Bobby's review
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann
Bobby's review
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Bobby's review
rating:
bookshelves:
reviewed
The comparisons to Lolita may be inevitable but this book, in my opinion, does not even come close. For one thing, as much as I appreciate Greek mythology and philosophy, I found references to them annoying and pretentious in this book. They served to distract from the plot, not that there was much of one (a 50+ year old intellectual writer falls in "love" with a young adolescent boy). As I can still recall how annoying boys are at that age, I found it hard to swallow that such a sophisticated and worldly author would fall in love with a little boy based purely on looks. Let's call it lust or obsession or whatever...but certainly not love, especially when references to the Platonic ideals of beauty and love are thrown in!! Gimme a break!
