Austerlitz
Posted by Lanea on Monday, February 6th, 2006
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald. There’s a good chance I picked the wrong time to read this book. Reading about the holocaust and its affects while experiencing any sort of trauma is dicey. Reading a book almost entirely without paragraph breaks that is also about the holocaust is downright ill-advised. Nevertheless, I loved the book, but I read it slowly and then thought about it for a good while before reviewing it.
As usual, I kept wondering how much better this book was in the original German. I get the sense that the translator did well in communicating the clipped dryness of an aging man trying to hide his anguish as he recounts his familial tragedy. It’s a story about a man who was once a boy whose parents and home were snatched from him by genocidal bureaucrats. That’s really all that needs be said.
Filed in Books | 2 responses so far
Bevinon 07 Feb 2006 at 12:10 pm 1The next town over from my aunt and uncle in NY is Austerlitz. Its just a little tiny town, and has a great bakery. Think happy llamas and Scottish Highland Cattle and concertinas and Morris dancing and scones. That’s what Austerlitz means to me. Love – b
vion 07 Feb 2006 at 4:35 pm 2I was reading about a man who’s mother was dying of brain cancer while my mother was dying of bone cancer…..
I don’t know HOW that happened but that was my ‘waiting for radiation’ reading
don’t try that at home
vi