W.G. Sebald: Austerlitz

[Jayaprakash]

I've just finished reading Austerlitz. It's the first book I've read by Sebald. I cameby Sebald via mentions in interviews of Javier Marias, who admires his novels. It's interesting to note the similarities in their styles. They both specialise in lengthy, elaborate sentences seemingly consisting of multiple clauses strung together. Sebald intersperses images through his narrative in a manner that sometimes reminds me of the sudden intrusion of photographs into Marias' All Souls, and his essay on photographs of writers in Written Lives. It's an interesting technique, in any case, allowing words and images to illuminate each other in a way that isn't just straightforward illustration.

Austerlitz is written in a digressive, somehow old-fashioned voice. By the end, the many digressions seem less peripheral - it's as if the brief overview of fort architecture, the musings on the eyes of nocturnal creatures, the passages about the library in Paris all relate in some way to Austerlitz' doomed attempt to hide from his past, to the character of the evil that scarred his life so badly and the human toll of the holocaust. The structure of the story with its second hand narrative is intriguing, and I wonder how much we are to make of the narrator himself and his relationship with Austerlitz.

This quote somehow epitomises the novel for me:

'..if I am walking through the city and look into one of those quiet courtyards where nothing has changed for decades, I feel, almost physically, the current of time slowing down in the gravitational field of oblivion.'

Austerlitz, and this book are haunted by places where nothing has changed, in some fundamental way, and where distant time is still lucid, because of the historical scenes they have been witness to, and will be witness to. Bythe end, I too was haunted by the ghosts of Austerlitz' past. An excellent novel, I think, one that repays patience and close reading.

[Eric]

Jayaprakash, you say:

They both specialise in lengthy, elaborate sentences seemingly consisting of multiple clauses strung together.

I presume you are reading Austerlitz in English translation. The German language is more tolerant of long sentences with subclauses than is English. When a sentence is more than about five lines long, and with two or three subclauses, English-speakers tend to react. I'm not acquainted with Mar?as' work or much regarding the Spanish language. I wonder whether Spanish often has long sentences, or whether this is a Mar?as quirk.

[Mirabell]

The German language is more tolerant of long sentences with subclauses than is English. When a sentence is more than about five lines long, and with two or three subclauses, English-speakers tend to react.

Very true. I read some essays by different English translators of Bernhard who attacked each other for coping the wrong way with B's long sentences. Good reading that.

[Jayaprakash]

>>I wonder whether Spanish often has long sentences, or whether this is a Mar?as quirk.

I wonder, too.

As to German and compound sentences, the other German writers I've read much by, all in translation, are Mann and Herman Hesse both of whom exhibit this trait to an extent even in translation, though Hesse less so than Mann or Sebald. I've also read Patrick Susskind's novel Perfume, which has sentence lengths closer to the English average; either his translator imposed a more Anglophone sentence style, or he writes in a more clipped style than the others. Or a bit of both. I may never really know; it's literature, through a filter.

[Jayaprakash]

Very true. I read some essays by different English translators of Bernhard who attacked each other for coping the wrong way with B's long sentences. Good reading that.

Sometimes, Mirabell, I have visions of Germans reading Anglophone's constant citings of 'complex, compound sentences' in German literature and laughing their heads off at us. 'It's all like this, only, we must point out, in the interests of thoroughness, more so! We laugh at your attenuated, stublike abortions which you call, laughably to us, natural though it may seem to you, sentences!'

[saliotthomas]

I finished Austerlitz last night,and was happy to be done with it.Jayaprakash review of it is very good,stylish writing,classic,few very interesting parts but oh so terribly boring and serious,and at time i wondered what was the purpose of the book.I like the architecture analysies,and the part in the English house.The end is somehow surprising,the book just stop there...
I would give a for the writing qualities but for the pleasure i toke from it.I actualy aged faster during this reading,i'm sure!

[fausto]

I really liked Austerlitz but I think The rings of Saturn is far superior.

[titania7]

Thomas,
Jayaprakash's review might have made me think I would like Austerlitz, but after reading what you have to say about it (and remember, you and I like many of the same authors--Marai, Makine, Lampedusa, Maupassant, etc.), I think I'll skip it. I believe reading should be for purposes of enlightenment and education. At the same time, there's something to be said for pure enjoyment.

By the way, I'm greatly impressed by My Name is Red so far.
Unfortunately, because of my currently hectic schedule (and
all the other books I'm reading), I'm not yet even 100 pages
into it. But I can't wait to read more. Have you read any
of Pamuk's other books, Thomas?

Best,
Titania

"One half of the world cannot
understand the pleasures of
the other."
~Jane Austen

[saliotthomas]

Titania

Austerlitz is a very good book.I think you might like the classic writing of Sebald.I shall try Rings of Saturne later on Fausto advice.

I have not read other Pamuk and still have to get
My name is red back.I think Snow is very different and dipressing according to some of the critics here.But i might give it a try.

[kpjayan]

Titania,

If you like Orhan Pamuk, then you should read his autobiographican book "Istanbul".

Stewart : Haven't seen any thread on biography/autobiography genre of books. There are many gems in that categories, worth discussing.

[titania7]

Jayan,
Thanks. I'll have to check out Istanbul. I know very little about Turkey, and I don't read as many biographies/autobiographies as I should.

Stewart: I think Jayan has a fabulous idea about the biography/autobiography
thread. I would love to rely on this list for recommendations. Everybody here
is just so darn smart .

~Titania

"But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man
and the life he leads?"
~Albert Camus

[titania7]

Thomas,
If Sebald writes in a classic style, then indeed I might like Austerlitz. I need
to familiarize myself more with German literature, anyway. I have read Goethe,
Mann, and Rilke but not that many others. I have a professsor friend who is
German, but I've never actually asked him which German writers I should read for
fear of seeming ignorant. Of course, I'm the one who told him that Rilke had written plays. He only knew of him from his poetry (so I knew at least one thing
about a German writer that he didn't know. A point in my favor!)

Pamuk is such a fine writer I definitely want to read more of his books after finishing My Name is Red. Did your copy of this book ever arrive, by the way? I know
how eager you were to continue reading it.

Thanks for your reply, Thomas. I had already looked for your comments on
the Pamuk thread and saw you hadn't posted anything. Hopefully, you'll
post your review of My Name is Red when you finish it. It is always
a pleasure to read what you have to say about a book.

~Titania

"It is the lives we encounter that make life
worth living."
~Guy de Maupassant