Scan barcode
A review by sisteray
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz
4.0
Really gorgeous amorphous writing that flows like a tone poem. It's like reading one very long Lawrence Ferlinghetti piece only with far less plot. It is a dreamy recount of fleeting childhood memories where everything blends and melds in a viscous sticky web. The best way to describe it is how when you are really tired but you are really enjoying reading a good book, you push yourself to read more but after a few pages you have no idea what you just read and you are totally confused as to what is going on. The whole piece recreates that feeling.
The problem is that it often feels like the ravings of a madman. It is meandering and often pointless. In writing there is always a discussion of show don't tell, but when it comes to story, Schulz likes to show scenes and scenarios but doesn't seem at all interested in telling a story.
I have to admit, that for as beautiful as I felt that the writing was, this book was a tough slog to get through. Even though the book runs under a hundred pages, this took me a few weeks to get through, I'd read a few pages and then just had to put it down. I had to muscle through to the end of the book. That said, I do think that it is good, and the writing is compelling, but everything is in the moment, and often is depressing.
I appreciate the groundwork that this author has done, but I can't help but feel that Thomas Ligotti borrowed his style and made something better out of it; something cohesive and with a direction, rather than just navel gazing.
The problem is that it often feels like the ravings of a madman. It is meandering and often pointless. In writing there is always a discussion of show don't tell, but when it comes to story, Schulz likes to show scenes and scenarios but doesn't seem at all interested in telling a story.
I have to admit, that for as beautiful as I felt that the writing was, this book was a tough slog to get through. Even though the book runs under a hundred pages, this took me a few weeks to get through, I'd read a few pages and then just had to put it down. I had to muscle through to the end of the book. That said, I do think that it is good, and the writing is compelling, but everything is in the moment, and often is depressing.
I appreciate the groundwork that this author has done, but I can't help but feel that Thomas Ligotti borrowed his style and made something better out of it; something cohesive and with a direction, rather than just navel gazing.