Scan barcode
cobydillon14's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
j_wrathall's review against another edition
5.0
Melancholic beauty, fitting the bereavement of the later night. You can't tear your eyes away, as he could keep walking timeless Roman roads, shifting shores and through other people's tumbled lives.
jarichan's review against another edition
4.0
Aufmerksam gemacht wurde ich auf W.G. Sebald durch die "Zeitschrift für interkulturelle Germanistik", in der es einen Artikel über den deutschen Schriftsteller gab. Neugierig gemacht holte ich mir eines seiner berühmtesten Werke aus der Bibliothek: Die Ringe des Saturn.
Ein Mann, der spazieren geht. Klingt langweilig, ist es aber nicht. Tatsächlich fühlt es sich während des Lesens so an, als würden wir neben Sebald hergehen, uns die englische Landschaft anschauen und über Gott und die Welt diskutieren.
Denn genau das tut der Autor. Seine Beobachtungen bringen ihn auf immer neue Ideen, Zusammenhänge und Gedanken. Wir machen unterschiedliche Zeitreisen, lernen fremde Kulturen kennen und reisen einmal um die Welt, während wir durch das idyllische Suffolk flanieren. Gebannt lauscht der Leser den Erzählungen Sebalds, die mit ausserordentlich vielen Informationen aufwartet, teilweise biographisch angehaucht ist und manchmal auch ein paar Fantasiegebilde hervorbringt.
Ausgestattet ist das Buch sogar mit einigen Fotografien, die das Geschilderte darstellen. Damit hätte ich nicht gerechnet, aber es ist eine angenehme Überraschung. Da man sich so die Details, die Sebald erwähnt, besser vorstellen kann. Leider sind die Bilder bloss schwarz-weiss, sodass einige Kleinigkeiten in Tinte verschwinden.
Schriftstellerisch bewegt sich Sebald auf einem hohen, ausgereiften Niveau, jedoch ohne intellektuelle Hochnäsigkeit. Er drückt sich gewählt aus, verwendet auch viele Sach- und Fachwörter, sodass ich einige Ausdrücke nachschlagen konnte. Doch trotzdem wirkt diese Sprache passend, als ob sich der Autor auch persönlich im Alltag ihrer bedienen würde. Dies macht mir Sebald sehr symapthisch und es steht nicht ausser Frage, dass ich wieder zu einem Buch dieses Schriftstellers greifen werde.
Ein Mann, der spazieren geht. Klingt langweilig, ist es aber nicht. Tatsächlich fühlt es sich während des Lesens so an, als würden wir neben Sebald hergehen, uns die englische Landschaft anschauen und über Gott und die Welt diskutieren.
Denn genau das tut der Autor. Seine Beobachtungen bringen ihn auf immer neue Ideen, Zusammenhänge und Gedanken. Wir machen unterschiedliche Zeitreisen, lernen fremde Kulturen kennen und reisen einmal um die Welt, während wir durch das idyllische Suffolk flanieren. Gebannt lauscht der Leser den Erzählungen Sebalds, die mit ausserordentlich vielen Informationen aufwartet, teilweise biographisch angehaucht ist und manchmal auch ein paar Fantasiegebilde hervorbringt.
Ausgestattet ist das Buch sogar mit einigen Fotografien, die das Geschilderte darstellen. Damit hätte ich nicht gerechnet, aber es ist eine angenehme Überraschung. Da man sich so die Details, die Sebald erwähnt, besser vorstellen kann. Leider sind die Bilder bloss schwarz-weiss, sodass einige Kleinigkeiten in Tinte verschwinden.
Schriftstellerisch bewegt sich Sebald auf einem hohen, ausgereiften Niveau, jedoch ohne intellektuelle Hochnäsigkeit. Er drückt sich gewählt aus, verwendet auch viele Sach- und Fachwörter, sodass ich einige Ausdrücke nachschlagen konnte. Doch trotzdem wirkt diese Sprache passend, als ob sich der Autor auch persönlich im Alltag ihrer bedienen würde. Dies macht mir Sebald sehr symapthisch und es steht nicht ausser Frage, dass ich wieder zu einem Buch dieses Schriftstellers greifen werde.
sadiesargar's review against another edition
5.0
Where to even begin? This book is just as haunting to me now as it was when I first read it a decade ago. From my old marginalia, I can see that I had an entire system planned out in my reading, that like the silkweavers, I detected intricate patterns and was attempting to follow them, though for me it was enrapturing rather than enervating. I can’t say that I read it closely this time, but I think I may understand the book better — I think I feel a greater sense of time’s passing. When I was 25, I looked out at the world as though through a pinched aperture, and it limited how I could understand what I read here. Now, at 35, it’s easier for me to recognize that I bring myself to the text, which in turn makes it easier to let go of that a little bit. To be frank, I’m still not sure what Rings of Saturn is about, in the traditional sense. But I believe I’ll be reading it for the rest of my life — not so much to “get a grip” on it, but because it captures the sense of mourning and grief that comes with trying to make meaning in a world that often resists it. A beautiful book. My favorite book.
benhusting's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful. Beautiful, clear prose. Loved the rambling style. The book is a bit difficult to explain, but essentially, it’s a bit of a travelogue/journal/rumination on the nature of time and decay that frequently slips into digressions on odd stories and myths and rumors of history - always with a surprising connective through line. Pretty great.
The reason it took me 8 months to read it is I started it after graduating from college, read it for about a week, enjoying it, before getting the sudden urge to revisit The Power Broker and give it one more try after I had read 100 pages of that book 2 years before and given up on it. Well, I got sucked in to The Power Broker, that was my book of choice all summer, then I moved to Chicago, returned to The Rings of Saturn, was back to enjoying it, I read the penultimate chapter the night before my first day of class - and then law school started and I didn’t read non-law material for a whole quarter plus winter break. Finally picked it back up and finished the dang thing this Saturday morning when I couldn’t handle it staring back at me from the coffee table for another day.
New year, new goal - for 2023, I’m gonna try to be way better about reading books outside of school this year. Gonna try to hit 20! (Although it would be funny if January 2024 rolls around and this is still my most recent post)
The reason it took me 8 months to read it is I started it after graduating from college, read it for about a week, enjoying it, before getting the sudden urge to revisit The Power Broker and give it one more try after I had read 100 pages of that book 2 years before and given up on it. Well, I got sucked in to The Power Broker, that was my book of choice all summer, then I moved to Chicago, returned to The Rings of Saturn, was back to enjoying it, I read the penultimate chapter the night before my first day of class - and then law school started and I didn’t read non-law material for a whole quarter plus winter break. Finally picked it back up and finished the dang thing this Saturday morning when I couldn’t handle it staring back at me from the coffee table for another day.
New year, new goal - for 2023, I’m gonna try to be way better about reading books outside of school this year. Gonna try to hit 20! (Although it would be funny if January 2024 rolls around and this is still my most recent post)
lini_pan's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
phantomvirus's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful book about a world in decay with no hope of regeneration.
"No matter how often I tell myself that chance happenings of this kind occur far more often than we suspect, since we all move, one after the other, along the same roads mapped for us by our origins and our hopes, my rational mind is nonetheless unable to lay the ghosts of repetition what haunt me with ever greater frequency."
"No matter how often I tell myself that chance happenings of this kind occur far more often than we suspect, since we all move, one after the other, along the same roads mapped for us by our origins and our hopes, my rational mind is nonetheless unable to lay the ghosts of repetition what haunt me with ever greater frequency."
seventhswan's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't know what to expect from this part-fiction, part non-fiction book and I was pleasantly surprised - I learnt things, and it was nice to read more about the history of places I visited growing up.
brookexwest's review against another edition
4.0
‘Combustion is the hidden principle behind every artefact we create. The making of a fish-hook, manufacture of a china cup, or production of a television programme, all depend on the same process of combustion. Like our bodies and like our desires, the machines we have devised are possessed of a heart which is slowly reduced to embers.’
A lovely book written about a guy (the author) taking a long, rambling walk through Suffolk and Norfolk who digresses onto various tangents about the past, history, and things that have been long forgotten. It has a beautiful and melancholy tone, focusing on how some things that were once grand and admired have now faded away, been demolished, or have decayed and crumbled down the side of cliff faces. I really enjoyed it and the way that Sebald manipulates time, knitting the forgotten past into his present as he walks across East Anglia’s haunting and (at times) lonely landscapes.
Some parts were tedious and I found myself switching off, especially the final chapter about silk worms. Others, though, were really heartbreaking, like the story about William Browne and Edward Fitzgerald, and the disease that wiped out hundreds-years-old generations of great trees and what this meant to the owners of the orchards. A thoughtful and meandering novel, although definitely not for everyone.
A lovely book written about a guy (the author) taking a long, rambling walk through Suffolk and Norfolk who digresses onto various tangents about the past, history, and things that have been long forgotten. It has a beautiful and melancholy tone, focusing on how some things that were once grand and admired have now faded away, been demolished, or have decayed and crumbled down the side of cliff faces. I really enjoyed it and the way that Sebald manipulates time, knitting the forgotten past into his present as he walks across East Anglia’s haunting and (at times) lonely landscapes.
Some parts were tedious and I found myself switching off, especially the final chapter about silk worms. Others, though, were really heartbreaking, like the story about William Browne and Edward Fitzgerald, and the disease that wiped out hundreds-years-old generations of great trees and what this meant to the owners of the orchards. A thoughtful and meandering novel, although definitely not for everyone.
ladybell's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0