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A review by gabriela_rus
Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann
4.0
Reading Thomas Mann always felt like fighting a giant. Hard but also accomplishing. I felt frustrated by the theoretical parts - to read about music and not hear it? That was not a good experience for me.
I liked his allegorical construction of modern vs. old Germany, innovative genius vs. conservation, the good and calm vs. the bad and hyper excited etc. etc. The conversation with the devil and the Faustian story would have been uninteresting was it not for the parallel with nazist Germany.
The storyline of Serenus was sometimes annoying. This witness who knows everything was too obviously just a vehicle, an instrument in the writers technique as a real presence.
A gay story in the 1940s? Wow, that was unexpected and not bad at all, discreet, kept the tension on a high level and made you wonder about its significance in the Germany-allegory. Sexual liberation of the inhibited German?
I also enjoyed the stories of the secondary characters.
I liked his allegorical construction of modern vs. old Germany, innovative genius vs. conservation, the good and calm vs. the bad and hyper excited etc. etc. The conversation with the devil and the Faustian story would have been uninteresting was it not for the parallel with nazist Germany.
The storyline of Serenus was sometimes annoying. This witness who knows everything was too obviously just a vehicle, an instrument in the writers technique as a real presence.
A gay story in the 1940s? Wow, that was unexpected and not bad at all, discreet, kept the tension on a high level and made you wonder about its significance in the Germany-allegory. Sexual liberation of the inhibited German?
I also enjoyed the stories of the secondary characters.