The Discovery of Heaven

The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch



The reason I picked up this book at a second-hand bookstore, despite the copious amounts of dust stuck in between the pages, was because the opening lines seemed so unreal.

These two unnamed 'beings' are having a serious conversation, and it isn't very hard to figure out that the two are not of this world. They start talking about the possibilities of the DNA, the millions of years of planning, preparing, prophesying, etc.....and the perfect 'being' who would be born as a result of their grand master plot. And so the story revolves around a couple of characters who are irrevocably linked together, and whose relationships create that 'ultimate being' that the two unnamed characters talked about.

I feel that there is some great philosophical meaning in this book...

but if there was, I unfortunately was not smart enough to figure it out.

At first I thought it would be an interesting read, but the story seemingly jumps all over the place, making it hard to find the motivation to keep reading.

More importantly, I found myself very unhappy about the ending.

My favorite character dies, the mother of the 'ultimate being' also dies, the 'ultimate being' himself that the whole story was leading up to suddenly just disappears (poof), and the fate of the remaining characters (who were all those mediocre characters who I didn't pay much attention to) are left to the readers' imagination.

Really, I was left turning over the last pages of the book saying, "that's it?" And this after reading through 300+ pages of the thing.

Maybe it was the author's hidden intention to get rid of all the brilliant characters (well, some might argue that Onno is also brilliant, but I found his social skills to be convincingly lacking), but as a reader I can't help being disappointed when likeable characters die. Call me a shallow reader who can't appreciate true literature at its best; I want my favorite poeple to survive the story, if you please.

What made me finish the book, despite the inexplicable and sudden plethora of deaths, were the spontaneous bursts of in-depth criticisms and assumptions about society, war, people, fate, and the world ...  I found these very refreshing to read. I especially enjoyed Max's monologue right before the meteor hits him and wipes him out of existence within one sentence. Though I don't get all of it, I could just hear the gears in his brain going haywire over all those abstract theories.

Would I read this book again? No.

Would I reccomend it to other people? Probably not.

Will there be some people who like this book? Sure.

It all depends on your taste in books.

As for me, though I like to say I'm pretty broad in my range, this book didn't manage to hook me like so many others have.