 4 star books and this did not come close. I don’t regret reading it and that says something for a book I could assign 3 stars only by stretching it.

I read this as a group buddy read with Caroline, Hilary, and Ann. I wasn’t alone struggling to enjoy it.

There are chapter titles but no chapter numbers. The chapter titles are: The Garden of Eden, The Top Hat, The Myths, The Natural Philosophers, Democritus, Fate, Socrates, Athens, Plato, The Major's Cabin, Aristotle, Hellenism, The Postcards, Two Cultures, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance, The Baroque, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Bjerkely, The Enlightenment, Kant, Romanticism, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Darwin, Freud, Our Own Time, The Garden Party, Counterpoint, The Big Bang. There is an index and my edition had a Reading Group Guide with some questions. They were okay, nothing readers could not think up on their own.

Here’s the main thing potential readers should know: This is an introductory history of philosophy (and philosophers) book. The novel is a story inserted into what is basically a textbook in order to liven up the educational experience. That is how I experienced it. There is an index. How many novels have those?! For a novel there is too much philosophy and not enough of Sophie/Hilde. It really is a philosophy textbook. Maybe it would go over well as an adjunct text in a high school intro to philosophy class, or would have when it was a newer book.

It started out so well for me. The beginning reminded me a bit of one of my favorite children’s books, The Phantom Tollbooth.

The storytelling is clunky, and did not tie in well enough the fictional story to the philosophies presented, in my opinion. The questions of and statements by Sophie when conversing with Alberto Knox sound stilted and as though presented for the purpose of a lesson vs. a real interaction/conversation/class. I cringed many times.

I enjoyed the history and some of the review (and new learning) of philosophy, but I think it could have been better conveyed. In other words, be a philosophy & history textbook or be a fictional novel. I did like the parts when Sophie and Hilde were on the page and I did like the twist that comes in the Berkeley Bjerkely chapters, chapters 22 & 23. It became quite a trip. The fictional novel is speculative fiction and that is a genre I often enjoy. The direction the story took became quite a trip. This book would have been extremely popular with high school and college students in the last half of the 1960s. It would have bene a huge hit! I’d have also liked it better at ages 13-19 as it has the kind of content teens frequently ponder.

My library has this book shelved as adult but it is both young adult and adult in my opinion, and perhaps enjoyed more by the former group.

This is a wonderfully quotable book. Some quotes that I liked:

“But you might stumble upon yourself one day. You might suddenly stop short and see yourself in a completely new light.”

“The world itself becomes a habit in no time at all. It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world.”

“One of the main concerns of philosophy is to warn people against jumping to conclusions.”

“A philosophical question is by definition something that each generation, each individual even, must ask over and over again.”

“Many ecophilosophers in the Western world have warned that Western civilization as a whole is on a fundamentally wrong track, racing toward a head-on collision with the limits of what our planet can tolerate.”

Some spoilers:

Spoiler

I was finding it creepy. Power and control with an older man teaching a young girl and with his rules and his boundaries. When we come to the part of the story where we see this is meant to be father and daughter it felt slightly less inappropriate and scary. I’d known it wasn’t meant to be frightening but it freaked me out anyway for the first half or so of the book.

I love Hermes, the dog messenger, when he lasted on the page. He kind of disappears at some point. Given the true nature of this story all sorts of things in it end up not being surprising.

The trip to Athens not too far into the book made it clear that this was a speculative fiction book. I did like the notion of being able to learn history and directly at the source.

I thought perhaps this book, these philosophies might help me think better about things in my own life and might help me make decisions, but that did not happen even a bit. One thing I noticed is how philosophizing throughout the ages is mostly going to occur when at least basic needs are met and when free time is available to potential thinkers. I’m sad to say that I’m not sure to whom I’d recommend this book but I don’t think I would to anyone over about 19 years of age.

ETA: It was incredibly dense.