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csoederholm's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
casparb's review against another edition
It's Sebald it's unique (while being very much echoic of Saturn) it's on a different level & the kind of literary event we don't encounter so much in the past couple decades. I sense there's probably debate between this and Saturn which I'm mostly not interested in they've enough personality each that I'm satisfied! Love u max wish you weren't dead
slichto3's review against another edition
1.0
I am more glad to have this book behind me than any I have ever read. I wish I could at least say I was proud that I finished it, but this was just painful to read. I don't know if it's because it was translated from another language, but the prose is awful. I've read that a lot of people find it beautiful, but I found it boring and excessive and pointless. There are no real characters in this book. There is no real plot. It's just one long, cruddy story from some self-absorbed idiot. I am astonished at the praise this book has received - I will never read it again. It is really not worth the time.
chicokc's review against another edition
4.0
Un sujeto conoce a otro sujeto en una estación de tren y se ponen a recordar cosas.
Pero la belleza, la forma en las que se recuerdan las cosas, el caminar para recordarlas y la vivencia de la memoria de Austerlitz es un regalo a la literatura.
Pero la belleza, la forma en las que se recuerdan las cosas, el caminar para recordarlas y la vivencia de la memoria de Austerlitz es un regalo a la literatura.
kingarooski's review against another edition
4.0
Austerlitz is not an easy read. A book that spans over 400 pages, with no chapter breaks or paragraphs. It's one long stream of consciousness, except that it's not. But it is a book that benefits from long, uninterrupted reads. Reads that I do not get. So that's my only quibble with the book; a quibble that's more due to my life than the book itself.
Austerlitz follows the encounter of our unnamed narrator with Jacques Austerlitz, one of the children on the kindertransport out of war-torn Europe to the relative safety of the UK. As soon as the four year-old Austerlitz gets to his British family, in Wales, they strip him of his identity and give him a new name. Growing up in the cold (both physically and emotionally) house in Bala with two distant adults for company, Austerlitz stagnates. Only the escape to a boarding school brings him some satisfaction, to the point where the loathes going home at holidays. It's during his time at the boarding school that he first finds out that his actual name is very different from the one he has been using for much of his life.
Our narrator encounters Austerlitz infrequently, but each time the story picks up without introductions or unnecessary small talk. Slowly, through the meandering tale that he tells, we find out about his past. Or rather, what Austerlitz found out about his past. The tangents and extra information are wonderful snippets of a great mind, but I can see how these would be irritating to some readers.
We find out parts of his past gradually, but there's no happy ending there. I preferred it that way; a happy ending in such a book would seem forced and fake. Instead, some of the threads are left open with hints as to what happened.
This is a brilliant book, but it isn't for everyone. The lack of structure, or the seeming lack of structure, will put some people off. I really wished that I could have gone away for a few days, sat down and read the book without the interruptions that my life contains. It would have been a far more satisfying way of reading the book.
Austerlitz follows the encounter of our unnamed narrator with Jacques Austerlitz, one of the children on the kindertransport out of war-torn Europe to the relative safety of the UK. As soon as the four year-old Austerlitz gets to his British family, in Wales, they strip him of his identity and give him a new name. Growing up in the cold (both physically and emotionally) house in Bala with two distant adults for company, Austerlitz stagnates. Only the escape to a boarding school brings him some satisfaction, to the point where the loathes going home at holidays. It's during his time at the boarding school that he first finds out that his actual name is very different from the one he has been using for much of his life.
Our narrator encounters Austerlitz infrequently, but each time the story picks up without introductions or unnecessary small talk. Slowly, through the meandering tale that he tells, we find out about his past. Or rather, what Austerlitz found out about his past. The tangents and extra information are wonderful snippets of a great mind, but I can see how these would be irritating to some readers.
We find out parts of his past gradually, but there's no happy ending there. I preferred it that way; a happy ending in such a book would seem forced and fake. Instead, some of the threads are left open with hints as to what happened.
This is a brilliant book, but it isn't for everyone. The lack of structure, or the seeming lack of structure, will put some people off. I really wished that I could have gone away for a few days, sat down and read the book without the interruptions that my life contains. It would have been a far more satisfying way of reading the book.
stewman's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
garrett_schaffs's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0