The Emigrants in Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Aug 05, 2010 Inder rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 21st-century, 1001-books, alltimefaves, germany, jewish, europe, read-2011

Brainy, beautiful, and crushingly sad. Of course.

Sebald's books are different than any others I have read. Endless paragraphs with no quotation marks, punctuated by enigmatic photographs from the past. A mix of fiction and nonfiction: you don't know where one stops and the other begins. The writing is simultaneously dense and minimalist. The intellectual breadth is, in a word, intimidating. While reading, I often stop and wonder if I'm smart enough, well-traveled enough, or knowledgeable enough Brainy, beautiful, and crushingly sad. Of course.

Sebald's books are different than any others I have read. Endless paragraphs with no quotation marks, punctuated by enigmatic photographs from the past. A mix of fiction and nonfiction: you don't know where one stops and the other begins. The writing is simultaneously dense and minimalist. The intellectual breadth is, in a word, intimidating. While reading, I often stop and wonder if I'm smart enough, well-traveled enough, or knowledgeable enough to truly appreciate his writing. Probably not. But I enjoy trying.

The narrator skirts around the tragedy and loss at the core of his stories in a way that seems to actually intensify the pain and anguish underlying these stories. He doesn't even try to take on the full meaning of the horrific events of the 20th century; rather, he focuses on the minute and small. In doing so, he reduces the inhumanity of the Holocaust down to a very human scale. The reader can't escape through abstractions. The emotional impact is just devastating, and yet, each story also brims with beauty and a love of life ...

I came to W.G. Sebald through Austerlitz, which tells the story of one man through a meandering and sometimes almost esoteric narrative, packed with detailed descriptions of flora, fauna, and (especially) architecture. The Emigrants, which is considered by many to be the finer work, instead contains shorter life stories or vignettes, unified by a common narrator. These stories also delve into details of weather, nature, history, and architecture, but to a lesser degree, and the result is a narrative that is still super-intellectual but feels more easily comprehensible.

It seems wrong to compare two masterpieces which arguably leave much of contemporary fiction in the dust to each other. Who cares which is better? They are both amazing. And I think most critics would agree. That said, on a personal level, I preferred the more cohesive narrative of Austerlitz. I also found the descriptions of historic architecture in Austerlitz to be incredibly evocative of the forgetfulness of European culture - the way the past is present everywhere and yet lost forever. But it is very possible that if I had read The Emigrants first, I would feel differently. Austerlitz was my first exposure to this amazing author and writing, and I was just stunned by it. I might be a little loyal to it too.

But for both of these books: If I could give ten stars out of five, I probably would.

...more

4 likes · Like · see review