Reviews for Parzival and the Stone from Heaven

The average rating for Parzival and the Stone from Heaven based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-04 00:00:00 Weiwen Ng What a difference the storyteller makes. This version is quite fun and well-written. Simple, lovely images such as: “The air tasted fresh at his lips. He knew himself on the vivid brink of things.” and when (Parzival’s sword) “blade shatters into harmless shards of light.” The magic isn’t easy for our knights, and there is little mention of religion - even the Grail itself doesn’t take sides. It isn't Christian. It's a gift from the Neutral Angels. i found it interesting that the ever-philandering Gawain falls deeply truly in love with a beautiful face that treats him like sh*t. She mocks him, insults him endlessly, sends him off to be killed - really, like beheaded (as many have been prior to him). She’s an absolute peach. Does this say something about our author’s psyche? Or is this so common it has become (western) myth? Is something only desirable if it cannot be obtained? The take-home message, as if straight from Madison Ave: whatever you have, what or whoever you are, is just not good enough. Maxxed out that credit card? Not to worry - it’s mythologically predetermined. Take a good, long look at that life-partner of yours...couldn’t you do better? Gag. The original 12th C written version was circa the Crusades, yet our hero does not become "whole" until he is united with his Islamic brother, who is portrayed as a gentle, loving (yet brutally strong of course) man who plays by the same rules of chivalry. Smiley face for that bit. My final salute is for honesty. We all see the homoeroticism in rugby, in amerikan football, and this author calls it: On pg. 194 - two knights of equal strength are fighting: “Yet the balance of strength was such that the longer the contest lasted the more the two knights seemed to become a single complex animal strangely warring with itself, or like two impassioned lovers fused in the ever-deepening intimacy of a fierce embrace.” Yup. Spot on (so to speak).

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-04 00:00:00 maurizio busi Parzival is one of the more famous medieval German works out there. The work has so much depth that some medieval scholars devote most of the research in their life to this work. My professor used to say it's a work that grows with you, and that you never tire of during your life. Of course, she was one of those professors who has devoted her life to medieval research, but the point stands: Parzival is a book that can inspire amazing devotion. But, it must be said, Parzival is not a very easy read for our times. The book is, understandably, written in a different way than books are written nowadays, which makes the book both hard to translate and comprehend. Students reading Parzival at university generally get an entire course to help them understand the epos. Not everyone however has this chance, and I'm assuming that's where this book comes in. The title of this book very much emphasizes that this well-known medieval work is retold for a modern audience. I think this is misleading. While I can see where Lindsay Clarke modernized the story, for most people this might not be the case. The text doesn't exactly read like a modern novel, and as the story has only been changed minimally, the book really doesn't have a modern feel to it. As such, I wouldn't say that this book is a grail romance "retold for our time". What this book is however, is a version of the story condensed to the main plot of the original medieval work, told in prose instead of poetry. If you don't have the chance to take a class on the Parzival, then the story of Wolfram von Eschenbach may at first be rather confusing. For those people, this book might be very good. You get the chance to get familiar with the story, in a relatively light read. Once familiar with the story, a translation of Wolfram von Eschenbach's original epos should be easier to understand. Even if you just want to get familiar with the story of Parzival without wanting to plough through medieval poetry, this is a good book for you. But you shouldn't go in expecting a modernized version of the Parzival, because that's definitely not what this book has to offer. The story is still a good and influential one, but probably more enjoyable if you're not expecting a modern romance!