ben's review
The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails
by Robert Musil
ben's review
The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Robert Musil
ben's review
rating:
recommended for: anyone who has the patience to finish it
I don't know if there are other translations out there but mine wasn't that great.
Anyway it was a sludge. Musil goes on and on. I think if his prose (or maybe just the translation) was better it would be fantastic but instead it reads like, well, Kant or Nietzche. There is hardly any dialogue or action and whole chapters will go by that consist entirely of him explaining the societal causes behind the reason one character reacted in a certain way.
That said it was really great and I enjoyed it a lot. No really. Musil is witty and smart and his subject matter (man in modern society) is if anything more relevant today than it was 80 years ago. I would recommend it to anyone who I thought would actually have the patience to finish it.
Anyway it was a sludge. Musil goes on and on. I think if his prose (or maybe just the translation) was better it would be fantastic but instead it reads like, well, Kant or Nietzche. There is hardly any dialogue or action and whole chapters will go by that consist entirely of him explaining the societal causes behind the reason one character reacted in a certain way.
That said it was really great and I enjoyed it a lot. No really. Musil is witty and smart and his subject matter (man in modern society) is if anything more relevant today than it was 80 years ago. I would recommend it to anyone who I thought would actually have the patience to finish it.
