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A review by proust_mobile
Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann
4.0
This short story collection works extremely well as a unit, and reading these back to back gives a kaleidescopic, messy view of a city in motion. With a focus on the odd behaviors, ticks, and desires of difficult characters and story structures that are either distracted, scattered, or entirely plotless, Thomas Mann makes a strong argument that the minutia and randomness of real life is worthy of study and documentation.
It's possible I'm putting too much focus on the variety of lives and lifestyles in these stories about early 1900s Germany because of the giant looming historical context. But these occasionally quick stories feel like putting your face into someone's window and getting a good hard look at their conflicted private lives before moving on to the next house. I really appreciated how unflinching and respectful these stories are of what it means to be an individual among thousands of other individuals. The prose is gorgeous but sometimes veers into overindulgence, and the stories that lacked a strong narrative skeleton could be hard to connect with, but that's probably because I'm a baby about that kinda thing. The longer novellas featured here are especially great.
It's possible I'm putting too much focus on the variety of lives and lifestyles in these stories about early 1900s Germany because of the giant looming historical context. But these occasionally quick stories feel like putting your face into someone's window and getting a good hard look at their conflicted private lives before moving on to the next house. I really appreciated how unflinching and respectful these stories are of what it means to be an individual among thousands of other individuals. The prose is gorgeous but sometimes veers into overindulgence, and the stories that lacked a strong narrative skeleton could be hard to connect with, but that's probably because I'm a baby about that kinda thing. The longer novellas featured here are especially great.