"(Hedayat) conveys more vividly than Kafka or Poe the state of madness...(The Blind Owl is) a terrifying whorl of incidents that turns and twists upon itself to re-create the labyrinthine movements of an insane mind."~San Francisco Chronicle
"If you ever happen to go mad it will no doubt unfold precisely the way it is described here in The Blind Owl. It will be haunting, harrowing, and not without humor. Sadegh Hedayat, through the eyes of his younger Iranian opium addict, has provided a penetrating and unflinching look into all of us. We owe him a debt of gratitude for this work of art."~Said Sayrafiezadeh
Recognized as the outstanding Iranian writer of the century, Sadegh Hedayat is credited with having brought his country's language and literature into the mainstream of contemporary writing. The Blind Owl, long considered a classic and often compared to the works of Poe, chillingly recreates the labyrinthine movements of a deranged mind. Through a series of intricately woven events that revolve around the same set of mental images--an old man with a spine chilling laugh, four cadaverous black horses with rasping coughs, a hidden urn of poison wine--the narrator is compelled to record his obsession with a beautiful woman even as it drives him further into frenzy and madness.
My thought
Considered one of the most important works of modern Iranian literature, The Blind Owl is a haunting tale of loss and spiritual degradation. Replete with potent symbolism and terrifying surrealistic imagery, Sadegh Hedayat's masterpiece details a young man's despair after losing a mysterious lover. As the narrator gradually drifts into madness, the reader becomes caught in the sandstorm of Hedayat's bleak vision of the human condition.
The writing was poetic, and there were some beautiful descriptions hidden amongst the dark thoughts:
The sun, sucking with a thousand mouths, was drawing the sweat of my body. The desert plants looked, under the great, blazing sun, like so many patches of turmeric. The sun was like a feverish eye. It poured its burning rays from the depth of the sky over the silent, lifeless landscape.
What I would suggest is to read this book yourself over and over, each time you will discover a new amazing aspect of it. The astonishing pioneer language skill of the writer makes this book outstanding in Iranian history of writing. Since this book has a way too much more to say than I can say now, I'd rather suggest reading it and concentrating on how writer takes you to his world at the first place and makes you Live in it. for me...well, i LOVED it. :)
Sadegh Hedayat was Iran's most renowned modern fiction writer, and The Blind Owl is considered his seminal work, a huanting tale of loss and spiritual degradation. Hedayat was born to an aristocratic family in Tehran, where he spent most of his life. Hedayat translated into Persian the work of Kafka and Chekhov, and published a number of original stories and novellas in his short literary career. In 1951, during a visit to Paris, Hedayat committed suicide
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