Austerlitz

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Summary: And now for something completely different . . .
Review: This is a narcissistic balefully intricate exercise by a hostile writer trying to get you to read as much as he can before you give up on the possibility that anything will actually happen in its pages.
When this book was read by a dozen active readers in a Brooklyn book group, the unanimous reaction was so negative that I can't quote it in print. Be warned. Stay away.

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Summary: Style over substance, to be appreciated but not enjoyed
Review: Some books are meant to be appreciated, not enjoyed...and this is a fine example of such a book. Any lover of literature will no doubt appreciate, perhaps even admire, the beautiful prose and the subtleties of language that overflow in this novel. Sebald, as many critics have noted, somehow transcends conventional form and structure. His dreamy, almost sonambulist narrative, is more than just unique; it exudes a sense of reverie and nostalgia that is most fitting for a book about a man in search of his identity and his past. Sebald rarely yields to the conventional norm that sentences should not go on for pages and pages, nor the arbitrary rule that paragraphs should not continue for 20 or 30 pages. Oh, and let us not forget the standard practice of dividing 300 page novels into neat, orderly chapters, a device which Sebald also ignores. All of this instills in his prose a more powerful sense of internal reflection, of a man on an endless journey of personal discovery. And the black and white photographs that accompany the narrative enhance the feeling of a man rediscovering images of his distant past.

Yet, alas, the book is dull, and requires effort on the part of the reader to fully appreciate. The premise - a man returns to Czechoslovakia sixty years after his family, fearing the Nazi occupation, sent him away alone, as a four-year-old child, to England, never to see him again - is full of potential. But instead of focusing intensively on the personal quest for identity, Sebald forces us to absorb this theme through style and form more than substance. And such an approach will only work for the most patient of readers - of which I am not one.

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Summary: Clueless as to the Reasons for the Hype
Review: Like the other negative reviewer, I just can't comprehend what all the hype is all about with this book. I read a good bit,probably 10 books a month, and this is clearly one of the most ponderous, rambling, sleep inducing books I have read in a long time. The author manages to turn a potentially gripping and tragic tale into a tedious reading experience by constantly going off into tangents whenever the story becomes gripping. Somewhere, buried inside of this novel there is an excellent story struggling to escape. However, the sheer dullness of this book completely defeats any effort of this story to emerge.

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Summary: A GREAT BOOK
Review: This is a beauty of a book; it is all texture, pure texture- like music. reading it is comparable to hearing beethoven's late quartets in sequence or bach's exercises for clavier or scarlatti's sonatas or bartok's microcosmos- or all of them.

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Summary: The Visual That Is Shared
Review: W.G. Sebald's death is a loss for anyone who enjoys exceptional writing. Like the majority of his previous novels, "Austerlitz", has been honored with literary awards inclusive of those bestowed posthumously.

The book has a striking cover photograph of a young boy who is dressed as if he is off to an audience of a royal court. His poise is as striking as his manner of dress. The cover is a starting point for the use of photographs throughout the novel. This is the first work I have read by this author, so this may be unique, or part of his standard presentation. I feel it was a powerful element to the book. The novel is the author's view of the world he creates, the environment that he places his characters within. The photographs add an entirely new level of detail without detracting from the characters or what the reader sees in their own mind's view.

With a less skilled writer the photographs could easily have become a crutch, standing in for observations the writer was unable to create authentically. Mr. Sebald presents observations and experiences of his characters with great detail and then will share a photo of what inspired the thoughts of his protagonists. I know that may sound a bit muddled, and everything in the book is from the author, but the manner he uses the visual to illustrate what he sees as a writer as opposed to what most of us miss is excellent.

The somewhat serendipitous meetings that mark the progress of our narrator and an enigmatic man, from their first accidental meeting, to a series of further coincidental exchanges could easily have been difficult to accept. In this work it never was, the narrator became a sort of touchstone for a man rediscovering his life, almost his diarist.

I look forward to reading more of this man's work.

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Summary: The Emperors New Clothes
Review: Was I the only person who found this book full of texture but dull and confusing?
I have read all the reviews and feel that the previous readers and I must have read a different novel. I found the book to be more ponderous than revealing, more plodding than enlightening. Most of the reviews--to borrow a phrase--failed to recognize that the Emperor has no clothes. The exquisite photograph on the cover was the best part of the book.
K. Johnson

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Summary: A great book to just sit down and read!
Review: I don't normally get into books that are so sparse on dialogue and almost all narrative; but this work is so well done its an exception. Reading this book, I found myself engrossed in Austerlitz's tale and the pages just sailed by. The writing is very easy-flowing and quite accessible, the plot never gets dull and is just about the right length. I also liked the pictures, a very original and unique touch. I found it very easy to empathize with Austerlitz and his quest to discover his past. There are many books dealing with the survivors/victims of the holocaust, but Sebald found a way to write a very original and profound book on the subject.

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Summary: A Beautiful Elegy
Review: Those of us who love Sebald's writing, love it passionately. I don't think this is an author with whom you can take a middle-of-the-road stance. Either you can't stand his books, or you adore them. I happen to adore them and feel very saddened that Austerlitz must be his last.

I think many people are put off by Sebald's long sentences, which can go on for two or three pages or more, as well as his long paragraphs that can go on for forty or fifty pages or more. If they are, they shouldn't be. Sebald wrote beautiful, crystalline prose and his books are surprisingly easy to read.

Sebald's books are not conventionally plotted, nor should they be. They are not conventional stories but meditations, revelations, evocations and elegies instead. They end up asking more questions than they answer and, in that way, they stay with you and become a part of you more than most conventionally plotted works ever do.

Austerlitz, my favorite Sebald work, is set in various train stations across Europe and chronicles a series of conversations that take place over a thirty year period. These conversations take place between the narrator of the book (who is never named) and a fellow traveler (Austerlitz) whom the narrator first encounters in the main train station in Antwerp, Belgium.

The book is slow to start, but gradually, we learn more and more about the mysterious Austerlitz. A native of Prague, Austerlitz learns from his nanny that he was sent out of that city (by train) prior to the arrival of the Nazis. Hence, train stations become very important to him for, in a sense, they symbolize his very survival.

A student of architecture, Austerlitz immediately captivates the narrator with his lectures on that subject as well as on art, time and various other subjects. As their friendship deepens and grows, the narrator learns that Austerlitz feels a deep void in the center of his soul that he cannot seem to fill and that it is this void that has spawned his desire to learn, to know. For in knowing about other things, Austerlitz hopes to one day find out who he, himself, really is.

Although this book is not broken up into chapters, Sebald, as in his three previous novels, has used photographs to accompany the text. These photographs, which Austerlitz analyzes in the hope of learning something new about himself, also serve as stopping points for the reader.

Austerlitz is a brilliant and beautiful meditation about time and memory, about how memory is preserved and how it is destroyed. About the preservation of life in memory's presence and the presence of death in its absence.

The characters in Austerlitz, as well as the characters in Sebald's previous novels, try very hard to keep memory alive. They do not want the strand of the past to disintegrate and leave them feeling disoriented.

The pace of Austerlitz is perfect...just like the pace one feels when traveling by train, at least in Europe. There is the rush through the station to catch the train and find one's seat, then the slow and easy pace once the train pulls out and begins its journey.

There is something ephemeral about this book, just as there should be. After all, time and memory are both ephemeral and fleeting and this is a book about both. Austerlitz is an eloquent, elegant and beautiful book. It is a book deserving to read by anyone who loves beautiful prose.

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Summary: Neo-Existentialism
Review: Sebald redefines modern day existentialism with this work. Existentialism is usually defined as "a philosophy that views the individual as being a unique entity, alone and isolated in an indifferent and even hostile universe" or something similar, the book alters this description. Rather than being totally alone, one is almost totally alone, and rather than the universe being totally hostile, it is somewhat or mostly hostile. In fact, Sebald paints a picture of a person lost within himself and within the world around him.

Austerlitz does not feel so much unique, as he feels unaware, unclear and out of touch with his real self and where he comes from. And, this feeling is not surprising considering his past transplantation from a warm and happy family life to a cold and non-communicative, even sterile environment, at the tender age of 4 years. He feels constantly displaced, which in fact, he truly is. Yet in contrast to the cold and hostile environment of such authors as Kafka or Camus, Austerlitz encounters a basically indifferent environment that has pockets of caring and love. It is a dichotomy that Sebald creates for the character and the reader. How can it be, that there is caring and love, yet the world is mostly indifferent and uncaring toward the individual? But it is reflective of the real world in many tangible ways.

Additionally, Sebald's rolling sentence structure is unique and exhilarating. His sentences go on at length, with single sentences sometimes running more than 2 pages. Yet his clarity is always maintained. His use of paragraphs is sparse. A single paragraph can run for 40 or 50 pages. He utilizes new paragraphs only for major changes in the scenario or subject of discussion. It is a masterful construction that must be read to be fully comprehended. The book is recommended for all readers interested in modern day classic literature.

Rating:
Summary: a masterpiece
Review: AS I usually do, I read the customer reviews after finishing Austerlitz, and don't know what I can add except to say that it was a thoroughly engrossing,compelling and thought provoking read and -- I don't know if this happens to other readers....I started another book shortly after I had finshed it yesterday and found myself feeling deprived by this new author's inability to capture my thoughts the way Seybald had...Austerlitz was the first book I had read of his and, as one reviewer suggested, I should read the other three of his books in a particular sequence and there is good news in that one or possibly two other books of Seybald's will be published posthumously ..His death is a great loss...to readers of quality contemporary literature.