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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Reminded me a lot of Proust's Swann's Way, which is a good thing, I guess. Rather too much death for my taste, it's as though the whole book is about that, which it might well be, actually. I guess, I was in a bit of a wrong mind-set for it. The bit in the end about the Prodigal Son, which I loved, raised my rating from 2 to 3.
3.5/5
Read this for the first time when I was in high school and had extremely mixed feelings about it. Back then I figured I was either too young for Rilke or needed to get to know his work better (most definitely both).
Five years later, after I've finally read some of his poetry, I decided to give this another chance and alas, I'm still kind of struggling forming my opinion on this. The writing is incredible and it reminds me a lot of works such as Hesse's Steppenwolf or Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet, which are both one of my favourite works of literature of all time, yet there were parts that downright bored me and seemed completely irrelevant to me. I shall conclude (once again) that the fault lies in me and who knows, maybe in another five years I'll pick it up again and finally get what Rilke is about.
Read this for the first time when I was in high school and had extremely mixed feelings about it. Back then I figured I was either too young for Rilke or needed to get to know his work better (most definitely both).
Five years later, after I've finally read some of his poetry, I decided to give this another chance and alas, I'm still kind of struggling forming my opinion on this. The writing is incredible and it reminds me a lot of works such as Hesse's Steppenwolf or Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet, which are both one of my favourite works of literature of all time, yet there were parts that downright bored me and seemed completely irrelevant to me. I shall conclude (once again) that the fault lies in me and who knows, maybe in another five years I'll pick it up again and finally get what Rilke is about.
"Having memories is still not enough. If there are a great many, one must be able to forget them, and one must have the patience to wait until they
return."
“Why should I inform anyone of the changes within me? If I am changing, I no longer remain the person I was, and if I become someone else, it follows that I have no friends or acquaintances. And to write strangers, to people who do not know me, is quite out of the question.”
“There are multitudes of people, but there are many more faces, because each person has several of them. There are people who wear the same face for years; naturally it wears out, gets dirty, splits at the seams, stretches like gloves worn during a long journey...Other people change faces incredibly fast, put on one after another, and wear them out. At first, they think they have an unlimited supply; but when they are barely forty years old they come to their last one."
So many of these turns of phrase won't leave my mind.
return."
“Why should I inform anyone of the changes within me? If I am changing, I no longer remain the person I was, and if I become someone else, it follows that I have no friends or acquaintances. And to write strangers, to people who do not know me, is quite out of the question.”
“There are multitudes of people, but there are many more faces, because each person has several of them. There are people who wear the same face for years; naturally it wears out, gets dirty, splits at the seams, stretches like gloves worn during a long journey...Other people change faces incredibly fast, put on one after another, and wear them out. At first, they think they have an unlimited supply; but when they are barely forty years old they come to their last one."
So many of these turns of phrase won't leave my mind.