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A review by mrkhall
Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Thomas Mann
5.0
Seven months after starting The Magic Mountain I finally finished reading it. One month for each year of Hans Castorp's stay at the sanitorium Berghof. After learning that it took the author 12 years to write it, I don't feel as bad about how long it took me to read it. At times I found it a struggle to get through and was thinking I wouldn't finish it, and if I did that, I would be giving a 3-star review at the end. But seen in its entirety I find it to be one of the greatest works of fiction.
I also struggled with the antisemitism while I was reading it and asked a Jewish historian friend of mine who had also read it, what he thought about it. He said, as with all art, it is up to the reader what to do with it, and that it was certainly historically representative of prevailing views in Germany before WWI.
The work is a great example of Joseph Conrad's Hero's Journey, with a quest for the Holy Grail of knowledge. A truly epic adventure, that I hope someday to have the time and inclination to give it the second reading it deserves.
I also struggled with the antisemitism while I was reading it and asked a Jewish historian friend of mine who had also read it, what he thought about it. He said, as with all art, it is up to the reader what to do with it, and that it was certainly historically representative of prevailing views in Germany before WWI.
The work is a great example of Joseph Conrad's Hero's Journey, with a quest for the Holy Grail of knowledge. A truly epic adventure, that I hope someday to have the time and inclination to give it the second reading it deserves.