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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
medium-paced
dark
funny
reflective
slow-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
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
reflective
slow-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
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Where do I even begin? Too repetitive, and frustrating. Although maybe that was the point.
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"Only on two occasions did I speak to anyone. On the first occasion it was to ask the actor whether, after four or five decades, he was not sick to the teeth, as they say, of constantly playing classical roles at the Burgtheater--Goethe or Shakespeare and Grillparzer, Goethe or Shakespeare twice a year and Grillparzer once every two or three years, but a role like Ekdal in The Wild Duck only every five or six years, or alternatively playing in some silly English society comedy like the one the Burgtheater was now rehearsing, but he did not answer me. The other occasion was when I told Auersberger, quite superfluously, that he had made a mess of his life and dragged his genius in the dirt for the sake of a rich wife and high living, that he had destroyed himself in the process and made drinking the be-all and end-all of his life, that he had exchanged one misfortune, that of his youth, for a second misfortune, that of old age, that he had sacrificed his musical genius for his revolting socializing, and intellectual freedom for the bondage of wealth.
...
But what, after all, can young writers have to say? I thought. They imagine they know everything, yet can only find everything ridiculous, without being able to say why it's ridiculous. This is something they don't discover until much later, I thought. At first they find everything ridiculous, without knowing why, then later they know why, but don't tell anybody, because they've no reason to do so. This is the stupid, hollow, mindless laughter that's typical of today's youth, ... They've got nothing but their laughter, nothing, and they're content with it. All they have is their laughter: the catastrophe of life still lies ahead of them, I thought."
...
But what, after all, can young writers have to say? I thought. They imagine they know everything, yet can only find everything ridiculous, without being able to say why it's ridiculous. This is something they don't discover until much later, I thought. At first they find everything ridiculous, without knowing why, then later they know why, but don't tell anybody, because they've no reason to do so. This is the stupid, hollow, mindless laughter that's typical of today's youth, ... They've got nothing but their laughter, nothing, and they're content with it. All they have is their laughter: the catastrophe of life still lies ahead of them, I thought."
--I really wish I read this book sitting in a wing chair--
You really get nestled into the wing chair with this rather unhappy guy. It only takes about 200 "I thought as I sat in the wing chair"s to start to feel like you're intimately familiar with him, Joana Billroth, the unbearable Auersburgers, and the rest of the folks waiting for the 'actor from the Burgtheater' to show up for the mid-night dinner being held in his honor. I thought a lot about what the wing chair he was sitting in must have looked like. Was it one of those wing chairs that fanned out to really look like a wing? Or was a wing chair just in the sense that it had tall sides on both left and right? Are you getting sick of me using the word 'wing chair'? Maybe this book isn't for you, then, if you don't like wing chairs, or if you're already getting sick of hearing the words 'wing chair.'
What a surprising treat! especially since I doubt I could ever write a synopsis of this book that would make it sound appealing to anyone. Thanks, Ynna. You just said, 'I think you'd like this,' and I did.
"Being unable to make people more reasonable, I preferred to be happy away from them."
You really get nestled into the wing chair with this rather unhappy guy. It only takes about 200 "I thought as I sat in the wing chair"s to start to feel like you're intimately familiar with him, Joana Billroth, the unbearable Auersburgers, and the rest of the folks waiting for the 'actor from the Burgtheater' to show up for the mid-night dinner being held in his honor. I thought a lot about what the wing chair he was sitting in must have looked like. Was it one of those wing chairs that fanned out to really look like a wing? Or was a wing chair just in the sense that it had tall sides on both left and right? Are you getting sick of me using the word 'wing chair'? Maybe this book isn't for you, then, if you don't like wing chairs, or if you're already getting sick of hearing the words 'wing chair.'
What a surprising treat! especially since I doubt I could ever write a synopsis of this book that would make it sound appealing to anyone. Thanks, Ynna. You just said, 'I think you'd like this,' and I did.
"Being unable to make people more reasonable, I preferred to be happy away from them."