Austerlitz - WG Sebald

[[deleted user]]

A few of us have decided that we fancy reading Austerlitz which came last in our November monthly read poll. we'll be starting in December if anyone would like to join us.

[[deleted user]]

Ok here we go then :0)

[Hilary]

I'm going to try but might not succeed!

[Ellie]

I've started it. Quite a lot about architecture at the moment. Which is interesting but not what I was expecting! The writing style is different from most things I have read, though not in a bad way. Seem to be lots of random photographs thrown in, too!

[Laurel]

I got this from the library today so will be starting soon!

[[deleted user]]

I'll be starting soon (cat willing)

[Ellie]

How are people getting along with this. It's a very curious way of writing, retelling a story told to you by someone else, the frequent 'said so-and-so, said Austerlitz' seems a little odd sometimes, and the sentences can be so long, but I am finding it absolutely compelling

[Laurel]

I haven't started yet but am defo keen to get to it! Just very very busy :( It sounds intriguing.

[[deleted user]]

I've just started it but you're right Ellie - it's almost hypnotic

[Ellie]

Hypnotic is a good word for it.

[[deleted user]]

I am loving this - if you find it a bit hard going at first - just wait until Austerlitz starts telling his life story - I guarantee that you'll be enthralled.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished - such a sad story and the way it's told perfectly matches Austerlitz's lost/repressed and reawakening memory. The images in this story are beautiful - but don't read it if you're feeling a bit blue.

[Ellie]

It is a very powerful story, IMO. The descriptions of places are so vivid, and as you say, the style of writing suits the mood of the story very well. It's very mechanoly, but still very readable. The sections covering Theresienbad I found so very moving

[Ellie]

For anyone who read Austerlitz, you may be interested to know that PBS America is showing a programme about the Kindertransport on Thursday 9am. I have the channel on VirginMedia, not sure how widely available it is on Sky or Freeview

[Laurel]

I'm starting this soon.... a little late so more of a read behind than a readalong for me but heigh ho ;)

[Hilary]

I wasn't going to join in with this but after reading these posts about it, I am tempted get it.

[[deleted user]]

This was my 2nd Sebald and I read a review recently that recommended not reading Austerlitz as your first encounter with him' what do you reckon ,Ellie?

[Ellie]

Lee, I'd be interested to know what your first Sebald was and what you thought of it, and whether it added anything to your Austerlitz experience. Austerlitz was my first, and I loved it. Took a little time to get used to the style, but once I had I was hooked, found it really easy to read - the style suited the tale; no dramatics, just a simple, but very moving story.

I have just read The Rings of Saturn, which I thought I would really enjoy - Sebald's writing style describing a fictional walking your of Norfolk/Suffolk, but I didn't enjoy it as much as Austerlitz. I think that was because things the narrator saw on his walk would send him off in all different directions thought-wise, and he'd go into great detail. Some of it was interesting but some I found a little tedious, because the particular subject he had veered on to just wasn't of interest to me.

[Hilary]

I think I'll have to have a go at Austerlitz, you both seem to have been very impressed by it.

[[deleted user]]

Coincidentally - the Rings of Saturn was my first Sebald - and I totally agree with you - I'd be totally enthralled for a few pages and then he'd go off on a complete and much less interesting tangent. I think having had some experience of his style helped me with the beginning of Austerliz though.

I've still got The Emigrants and Vertigo lurking in my TBR pile.

[Laurel]

I'm about a 150 pages in, the lack of paragraphs and chapters is a bit disconcerting, especially when you need to put the book down! But I'm kind of liking all his little digressions. The architecture bit was interesting although I'm not quite sure yet what relevance that has for the book as a whole. At the moment he is still recounting his visit's to his schoolfriend's house

[[deleted user]]

Oh the moths ( or were they butterflies?)

[Laurel]

Moth's - that bit was a little random to be honest....loving the writing though

[Laurel]

Well I finished Austerlitz and thought it was excellent. He is an brilliant writer and I kind of liked his random digressions into architecture and other stuff, they were quite interesting in their own right. Also liked the use of the photographs as well, and the whole theme of supressed memory and it's recovery - do you think he is trying to say something about people remembering (or not) the Holocaust and all the other bad stuff that happened during WW2? Like maybe not remembering would make us sick as a society like it did Austerlitz but remembering even though it's painful is also cathartic? I'm not very good at this sort of stuff - what did you guys think?

[[deleted user]]

I hadn't thought of that but I think you're right Laurel - also about the way the style of the book so perfectly matches the theme - it's like having a series of long uneasy dreams which you know are carrying some important but hidden message.

Here's an article I found on Sebald by the chap that's writing the 100 best English language books in the Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/books/book...

[Laurel]

I liked that - Agreed with the bit at the beginning about Sebald being 'out of tune with the digital age' cos his book felt less modern than it was (in a good way), it felt kind of timeless. But at the same modern in the sense of not being stuck inside a box or category - or McCrum's words 'genre-bending' which I quite like.
It's definitely a book that will warrant a re-read at some point.

[[deleted user]]

Definitely - I think it will be one of those books that you get more out of with every read.