The Magic Mountain in Around the Year in 52 Books

Sep 27, 2015 Wendy rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, 1001-books, doorstops, in-translation, blooms-western-canon

In the Magic Mountain time slows to a crawl, holds one hostage, and eventually inflicts on one a form of Stockholm Syndrome. I'm describing the effects on me as a reader of the book, not the characters themselves, though perhaps the same could be said of them.

Not to sugarcoat matters, this was a long, slow crawl of a book that required lots of self-discipline on my part to finish it within a month. I can't call it a novel because there is a setting (a sanitarium in the Swiss alps), and some char In the Magic Mountain time slows to a crawl, holds one hostage, and eventually inflicts on one a form of Stockholm Syndrome. I'm describing the effects on me as a reader of the book, not the characters themselves, though perhaps the same could be said of them.

Not to sugarcoat matters, this was a long, slow crawl of a book that required lots of self-discipline on my part to finish it within a month. I can't call it a novel because there is a setting (a sanitarium in the Swiss alps), and some characters (Hans Castorp et. al.), but in place of a plot we get some lovely meditative writing, some jewels of description and insight into human nature. The X-ray scene! The first half of the Snow chapter! The seance! But this all comes alongside a pervasive "Groundhog-Day" feeling of dull repetitiveness and long-winded, dated discussions of stale political philosophies (can anyone actually follow these things?). I especially dreaded the chapters where Sembrettini, Naphta, and Peeperkorn showed up.

So why am I not grumpy with this book? I am. But there's that Stockholm Syndrome. After nearly a month of habitually picking up this book first thing in the morning over a cup of green tea and trudging through 5% (about 35 pages) each day, I came to find it a soothing morning meditation. For the rest of the day I would feel accomplished, sort of like an bonus to the runners-high that carries me through my day after a quick 3 miles around the block. By the second half, I finally (FINALLY) even found myself emotionally responding to some of the more tragic moments. Surprising things--plot things--actually happen in the final chapters, and the ending provided a much-needed kick in the gut.

If only it had been tighter. And shorter. I could have liked this for more than as a meditation manual and cure for insomnia. I'm glad I read Magic Mountain, but it requires an immense amount of patience to tackle and I wouldn't recommended it to the average reader who is not border-line OCD about reading door-stop classics. ...more

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