Lost Horizon: A Novel by James Hilton
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Book Reviews of Lost Horizon: A Novel
Book Review: Simple but very enchanting
Summary: 4 Stars
Lost Horizon is a very introspective book. Metaphors abound perhaps, but what I'm inclined to take from the book each time I read it are the questions asked. Questions of purpose and what it all means. It's very thought provoking without being tendentious.
Stylistically, Hilton is economical, but very capably sets a mood that permeates the entire narrative whether in describing the landscape or the more subtle aspects of the different characters. For me, the mood is one of relaxed contemplation.
In another context, it's a wonderful travel book. It takes the reader to a faraway place and implicitly invites him to make choices and contemplate weighty issues in this most unlikely of settings.
Lost Horizon is not a literary masterpiece, but it's a good story and very clever in its presentation.
Book Review: What is paradise?
Summary: 4 Stars
The Lost Horizon really brings to mind the question of what is your paradise?
This is a book about a man who, along with three other companions, ends up in a mysterious civilization in some community lost among the mountains. This new life offers immortality (or close to it), but there is one catch. You may not leave. Some are able to become used to the confines of the little city but others (mainly one of the main character's companions) refuse to accept and make an attemt at an escape.
The main character has to decide if he will stay, because for him this new place is paradise, or if he will help the other young man escape.
It is an interesting book and, once you get past the first couple of pages, it goes by fast. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Book Review: A classic but a bit of a letdown at the end
Summary: 4 Stars
"Lost Horizon" is widely considered to be one of (if not the) seminal science-fiction works. It speaks to the universal human desire to find utopia and live long enough to enjoy it. This is one of the rare books that I was semi-reading, reading a dozen or so pages a month, and became so involved when I reached the plot twist I immediately had to finish it.
While I love the book, especially the massive twist in the middle, the ending leaves me wanting. Without giving away too much, while I like the open-ended quality, I found the plausibility of one of the main characters finding their ideal world and, with hardly a second thought, abandoning it almost on impulse rather remote. This left a sour taste in my mouth of what was otherwise an amazing book.
Book Review: A classic
Summary: 4 Stars
Classic work - timeless. Psychological study of the protagonist - contast of who he is v. how he is perceived. Can't we all relate to that? And, contrast of Western v. Eastern mindset.Book Review: Just didn't do it for me
Summary: 3 Stars
Sorry, this novella didn't arouse any passion but did stir up some frustration in me. Perhaps it's because of my own expectations and the multitude of 4 & 5 star ratings here or the british reference writing or the somewhat choppy style; perhaps it's that the morals it teaches have been exhaustedly dissected with parallel novels at the time and since this book was written. I suppose it's all of the above. The story is good, the ending is good, even the sparse development of the characters is good, albeit I was not able to wrap myself around anyone's humanity except partially the main character's.
It's Marxist "ends justifies the means" message is striking but never dealt with; a huge moral hole. But that's also the reality of the Marxist road map. This cultural utopia denies man's drive to do better with his position and his material betterment. An inner drive in all of us that should never be ignored or quelled. The parallel lesson that Shangri-la is not so much a place as a growth within oneself makes for some good thought provoking cud. The addictive draw of a utopian society is a political demon we face everyday. But hopefully, eventually, we experience our own confrontations that draw us back to the reality of our lives with a lesson to try to do better.
Anyway, it's good. For the time it was written it was probably great. Read it. Just don't make the mistake I did of getting your hopes up too high. The message has been beaten to death.