February 2023 NYRB Classics Book Club Selection - On the Marble Cliffs by Ernst Junger

[Stami]

Couldn’t have said it better myself @Cliff

[Cliff]

ON THE MARBLE CLIFFS

by Ernst Junger

Completed: March 14, 2023

Format: New York Review Books Paperback

ISBN: 978-1-68137-625-7

Rating (X/10): 9.6

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An allegory for fascism, freedom, and personal responsibility, On the Marble Cliffs by Ernst Junger is among the most creative yet strange books I have read. There is little plot, as plot is not the point of the novel; rather, the novel presents a colorful milieu and peppers in a few passive characters. The narrator’s thoughts are the only purpose of the book, and these self-professed reveries are complex, political, and often existential. If you enjoy challenging vocabulary, you will find it here. I was looking up two or three words on almost every page. Each sentence is like poetry, and the descriptions of the various plants and flowers are particularly enthralling and ethereal. The language and prose of this book is unlike anything else I have read, and I am so thankful to be a member of the NYRB Classics Book Club and to have the opportunity to read this bizarre masterpiece.