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So why is this book doing so well? Ole Vind, who teaches philosophy at a Danish high school, believes more and more people are seeking the answers to life's mystery in what he calls "the real thing" rather than in astrology or pseudo-religion. On both sides of the Atlantic, the book is being used as a text in college philosophy courses. And despite the author's disdain for New Age spirituality, Thomas Hallock, marketing director of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, suggests that Sophie's World appeals to the kind of reader who made Jonathan Livingston Seagull a touchy-feely hit of the '70s.
Still, Sophie's World may not be for everyone. The characters are half- dimensional, the plot creaks, and Gaarder's prose (or the translation by Paulette Moller) has a distinct flavor of bark. As fiction, Sophie's World deserves no better than a D+. But as a precis of great thought, Gaarder's tour de force rates a solid B.