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26th out of 225 books
—
243 voters
The Golden Mean (Griffin & Sabine Trilogy #3)
by
Nick Bantock
Sabine -- I was sure I understood. Yet you were not here when I returned and there was no sign that you ever had been here.... Today comes your card saying you were in this house for three days after my return. I am bewildered. I need you badly. -- GriffinIn this final volume of the phenomenal, best-selling trilogy begun with Griffin & Sabine and continued in Sabine's...more
Hardcover, 48 pages
Published
August 1st 1993
by Chronicle Books
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This beautiful trilogy of fascinating novels, in which the reader pulls out the letters and reads the postcards of the two main characters, was a quick, but not entirely easy read for me. One could finish the entire trilogy in an hour or two, but I found myself lingering over the artwork, trying to discover the hidden messages and meanings in the drawings and paintings. The ending of "The Golden Mean" (the last of the trilogy) left me a bit dissatisfied, until I realized it had to end that way....more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Griffin is once again in London and Sabine is once again on Katie. They believe in one another, but the strangeness around their inability to meet has them desperate to find a way to do so. Each correspondence draws them closer to a possibility, while also exposing them to dangers that are stalking them.
Personally, I didn't care for The Golden Mean as much as I did for the previous two. Don't get me wrong... it was a good book and one that I'm glad to have read. But it just didn't seem to have t...more
Personally, I didn't care for The Golden Mean as much as I did for the previous two. Don't get me wrong... it was a good book and one that I'm glad to have read. But it just didn't seem to have t...more
The mystery concludes, but is not solved. I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first two mostly because the number of unanswered questions was too large. I still think it was really good, just slightly unsatisfying in a way that is actually appropriate to the nature of the book. The only narration comes from the characters who are living their lives oblivious to being observed, when they stop writing letters you stop hearing about their lives. As their relationship changes they maintain it in...more
Bantock's bewitching trilogy, begun with "Griffin & Sabine" and "Sabine's Notebook", ends with this characteristically curious installment. Once again, Bantock employs his singular brand of visual sorcery to create postcards, stamps and letters that ostensibly travel between two artists -- Griffin, a Londoner who has just completed an around-the-world journey, and South Pacific islander Sabine, who insists she awaited his return in London, yet left no sign of her presence.
As Griffin wonders...more
As Griffin wonders...more
Oct 27, 2012
Graceann
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Griffin and Sabine fans
Shelves:
epistolary-novels
The Golden Mean concludes the correspondence between Griffin and Sabine, and even adds a villain.
By now, I'm spoiled by the beautiful artwork and the actual letters and envelopes, which are just delicious to handle. The story gets a little confusing, and because it is intentionally so short, there are many questions left unanswered at the end. This may be what the author intended, but I still found it slightly unsatisfying. As he has one of the characters state in the first book, it is importan...more
By now, I'm spoiled by the beautiful artwork and the actual letters and envelopes, which are just delicious to handle. The story gets a little confusing, and because it is intentionally so short, there are many questions left unanswered at the end. This may be what the author intended, but I still found it slightly unsatisfying. As he has one of the characters state in the first book, it is importan...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is the final book in the first Griffin and Sabine trilogy. The tension builds with Griffin returning to London and finding Sabine was never there, yet she claims she waited for them. Are they existing in parallel worlds, connected only by their correspondence and Sabine's visions. They work to meet and are worried by the blurring of the connection between them and a threatening figure who claims to be investigating them. I really felt for the two main characters and worried about their fate...more
When these books were brand-new it seemed everyone was reading them. I got the first two right away, but the third was sold out for ages and by the time I was able to read it I'd mostly forgotten the first part of the story. It was an interesting idea, popular possibly because people do get excited about the idea of reading someone's mail, being a voyeur, peeking into somebody else's life as if uninvited, whereas most books tell a story to the reader, so they feel like they're not trespassing.
I...more
I...more
I read all three books in one go, excited by the tactile experience of snooping through personal correspondence and charmed by the imagery. But at the end of this strange journey I feel like there really wasn't much substance. Sure, there's the mystery of how Sabine & Griffin can exist in different planes or parallel times. Sure, the images on their one-off postcards could probably be scrutinized for deep orientalist fanatasies, class distinctions, or whatever. But so many elements--the 'vil...more
As I loved the first and the second book, I am more than satisfied with the end of this last one. In my opinion, I believe that this conclusion can be compared with the first part, because it have the same intrigue and mystery...
The paintings give again that edgy style that I so much loved; the characters show their fearful side of losing each other, of losing their "eternal love".
The end was a little bit difficult to understand for me, but I thinks was for the feeling of "shock" while I was r...more
The paintings give again that edgy style that I so much loved; the characters show their fearful side of losing each other, of losing their "eternal love".
The end was a little bit difficult to understand for me, but I thinks was for the feeling of "shock" while I was r...more
Still just as beautiful to look at and read, Bantock's trilogy concludes--but not really. By the end of this third installment, I still had many of the same questions I did at the end of the first. I don't think the series has lost its "magic," per se. I was just looking for more resolution...
I'm assuming many readers felt the same way as I did, considering that Bantock went on to write three more books in the series. I'm intrigued and will be reading them soon, but I must admit I'm mildly frust...more
I'm assuming many readers felt the same way as I did, considering that Bantock went on to write three more books in the series. I'm intrigued and will be reading them soon, but I must admit I'm mildly frust...more
A gift from my friend Jenny. Griffin & Sabine, Sabine’s Notebook, and The Golden Mean, by Nick Bantock. Part art, part romance, part mystery, these are short, almost “picture” books with correspondence between a woman in the South Pacific and a man in London she has never met, but “knows” through his art. They were haunting and touching and definitely intriguing. I really enjoyed them up until the last page of the last of the three, which I felt didn’t give me any real answers or closure. St...more
This, the final book of the trilogy, leaves the reader still in a quandary about the mystery of the two correspondents, with the conclusion implied. A new letter-writing character is introduced—Victor Frolatti, apparently a doctor of some sort who’s interested in Griffin & Sabine's one-way visual telepathy. His curiosity frightens Sabine and is the impetus to their finding a resolution to their living in parallel universes. Bantock’s imagination takes one into the realm of the impossible—wei...more
The Golden Mean, being the last book in the Griffin & Sabine trilogy, concludes as mysteriously as the other two. The art work is still entrancing, and the story line kept me turning the pages. The book ended leaving me with many questions, certainly it will require a second reading so I can ponder over details that I may have missed in my hurry to see the next page. This is a beautiful set of books and they will certainly be pulled off the bookshelf throughout the years.
The last in a series of magical, fun and interactive books. The letters (inserted in the book inside fabulous envelopes), make you feel as though you're reading actual correspondence between the characters. Fabulously creative book and story. Well worth a read. While not quite as good as the first two in the series, it's a must read simply to finish the story. The books he wrote after that don't feel as creative, but more like publishing just to publish.
Here's the BIG pay off! And it's TOTALLY worth it. If you've been following along wondering, will they? Won't they? Where the hell are they and why the heck can't they get their shite together?
Then this is the greatest artistic love story, EVER. With the most beautifully illustrated postcards, notes, envelopes, that transcend even the most hard hearted of you out there. (Like me!)
Art is life, and if you throw some love in there with it, it's magical.
Then this is the greatest artistic love story, EVER. With the most beautifully illustrated postcards, notes, envelopes, that transcend even the most hard hearted of you out there. (Like me!)
Art is life, and if you throw some love in there with it, it's magical.
Nick Bantock's third pop-up-book-for-adults leads readers to a conclusion of this tactile and visual journey. Readers will find Bantock's approach to storytelling familiar, as they flip through about 50 pages of postcards with the occasional letter in an envelope to explore. The story offers a conclusion of sorts to the tantalizing mystery and lovesickness of the protagonists, while cleverly introducing an antagonist.
The letters/postcards thing continues. I thought this was the conclusion (wouldn't you?) but as I sat down to write the review I learn the author continued with a 4, 5, and 6. Hmm. I thought as a final book it was compelling, leaving you to decide what you believe really happened but not really leaving things just hanging. I thought that was kind of a nice way to package the story. But he continued? Really? Why?
I once went to a Nick Bantock reading where he boasted of his success in the face of his teachers of English literature who had, to put it nicely, not encouraged him. This reading, and I suspect a large part of the book tour, was a proud snub in the face of all that. He was intent upon getting the message out that his teachers had told him that he couldn't write and, boy, had he shown them. Having read the first book of the series, I would have proudly stood to his defense, in full agreement. Th...more
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Well, as many other readers/reviewers have noted, the conclusion is not there. The twist is too bizarre even to come to any personal conclusion. So there is a second trilogy. I just think they were mis-packaged, then: don't call it one trilogy and then another but a six-part series (that is, if the sixth does indeed end the story, both in publishing and in storytelling).
i have to admit, i was slightly disappointed with the conclusion of the G&S trilogy -- it seemed a bit too deus ex machina to me. the story was built upon so much wonderful tension and magic that i didn't feel was really appropriately resolved. still and all, a wonderfully involving story that any self-affirmed dreamer or romantic would do well to read.
Mesmerizing series. The dreamy artwork is still interesting, but the correspondence feels rushed in this installment, and worse, the exchange of postcards and letters does not reveal as much about Griffin or Sabine as in the previous books. Bit of an abrupt ending. Again. I am satisfied with the picture on the last postcard, but it left me wanting.
Okay, I really like these books because they are lovely and interesting. But I don't get it. Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I don't really understand what's going on between Griffin and Sabine, though I understand that they finally get to be together in this one. I don't know. I'll read the next series and see if it sheds anymore light for me.
Found it at the 2nd hand for a quarter. I love that. Read it over breakfast. A smidge disappointed by the ending being so vague; obviously they have a child and are together. Maud & Fritolli seem opposites so those unanswered questions don't really need responses. But still, a postcard home to Mom or Dad would have been a cooler ending.
This is a beautiful and haunting little series...a book composed entirely of letters and postcards between two folks who have never met, who live worlds apart, yet who somehow know each other. And with each page you get to read the postcards, pull letters from envelopes, unfold each gorgeously illustrated correspondence. Unforgettabl
what! ! ! ! ! I have so many questions. I even did an online search for critical analysis or if Mr. Bantock had ever given any specific insight. T H E R E I S N O T H I N G that makes any sense. Kind of like Wikipedia: what can you really believe?
I apparently have no choice. I will have to read the The Morning Star Trilogy.
I apparently have no choice. I will have to read the The Morning Star Trilogy.
oh so thrilling! a third character enters the picture and threatens to destroy their relationship. i'm still torn as to whether sabine is real. i was convinced she wasn't real by the start of the third book but then by the middle i was sure she was real. ahhh! bantock, you're killing me! great trilogy, though. beautiful artwork, awesome designs, and a great concept for a story.
Images, mail, mystery: yes, yes, yes. I don't know that the conclusion of this trilogy (I think there are actually more books in the series, but it started out as a trilogy) is especially satisfying, but at least it offers a potential sense of closure, unlike certain other recent finales to fictional undertakings I could mention (L Word, I'm talking to you).
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Feb 26, 2013 02:32pm