Reviews

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

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tigerkind's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Kehlmann‘s prose is masterful. Even long, borderline rambling passages about the minutiae of the Thirty Years' War are elevated by subtle humor and a vocabulary that fits the setting without alienating a modern reader.
The book is told from many different points of view, which I personally did not mind as it is clearly part of the larger theme of historiography. It however also makes for a slightly removed reading experience and I could not connect with the story as much as I otherwise would have.

The book is about Till Eulenspiegel as much as it is not; it is about the power of a good story, about who we are when no one is watching and who we become when everyone is.

Content Warnings

elainemh's review against another edition

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Just didn’t grab my attention

seanpowpow's review against another edition

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dark informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.5

I went into this book expecting to read about a trickster jester running around causing mischief, and while I did get that, I also came out of it with a vague understanding of the thirty years war. Tyll Ulenspiegel, or at least this incarnation of him, is an amazing character to pin a story like this on. The book jumps between different periods of the thirty year war, very rarely in chronological order, and seeing how each of the secondary characters cross paths over the course of the book gives it a nice feeling of consistency even when it's confusing.

There's a recurring theme of stories being retold in different ways by different people, and how each one changes how you view the characters involved. By the end of the book, I had become quite attached to Tyll and his adventures, even if the story itself focuses much more on the political landscape. So many of the book's characters are obsessed with being remembered, so it's fitting that this story will absolutely stick with me long after I've finished it.

"You think that you have an inkling, my son, but you don't have the slightest inkling. To be confined in a shaft is almost like death, you think, war is almost hell, but the truth is that anything, anything is better, it's better down here, it's better out there in a bloody ditch, it's better in the torture chair. So don't let go, stay alive."