{"id":607,"date":"2015-04-25T19:35:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T17:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=607"},"modified":"2020-05-31T00:09:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T22:09:25","slug":"horcynus-orca-stefano-darrigo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2015\/04\/horcynus-orca-stefano-darrigo\/","title":{"rendered":"Horcynus Orca \u2022 Stefano D'Arrigo"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of the Leipzig Book Fair\u2019s blog sponsorship, <em>Horcynus Orca<\/em> has already caused quite a stir in the blogosphere, generating a fair amount of <a title=\"Blogpatenschaft Horcynus Orca\" href=\"http:\/\/buzzaldrins.de\/2015\/03\/06\/horcynus-orca-stefano-darrigo\/\">attention<\/a>. I had come across this classic\u2014which has been translated into another language for the first time\u2014earlier and wondered what might be hidden behind this book.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This will probably be the most extensive review I have written here so far. I read <em>Horcynus Orca<\/em> very intensively; I plunged into this book with skin and hair and returned with so many impressions that I want to share quite a bit about it with you. So I ask for your patience that this post has become so comprehensive. By now I\u2019ve been writing it on and off for over a month, and that brings together a lot of impressions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<!--more-->\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/darrig_horcynus_orca_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"589\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/darrig_horcynus_orca_2.jpg\" alt=\"Horcynus Orca by Stefano D'Arrigo\" class=\"wp-image-1507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/darrig_horcynus_orca_2.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/darrig_horcynus_orca_2-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/darrig_horcynus_orca_2-1024x558.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 959px) 688px, (max-width: 1023px) 768px, (max-width: 1279px) 848px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here you can see a picture of my copy and the many passages with truly magnificent sentences that I marked. I always copy down good sentences again, and with this book there are several pages of them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is about the <em>Pellisquadre<\/em>, the fishermen of Sicily\u2014more precisely the fishermen of Charybdis, on the strait between Calabria and Sicily, where the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian Sea are connected by the narrow Strait of Messina. A region steeped in legend and thus an excellent setting for an epic about the sea.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a long time this novel was considered untranslatable, until Moshe Kahn, a luminary in the world of translators, took on the work and rendered it from Sicilian-inflected Italian into German. With 1,500 pages printed on thin paper, densely set, and weighing 1.5 kg, the book is anything but a lightweight read\u2014both in the physical and figurative sense. Linguistically and in terms of content, this novel is demanding, and it reveals its grand, powerful world only to the reader who approaches it with a certain degree of dedication. What that means is what I want to explain more closely in this review.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Horcynus Orca<\/em> is a book that does not reveal itself to the reader immediately, that does not impose itself, and certainly is not ingratiating. A quality that contemporary works often deliver in abundance; with this book you hold a story in your hands that must be discovered, one the reader must dive into and mentally attune not only to the protagonist but also to the often very alien-seeming figures. I felt a distinct cultural gap while reading, arising from the fact that the people in it often have a completely different way of thinking. The sea\u2014and the high degree of belonging these people feel toward it\u2014creates another way of thinking and feeling. Thus the statements, behavior, and actions of the fishermen or, for example, the Feminoten often seem somewhat strange. That\u2019s part of the appeal, because it\u2019s an adventure in itself to penetrate a completely different mode of perception, and if you immerse yourself deeply enough in the characters\u2019 narratives, you begin to understand them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book employs its own unusual and artful language. This is a distinctive feature and has indeed brought D\u2019Arrigo some criticism. A translation was therefore very problematic, seemingly impossible, and so Moshe Kahn, the translator, \u201crecreated\u201d the book over more than 10 years of work\u2014reshaping it, occasionally departing from the original to achieve similar effects (cf. the translator\u2019s afterword from p. 1461). Judging the success of this endeavor objectively is probably only possible for those who have read the book in the original. But what did this very particular and unique poetry mean for me as a reader\u2014one who feels the effect and melody of the sentences and does not, with an academically trained gaze, rediscover the many linguistic elements of Sicilian, \u201cshaped over nearly two millennia into the linguistic forms of the Italian South\u201d (p. 1467)? First, I had to immerse myself in the book\u2019s own, utterly new language. I read the first 50 pages, and then I read them again. Only from page 100 onward\u2014pages for which I needed three times as long as usual\u2014did I arrive, on the linguistic level, in this epic. It reminded me a little of the enjoyment of classical music: you have to listen more than once, get to know its main theme, and when you have a sense of which tones will sound, you can delight in the fact that they repeatedly don\u2019t\u2014surprising you while remaining within reach. That\u2019s exactly what this text is like. At some point you\u2019re seized by a current that pulls you into this book, because the sentences have a melody all their own. Why is that? I suspect two reasons. First, the sea is always and everywhere present\u2014metaphorically, as a backdrop, as the absolutely fundamental basis for the thinking of \u2019Ndrja and the people he meets. A second reason is the war and the vehemence, the remorselessness, the unimaginable that enters people\u2019s lives with it; there could be no more striking, clearer, or more frightening way to convey this than through the thunderous, dreadfully calm surf of the flowing language. Several times I had to pause in shock at these formulations. Here is a quotation about the Feminotinnen\u2014self-confident, rough, self-determined fishermen\u2019s wives who keep themselves afloat by smuggling salt and with much, at times almost nihilistic, pragmatism:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>To imagine seeing them there, the old man told him, he should narrow his eyes as if to sharpen them and cast them upon those magnificent women stretched out there, to see them there and admire them in their Olympian calm, which they maintain in these end-time events, like immortals whom no cannon ever reached: there, far and unattainable, on the bed behind the door, as if in caves without echo, where they thought of the boat they had hauled ashore, safely stowed beneath their behinds, and where with their fingernails they stroked and prepared the place beside them, as if dragging the man into the house by the hair, onto the bed, into the homely hiding place of their bodies, by the hair, full of rage, out of this bastard war without love or salt, about which they therefore didn\u2019t give a damn. (p. 142)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book has many historical and cultural references that can probably be grasped even better with background information on the period and place\u2014such as the Mussolini regime, its symbolism, and its influence on society. These are usually explained in somewhat more detail within the story and often arise from the context. On a second, much more important and pronounced level, however, the author describes the people\u2014their pain and hopes\u2014and gives them ample, ample space to convey these to the reader. With great verbal power, with beautiful, apt sentences, with metaphorical interludes, sometimes tentative, sometimes with an almost coarse-seeming directness. And always together with the sea\u2014the untamable sea with its natural forces\u2014which governs the fate of these people as uncontrollably as the war does.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And for the beach vagabond it must be, every time, as if he were standing right before death and remembering the time lived and seeing his whole life again, as if the sea were pouring it over him, wave upon wave, there before him on the beach, year upon year, under the lashing spray, which lasts only moments. (p. 160)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unknown words and neologisms are explained within the story, usually also with their delicate meanings. I read over some of the neologisms; some you absorb unconsciously and understand well enough in context. Others, however, formed only a very abstract image for me\u2014like the word \u201cschampanjerselig\u201d or Arkelamekk\u2014roughly the way one has a feeling for mathematical relationships but would find it hard to explain them, such as the intersection of two bodies in eight-dimensional space.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are a multitude of words used very frequently in the book that are entirely unfamiliar before reading. One example is the term <em>Fere<\/em>, the fishermen\u2019s name for the local dolphins. In Sicilian this outdated, no longer common term means something like \u201cfish-beast.\u201d That is how the term is explained in the book; in the appendix it is derived from the Latin <em>ferus<\/em>, meaning wild, untamed, cruel. For the fishermen, dolphins are a major problem because they destroy the painstakingly knotted fishing nets\u2014the fishermen\u2019s livelihood. A large part of the book is therefore also dedicated to the struggle or war between the fishermen and the dolphins, in which the nuances of this problem and the linguistic use of <em>Fere<\/em> and dolphin are discussed, while at the same time creating another parable for the war of the Fascists.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is very interesting how D\u2019Arrigo derives this parable\u2014how the connection is presented with great complexity, almost like a deductive chain of argument, shaped by history and philosophy, and always clad in the garb of the sea. D\u2019Arrigo suddenly begins to tell of the sea creatures, the Fere\u2014how they live and how it is a mystery how they die of old age, and that no fisherman has ever seen an animal that perished from great age. From this opening, which spans many pages, the author describes how the protagonist \u2019Ndrja loses himself in a daydream. He dreams that he discovers the Fere swimming to an active volcano and seeking voluntary death in the flames of the eruption. Through this martyrdom, \u2019Ndrja elevates these animals, hated by the fishermen, into something higher, something pure and glorious. Suddenly the negatively charged, outdated term <em>Fere<\/em> is no longer used; instead, the word dolphin appears. In an immediately subsequent daydream, \u2019Ndrja imagines revealing this to the other fishermen from his home. But they do not want to hear his words; in a vivid comparison they trample the dolphins underfoot. D\u2019Arrigo goes further back and describes some scenes from \u2019Ndrja\u2019s past as a fisherman and soldier, which explain his ambivalent relationship with the Fere. In the end he lets all these fragments flow together, and then it becomes clear to the reader why he does this: all these experiences, thoughts, childhood memories\u2014all these individual stories and scenes\u2014are part of \u2019Ndrja\u2019s self-understanding and his worldview, and whoever wants to understand the soul of this fisherman with all its facets is given the foundation here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The detested Fere, which the Fascists lovingly call dolphins, are a parable for Mussolini and his regime, for fascism and the false glory in which it clothes itself. The Fere thus bears several layers of meaning and plays a comprehensive role in understanding \u2019Ndrja\u2019s inner world. It is a mirror of his struggle with himself, a wrestling with the war he has known\u2014in which he has, in a subtle way, made peace with the Fere\u2014and his return home to his original soul, which despises the Fere to the core.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>It was as if he were returning there, farther than even the time and place to which he already saw himself returned, there, into the now, to the shores of the Feminoten country: returned from the war, which was a war, and different from their war; returned from the high seas of the continent, where nothing is known of the Fere, where only the dolphins are known, and he had come to know them too, which now, in a head gone wild from sleep, rise up like terrible apparitions\u2014shortly: returned from everything that had driven him away from the sea between Scylla and Charybdis and estranged him from the usual time, from the usual war against the Fere. (p. 213)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is fascinating is how D\u2019Arrigo, with great verbal power, links these parables\u2014each drawn from the marine world\u2014to the characters and their fates, and how he brings the fishermen\u2019s personalities to life and weaves them into their environment. And this shows something else impressively: \u2019Ndrja sees the world through his own eyes, those of a sailor and fisherman. There is no truth; what appears so clear and unambiguous to our minds is only an image of reality and lays no claim to validity. It is the whole influence of our prior life that always distorts our view in one direction or another.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another example of these deductive chains of argument that at times elicited an aha moment in me is the description of the scene in which \u2019Ndrja\u2019s unit capitulates, scuttles its own ship, and sets off for home. For almost a hundred pages, D\u2019Arrigo describes how the concept of the siren (for a mermaid) shaped \u2019Ndrja\u2019s youth and coming of age. Not boring or monotonous\u2014no: with sweeping yet interesting scenes from the fishermen\u2019s lives, with striking images of the mystical sirens. Only to show, in the end, with what clarity the decision to capitulate was made and how closely this decision is bound to the fishermen\u2019s soul.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What do I want to say with this detailed description of these elements from the book? It is a pleasure to read, and even though D\u2019Arrigo often writes very expansively, there are usually several meanings underlying his passages\u2014some that present themselves surprisingly clearly and understandably, others that emerge only after longer reflection. The text is so multifaceted that there is surely much more within it that will likely reveal itself only upon a second or third reading. From about page 100 I somehow, unconsciously, grasped this mode of writing and could then follow it easily\u2014floating along on the very long sentences that usually stretch over a quarter of a page, riding the swells of the language so similar to the sea. From about page 300 I then understood how this book is structured from a macroscopic perspective and why it is considered such a significant work. What D\u2019Arrigo composes here is laid out on multiple levels of abstraction and produces a psychologically, frighteningly true portrait of the fishermen\u2014people who could hardly be more distant from me culturally and historically, yet who suddenly feel very close.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story also largely consists of the portrayal of the various characters whom \u2019Ndrja encounters, with D\u2019Arrigo crafting a very clear picture of each person. This is made up of what they tell, but especially how they tell it\u2014how they interact with their environment while doing so, and the body language with which it happens. I often had the impression that what I read unfolded in real time\u2014in other words, the events occurred roughly as quickly as I needed to read them. That may sound long-winded, but because of the complexity of these characters I never grew tired of it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through these encounters, the clear trail of the war becomes visible and, in a rather subtle way, it reaches the reader. You learn, apparently in passing, that in the strait between Sicily and Calabria numerous fallen soldiers drift along in the current\u2014repeatedly washing ashore, sometimes carried to the coast by dolphins. Or you sense the grief of the women left behind, whose men, with great enthusiasm, went off to the Fascists\u2019 war and now are exposed to everyday horrors\u2014perhaps to find their own washed up there along the shores. The inner struggle accompanying all these people can be found somewhere between the sea\u2019s swells, for it is omnipresent in the lives of these people and in this book (a fact I simply have to keep emphasizing because it is so significant that it keeps forcing itself to the fore\u2014even in this retrospective).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is divided into four parts. The first covers the journey home and describes the bloody trail of the war that \u2019Ndrja encounters along the way. The second part is devoted to \u2019Ndrja\u2019s father, Caitanello, who recounts what happened during the war. In some expansive explanations by D\u2019Arrigo, the reader also learns a great deal about \u2019Ndrja, his youth, and the life and culture of the fishermen. The third part then describes the orca\u2014the <em>Orcinus orca<\/em>, the great killer whale\u2014in great detail. The fourth part deals with how the war changed the people, society, life\u2014and the fishermen themselves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While \u2019Ndrja remains more in the background in the first part and the stories of the people he meets on his return take center stage, he moves much more into the foreground in the second part. His way of thinking and acting was, for me, easy to follow here, and only from this point could I really empathize with \u2019Ndrja\u2014also seeing how the war changed the fishermen\u2019s fragile habitat and how great an influence it had on the region. It also becomes clear how backward Sicily was at the time. At this point, too, I was very impressed by the clarity and imagery with which D\u2019Arrigo describes the war:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>In the blink of an eye the whoremonger-soldier [a metaphor for the war at the front] came again to sun-heated strength and struck about with catastrophes: dead, wounded, torn-off limbs, flames, explosions, ruptured bodies, foaming waves of blood, smoke and black craters, screams and whimpering\u2014German and Italian, American and English lament\u2014which at this point, however, all emitted in the same language; they all wore the same uniform, they all died the same death, they all fell by the hand of the whoremonger-soldier heated by the sun. (p. 579)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the second part, in the stories told by Caitanello, \u2019Ndrja\u2019s father, the experiences are narrated very extensively from his perspective. It\u2019s understandable why D\u2019Arrigo ranges so widely, and the picture of the fishermen that you gain is very detailed; yet I think, as in a few places in the book, somewhat less text would probably have sufficed to give the reader a comprehensive picture. In addition, the book no longer seemed to have such a clear thread here. The stories, which reach into the near and somewhat more distant past, often feel expansive. For example, there is an account of \u2019Ndrja\u2019s first experiences with the opposite sex which, alongside several other scenes, does indeed reveal a coherent picture of the fishermen\u2019s culture and soul. Nevertheless, I was not bored, because D\u2019Arrigo\u2019s way of telling has something very encompassing\u2014it reaches not only the characters\u2019 actions but always touches their innermost being. He combines things very skillfully and creates a clear picture through contrasts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There were several scenes that somehow shocked and moved me. One describes a German soldier who, during the retreat from Naples, loses contact with his comrades with his tank and is eventually cornered by local boys about thirteen years old. The way the soldier faces death\u2014and especially how the locals do; the light in which this man appears to them; and, very cleverly woven into this image, a young girl with her blind father\u2014all this is quite a powerful combination.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Equally emotional is the story of Federico, a childhood friend of \u2019Ndrja, whose right hand is mangled in combat. The way he tells his story and how he, too, is embedded in this environment\u2014in the Sicilian landscape that takes possession of everything in the book\u2014and the bitterness that lies in it, again expressed with absolute perfection:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>He put his hunk of flesh [meaning the mutilated hand] back into its sheath and pulled the cord with his teeth: again he turned his gaze to the sun, which stood high over the middle of the strait, and looked at it as something terrible and sad, like a cold sun without warmth, a bygone, distant sun, one of the suns that once, in times of peace, shone upon the good boy and the whole horde of his milk-bearded friends; he looked at it in a way that tightens the heart, like a memory, with an apathetic, passionless eye that stood closer to the moon than to the sun. (p. 714)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The third part, ostensibly about the orca\u2014the killer whale\u2014and its significance for the fishermen, slows the book\u2019s pace once again. Here D\u2019Arrigo delves deeply into the mythical image the fishermen have of this sea creature that is almost unknown to them. Again it becomes clear how backward these people were, but also how harmoniously they were embedded in their environment and nature. Their superstition collides with reality; it often seems strange and was sometimes hard for me to relate to. A pronounced anthropomorphization of dolphins, orcas, etc., stands out in this book. On the other hand, I also liked this very much, as it gives rise, for instance, to the legend of the sirens\u2014mermaids who seduce sailors and fishermen, luring them into hidden submarine grottos to emasculate them there. With great detail and a truly evocative mood, a myth is brought back to life. Reading this is pure delight. That said, it must be stated clearly that from the third part onward the book does begin to feel long-winded. On the other hand, it is exciting to observe the sea\u2019s activity with the fishermen, and you get a very accurate insight into the <em>Pellisquadre<\/em>\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the fourth part the pace drops rapidly again (and that\u2019s saying something). Its central element is a dialogue that stretches over 200 pages and is dissected down to the smallest detail. A trimming here would certainly not have hurt. Of course, this depiction\u2014showing how even the most principled model fisherman is changed by war\u2014is quite worth reading, but the scope of the dialogue is a bit overdone. In this final part, a further explanation for the book\u2019s title also emerges. The orca in this story is a metaphor for the land, for the people\u2014above all the <em>Pellisquadres<\/em>\u2014and how they changed in wartime, how they were seized by a cynical, embittered, mocking, condescending worldview and succumbed to a certain hopelessness\u2014bereft of any ideal, so it seems to the protagonist. D\u2019Arrigo portrays all these traits in a dialogue and, quite deliberately, precedes this fourth part with an equally exact depiction of the orca. How D\u2019Arrigo can handle language is impressively demonstrated here, as he proceeds from the word <em>Barke<\/em> (barque), through (word)play to <em>Bare<\/em> (bier)\u2014for the fishermen sent their dead to sea and buried them on old, decommissioned barques. From <em>Bare<\/em> and <em>Barke<\/em> he arrives at <em>Arke<\/em>, extracted from the coined word <em>Arkelamekk<\/em>: the <em>Arke<\/em> as an emblem of the Ark for the <em>Pellisquadres<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That the orca is interwoven with the war, mirrors it, and that much in the novel is reflected in it is made explicit in several places:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Thus, not only the return of the Orcaferon took place there before them, but also the arrival of that English and American fleet in the port of Messina. [\u2026] Unless one allowed oneself to be misled into thinking that a fleet of war is also an Orcinuse\u2014that it too brings death. (p. 949)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so the <em>Orca<\/em>, the <em>Orcaferon<\/em>, the <em>Orcadaver<\/em>, the <em>Orcinuse<\/em>, the <em>T\u00f6din<\/em>\u2014all names the author gives this sea monster\u2014thus it is not only a metaphor but also a living portrait of death, which seems to hover perpetually over this book\u2014especially in the last part and most of all in this fourth part, which once again shows what war means for people and a country. And to underscore this transferred meaning of the orca, D\u2019Arrigo does what he masters: he changes the language\u2014and calls his book <em>Horcynus Orca<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: <em>Horcynus Orca<\/em> is a detailed portrait of the <em>Pellisquadre<\/em>\u2014the Sicilian fishermen\u2014their lives and their culture. It shows how the Second World War changed their lives, but also how their very own war against the dolphins and the adversities of everyday life is bound tightly to the sea. It shows their soul\u2014why they are as they are\u2014and not only depicts it but brings these simple people\u2019s special perspective back to life, making it tangible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This book\u2014with its wonderful sentences, its unique language, its constant exposure to the influence of the sea, its realistic look at war but also its dreamlike gaze at ancient myths\u2014is a masterpiece. It plays in the premier league; for me it can be named in the same breath as Tolstoy or Dumas, who created similarly outstanding, timeless language and cultural depiction.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, <em>Horcynus Orca<\/em> is very extensive and demands a great deal of attention and time from the reader. In some places the story becomes very slow, and D\u2019Arrigo delves very deeply into individual people and trains of thought. Sometimes this is still very entertaining; often the reader is rewarded with a richly detailed feeling; sometimes, however, it feels rather distracting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An epic that is highly recommended\u2014and one whose reading I can only recommend to anyone who does not shy away from its length and loves the sea.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tip:<\/strong> Anyone reading this book will encounter many foreign words and neologisms. It sometimes happened to me that I skipped over them the first time\u2014when they are sometimes explained in more detail. Paging back to find something is really difficult given the sheer volume of text. Fortunately, Google offers a full-text search of the book: <a title=\"Horcynus Orca bei Google\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1D9Fal1\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/1D9Fal1<\/a>. There you can search the book (see the search field on the lower left) and also sort results by page. That way you can quickly find the passages where a word first appeared.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Book information:<\/strong> <em>Horcynus Orca<\/em> \u2022 Stefano D\u2019Arrigo \u2022 S. Fischer Verlag \u2022 1472 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783100153371<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of the Leipzig Book Fair\u2019s blog sponsorship, Horcynus Orca has already caused quite a stir in the blogosphere, generating a fair amount of attention. I had come across this classic\u2014which has been translated into another language for the first time\u2014earlier and wondered what might be hidden behind this book. This will probably be &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2015\/04\/horcynus-orca-stefano-darrigo\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Horcynus Orca \u2022 Stefano D&#8217;Arrigo&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Horcynus Orca \u2022 Stefano D'Arrigo - lesestunden","description":"Im Rahmen der Blogpatenschaft der Leipziger Buchmesse hat Horcynus Orca in der Bloggerwelt&nbsp;bereits f\u00fcr ein gewisses Ma\u00df an Aufsehen gesorgt. Ich bin schon"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-stefano-darrigo"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/darrigo_horcynus_orca.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}