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saveriopisani's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
attebasile's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
xterminal's review
3.0
Paolo Maurensig, The Luneburg Variation (FSG, 1993)
Talk about brushing greatness. Paolo Maurensig's first novel comes so close it could probably smell the fetid, decaying breath of greatness on its shoulder, then turned away at the last minute. to leave the reader with an almost palpable feeling of something being missing.
Maurensig sets things up beautifully, opening with the discovery of the body of a chess magazine editor in his garden. When the police can't decide if it were murder or suicide, the death is labelled "mysterious circumstances" and filed away. We then travel back in time to a few hours before the man's death and are given the circumstances surrounding it. This happens in two extended flashbacks, the first of the victim's long train ride to his country estate, the second the story of a legendary chess player during world war II. (There is much more to these, but to reveal more details of them would set off a chain of unforgivable spoilers.)
All works quite nicely, and everything is going along swimmingly, until you get to the book's last page and wonder where the final present-day scene, the one the whole book begs for, went. It's certainly not in the book. It's possible the author left it out in order to preserve the "mysterious circumstances" surrounding the editor's death, but in that case, why write the rest of the book?
Maurensig has been compared to Friedrich Durrenmatt on a number of occasions. From the perspective of writing style, the comparison may well be justified; both seem fond of brief, straightforward novels with mysteries at their center about which the greatest question is "why" rather than "who?" (Heinrich Boll is another author who does this very well.) However, Durrenmatt is capable of handing the reader all the clues and letting him work things out; Maurensig left out a few pieces of this puzzle, and it makes the book, ultimately, a frustrating exercise. ** 1/2
Talk about brushing greatness. Paolo Maurensig's first novel comes so close it could probably smell the fetid, decaying breath of greatness on its shoulder, then turned away at the last minute. to leave the reader with an almost palpable feeling of something being missing.
Maurensig sets things up beautifully, opening with the discovery of the body of a chess magazine editor in his garden. When the police can't decide if it were murder or suicide, the death is labelled "mysterious circumstances" and filed away. We then travel back in time to a few hours before the man's death and are given the circumstances surrounding it. This happens in two extended flashbacks, the first of the victim's long train ride to his country estate, the second the story of a legendary chess player during world war II. (There is much more to these, but to reveal more details of them would set off a chain of unforgivable spoilers.)
All works quite nicely, and everything is going along swimmingly, until you get to the book's last page and wonder where the final present-day scene, the one the whole book begs for, went. It's certainly not in the book. It's possible the author left it out in order to preserve the "mysterious circumstances" surrounding the editor's death, but in that case, why write the rest of the book?
Maurensig has been compared to Friedrich Durrenmatt on a number of occasions. From the perspective of writing style, the comparison may well be justified; both seem fond of brief, straightforward novels with mysteries at their center about which the greatest question is "why" rather than "who?" (Heinrich Boll is another author who does this very well.) However, Durrenmatt is capable of handing the reader all the clues and letting him work things out; Maurensig left out a few pieces of this puzzle, and it makes the book, ultimately, a frustrating exercise. ** 1/2
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