I like taking this book out for a long night stroll. Maybe it's lightly raining, of course it's dark with only street lights to light up the words on the page. It moves me through and through Lord! Child! it shorely am good it good it good! it so damn good!

this book is unusually thruthful and gripped me from the beginning to the very end - maybe because of the fact that I have something in common with Franklin. So convincinglty written , I'd like to have met the protagonist !

The publication (or to be more accurate, re-publication) in English of Sten Nadolny's The Discovery of Slowness is a major literary event, not only for connoisseurs of fine historical fiction, but also for those of us who concern themselves with leadership, communication and systems-thinking issues.

First published in Germany in 1983, this powerful novel of the life of explorer John Franklin has never been out-of-print in that country since. This is certainly due in part to its stature as a cleanly-written, keenly-observed literary impression of a chaotic age not dissimilar to our own, and of a man whose slower rhythm seems out of joint with that age. What has contributed to the book's longevity in the meantime, however, is the cult-status it enjoys among managers and leaders as a portrayal of a type of leadership that all eras cry out for: the ability to perceive the world not merely at the level of isolated events, but at a level of deep structure where the dynamics of the whole system are revealed, and plans can be made based on better data and profounder understanding.

John Franklin is uniquely suited to play this role: "slow" from birth, he experiences the world as an endless cycle of data-gathering, reflection, and action based on the systemic patterns that reveal themselves to his silent contemplation. The fact that that action can not only be more appropriate than what other, "faster" contemporaries would have initiated, but also swifter in execution and more permanent in its effect, only insinuates itself slowly on a society caught up in the frenetic pace of the early 1800's. One simply does not have the time; doing takes precedence over reflection and doing.

It is, however, through his in-born inability to act in any other manner that John Franklin's career is made, first as a seaman, then as a hero at Trafalgar, as the captain of 3 expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage that instinct tells him must exist, and as the Governor of Tasmania. Author Nadolny is, one suspects, as much concerned with his protagonist's inner journey of adaptation to the world (and the world's to him) as with the external details that lead up to the final, fateful voyage to the Arctic regions and the disappearance of the Franklin expedition in 1845. The measure of Nadolny's artistic success is that he achieves our undivided attention and caring at both levels with his breathtakingly simple prose.

Penguin books has done us a great service by re-releasing the elegant Ralph Freedman translation, once fleetingly available from Viking. For people in search of an elegant humanitarian classic, or a portrayal of the much-touted "servant leadership" in action, The Discovery of Slowness may well be the discovery of the summer. And those who agree about its status as a contemporary classic will want to investigate the same author's delicious Hermes-novel, The God of Impertinence, also newly published by Viking

Comic stories about gods walking among present day mortals are nothing new. The classic is Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but there are several exemplary twentieth century works, including my personal favorite, Thorne Smith's The Night Life of the Gods, and some of Tom Holt's recent fantasies. And it is easy to understand why the combination is popular--the author gets to comment on the foibles of mortality from an omniscient viewpoint without having to worry about going through any middleman.

The god of the title is Hermes (or Mercury if you prefer Romanization), who has been chained to a rock in the Aegean Sea by Zeus because of his disrespect. Zeus, being somewhat less intelligent than powerful, promptly forgets about him for a few thousand years. The novel opens with him obtaining his freedom by natural processes (a volcano) and being observed by Helga, a passenger on a passing cruise ship.

Great opening, but for some reason it never seems to rise above it, and constantly disappoints. Maybe it is a factor of the translation that the story seems to shift around. I could never tell if Helga was aware of Hermes' divinity or if she was an immortal herself. Some of the social commentary comes through, but never enough to break through the plot confusion.

The Greek god Hermes suddenly is released from his 2000 year imprisonment in a volcano. Only a seemingly innocent tourist from East germany sees his escape. However, the tourist, Helga, is actually Helle, the girl who fell from the Golden Ram into the Hellespont.

Hermes is now in the 20th Century and has a larger world to cover than that of ancient Greece. He also needs to discover why Hephaestus released him. In seemingly directionless wandering throughout Europe (but not to Athens which is forbidden to him), and by incredible means, Hermes discovers that Hephaestus has increased his knowledge of manufacturing and technology to the point that he now is the most powerful god.

It takes time and some amazing coincidences for Hermes to discover what Hephaestus's plan for the world is. During his travels, Hermes meets many ancient gods and spirits who still exist but are almost impotent because man barely remembers them. Hephaestus has set up a new but powerless god on the cross to distract people from the true source of power.

Nadolny has given brief reminders of who some of the gods were and how they changed over time. The Hermes of the ancient Greeks is certainly a god of impertinence, though he did have some serious responsibilities layered onto him as the myths changed. In Nadolny's book, Hermes is somewhat irreverent, but more he acts like a cynical secret agent who feels he is the only one who can save the world from a mad megalomaniac.

There are entertaining episodes, and some very thin discussion of the role of gods in human life. But, all in all, the plot is contrived and implausible. Whenever there is an opening to develop a character or situation or to investigate a profound question, Nadolny backs away from it.

As for German readers it is the best told truth of the current situation I have read so far. Who loves greek mythology should have a light and amusing read, however do not expect it to be dull or low levelled! You will learn a lot about the German mentality. Even though the Germans are not always described as the most friendly entities, you'll like them nevertheless