Reviews

After Nature by W.G. Sebald

jonasd's review against another edition

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5.0

The first poetry to ever truly grab me. I am certain I will read this again and again. Much like his novels, the power of these three poems lies in their cumulative effect.

jonahbarnes's review against another edition

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3.0

Interesting poetry. Historic poetry? Poetic history?

Best line:
"In the future,
Death lies at our feet."

t8foad's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

piccoline's review against another edition

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5.0

Ah, Sebald. After a short hike this morning, with some colleagues and students, the afternoon drifts toward evening. What better, than the book length series of three poems, After Nature. And this is the true Sebald. This belongs on the shelf alongside The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants, and Austerlitz.

Better still to realize, only now, that two years ago while seeking to make the most of my fading time in Freiburg, on a train and bus trip to Colmar, France, and only entering the museum at Unterlinden so as to have a place to sit and to belong, I by chance had occasion to view and be changed by Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece which features prominently in the first part of this work by WG. What grace to have been granted this most Sebaldian of encounters with an artwork that Sebald himself found worthy of meditation.

To read the book at the most perfect moment, that too is grace.
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