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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Lots of tortured artists wailing and gnashing their teeth. Three stars for Death in Venice, one star for the rest of the stories.
This short story collection works extremely well as a unit, and reading these back to back gives a kaleidescopic, messy view of a city in motion. With a focus on the odd behaviors, ticks, and desires of difficult characters and story structures that are either distracted, scattered, or entirely plotless, Thomas Mann makes a strong argument that the minutia and randomness of real life is worthy of study and documentation.
It's possible I'm putting too much focus on the variety of lives and lifestyles in these stories about early 1900s Germany because of the giant looming historical context. But these occasionally quick stories feel like putting your face into someone's window and getting a good hard look at their conflicted private lives before moving on to the next house. I really appreciated how unflinching and respectful these stories are of what it means to be an individual among thousands of other individuals. The prose is gorgeous but sometimes veers into overindulgence, and the stories that lacked a strong narrative skeleton could be hard to connect with, but that's probably because I'm a baby about that kinda thing. The longer novellas featured here are especially great.
It's possible I'm putting too much focus on the variety of lives and lifestyles in these stories about early 1900s Germany because of the giant looming historical context. But these occasionally quick stories feel like putting your face into someone's window and getting a good hard look at their conflicted private lives before moving on to the next house. I really appreciated how unflinching and respectful these stories are of what it means to be an individual among thousands of other individuals. The prose is gorgeous but sometimes veers into overindulgence, and the stories that lacked a strong narrative skeleton could be hard to connect with, but that's probably because I'm a baby about that kinda thing. The longer novellas featured here are especially great.
Right. So I did try. But every time I picked the book up today, I fell asleep within the first few lines. The most I managed to surmise from the story was that Aschenbach wanted to go to Venice. And while I liked the description of certain things, I just couldn't see the point in continuing. Just not my type of writing style, that's all.
Some tales were a lot more surprising than others. An enjoyable ride.
The first thomas mann I have read and I found it enjoyable and not as heavy going as I expected.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm ambivalent about this one. Perhaps it was the translation I was reading (I think I have the actual Der Tod in Venedig in the house somewhere, but frankly I couldn't face literary German at the moment), but I never really felt at ease when reading this. Not because of any of the themes that Mann tackled, or because of the denseness of the work; they were challenging and thought-provoking aspects, of course, but I found myself able to grapple with them.
What unnerved me was the way in which all the protagonists seemed to be so utterly detached from society, while at the same time being so changed, so warped, so created by its conventions. I suppose this is in part because Mann was so heavily influenced by Nietzche, and I have really never liked Nietzche. There was no part of me which felt able to connect to the characters. Von Aschenbach in 'Death in Venice' left me unmoved; the eponymous Tonio Kroger did manage to move me, but only to the extent that I wanted to smack him over the head for his pretentiousness.
When it comes down to style and elegance and observation, I can certainly appreciate Mann's achievement. I just can't like him as a writer.
What unnerved me was the way in which all the protagonists seemed to be so utterly detached from society, while at the same time being so changed, so warped, so created by its conventions. I suppose this is in part because Mann was so heavily influenced by Nietzche, and I have really never liked Nietzche. There was no part of me which felt able to connect to the characters. Von Aschenbach in 'Death in Venice' left me unmoved; the eponymous Tonio Kroger did manage to move me, but only to the extent that I wanted to smack him over the head for his pretentiousness.
When it comes down to style and elegance and observation, I can certainly appreciate Mann's achievement. I just can't like him as a writer.
A parade of reductive dichotomies. The "disease" of artistry that cannot be understood by anyone but the "ill" is a total joke and, while Mann takes the mickey out of many of his protagonists, he doesn't stand on the right side of history consistently enough to be anything but insufferable. The title story is naturally the highlight and most of the rest is offensive juvenilia. His descriptions of music (sometimes, the complete act of an opera) are so overwrought and factually uninformed that I felt embarrassed for him, especially considering that I am the target audience of big, long stories about Wagner and the like. Tonio Kröger is another highlight, displaying a subversion of some of these problems in addition to an evocative sense of alienation (instead of an infuriatingly cringy one).
Lots of typos in this edition including "long," in the place of a dash on page 177. Compare with pg 244. What was this, verbally dictated?
Lots of typos in this edition including "long," in the place of a dash on page 177. Compare with pg 244. What was this, verbally dictated?