レビュー要約

• Many readers value its restrained prose and the way it renders everyday life in orbit. Others are drawn to its quiet afterglow of connection between Earth and humanity, while some feel the narrative momentum is deliberately modest.

レビュー

• Lovely

  Brilliant

• Tedious

  Goes on and on without getting anywhere

• 途中で諦めた

  小説というかポエムのようで、かなりかったるい

• Halfway through this extraordinary novel I had my doubts. After all, you could say that it’s all about going round and round in circles. But in the end Samantha Harvey very much more than justifies her Booker. There are writing gurus who swear that the fundamental secret, bar none, to all good writing is the sentence: get that key component right and you’re on a winning streak from the off. If that were all there was to it, even then Harvey would certainly be a winner. Her sentences are beautifully structured and sparkle and shimmer with wit, insight and feeling. She’s a born writer, but her novel goes way beyond the mere accomplished sentence. The centre of her book is the visionary experience of the Earth seen from space. Oh, the stars and the moon come into it too, but what concerns her are the six astronauts (well, four astronauts and two cosmonauts, Russians) in the space station two hundred and fifty miles above the planet. Orbital is a close, intimate recreation of twenty four hours in the lives of these two women and four men, confined in their cramped metal container as it spins through sixteen orbits, working its way over continents, islands, seas and deserts, while they experience sixteen sunsets and sixteen sunrises (a helpful map at the start shows you their detailed trajectory). They carry out their set routines of cleaning and maintaining the craft, performing the vital physical exercises to keep themselves trim in a weightless environment, and carrying out various scientific experiments. Chie, for example, the Japanese crew member, rejoices when the lab mice she’s supervising finally learn to float, instead of desperately trying to rely on non-existent gravity. Meanwhile, she grieves for her mother, back in Japan, who has just died. She recalls her favourite moments with her, but will miss the funeral. Other events outside impinge. They witness the build up of a super-typhoon in the Pacific, but beyond reporting back to mission control, are of course powerless to do anything about it. They enthusiastically follow the launch of a new Moon-landing expedition, not a little envious of their fellow astronauts. They fret about home and families, treasure the few mementoes mounted around each of their individual cramped sleeping quarters. But the centre of everything is what they see through the windows: ‘They don’t know how it can be that their view is so endlessly repetitive and yet each time, every single time, newly born.’ They experience ‘A sense of gratitude so overwhelming that there’d be nothing they could do with or about it, no word or thought that could be its equal…’ In the end, Harvey’s sense of the extraordinary adventure of orbiting in space, witnessing the marvel of the globe beneath you, widens out into an enthralling vision of mankind’s future explorations and the planetary wonders beyond Earth.

• Quick delivery; as expected. Would have liked if the packaging was a bit better because the day it was delivered, it was raining and the edges of the book were a little soggy. Not too much but they were.

• Het gaat over 3 astronauten en 2 cosmonauten in ISS die in een baan om de aarde gaat. Het is een meditatieve roman over leven, tijd en de menselijke ervaring waarbij de baanbeweging om de aarde als metafoor wordt gebruikt. Alle astronauten hebben een soort van muizenissen. Het gaat vooral over Chie, die haar moeder verliest terwijl ze in het ISS is. En over een mega Orkaan over de Fillipijnen. Het is doorspekt met Global Warming retoriek. Ook gaat het over de maanlanding van een groep andere astronauten, dat is nog niet gebeurd. Dus het verhaal speelt in de toekomst. Eigenlijk gaat het nergens over terwijl het overal over gaat, deelt alleen ervaringen en herinneringen van de ruimtevaarders. Het is een tour de force en het voelt soms kunstmatig hoe de schrijver bepaalde dingen mooi of filosofische wil overbrengen. De ervaring van het in een baan om de aarde vliegen vind ik wel heel goed beschreven. De ervaring van het in de ruimte zijn. Ook heb ik nieuwe dingen geleerd over het in de ruimte zijn; zoals dat de astronauten eigen niet echt gewichtsloos zijn omdat ze nog steeds in het magnetisch veld van de aarde bevinden, maar zweven door de valbeweging omdat ze zo snel gaan. 16 zonsopgangen. Het irriteerde me dat het boek eigenlijk nergens naar toe werkte en het verhaal ineens eindigt. Ondanks deze frustratie, was de thematiek intrigerend.

• Excellent livre poétique, très bien écrit.

• Das Buch begleitet eine Gruppe von Astronauten auf der ISS in einem einzigen Tag und verbindet poetische Sprache mit existenziellen Fragen und tiefen Reflexionen über Zeit, Menschlichkeit und die Schönheit und Zerbrechlichkeit der Erde. Ein tiefgreifendes, eindrucksvolles Buch das man bis zum Schluss nicht weglegen möchte, und hängen bleibt.

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