Rating: 
Summary: Time Flows
Review: Like fellow author without a country Nabokov, time and memory become interconnected. The anchors become the buildings. This was a very enjoyable examination of history as well. I would strongly suggest this novel to anyone interested in the above subjects.
Rating: 
Summary: enough!
Review: I picked up the book because I was intrigued by the premise of _Austerlitz_. At the age of 15, the headmaster of his school informs young Daffyd that he is not the son of a Welsh minister and his wife, rather Jacques Austerlitz, a Czech Jewish boy, who was adopted right before the war broke out in Europe. His parents sent him through Kindertransport to avoid being captured in the war.The complete story is told by an anonymous narrator over a 30 year span. Our narrator meets Austerlitz in the 1960s, and the two become acquaintances. They continue to correspond as each character travels around Europe and America. Each time they meet, Austerlitz relates information about his life. Therefore, nearly the whole book is told in a story form: the narrator telling us what Austerlitz initially told him. I really liked the premise of this book, but was disappointed in the style. Because of the narrator-style, the reader feels removed from the overall story. Austerlitz's life, and his journies were very interesting, but extremely detailed. I found myself becoming slightly bored with the long descriptive passages, and tangential information.
Rating: 
Summary: over rated and dissapointing
Review: Sebald creates a book of beautiful language and literary structure. He also expresses ideas with this powerful form. I could not put it down. Like visiting the formerly Jewish districts of the cities of Germany or Austria, it achieves its high impact because it convinces of the enormity of what was lost, what remains lost, to so many European cities and their people.
Rating: 
Summary: Resurrection
Review: AUSTERLITZ is an oblique and terrifying journey into the machinery of the Nazi death state. Its true subject becomes apparent only slowly; and as such one could say that the narrative strategy mimics and comments upon the slow unfolding of the grotesque design of the Nazis, of the diabolical destruction of European Jewry as a means to world domination... Poised in the realm of remembrance and loss, this astounding work of literature seeks through Austerlitz to show how the grotesque brutality and vicious efficiency of the Nazi regime continues to reverberate throughout time and space. Brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Translation
Review: Curious and skeptical, having read this wonderful
book in german, I went to the few available sample
pages to see inside the english version and find
out what it would feel like in english. I was
immeditely impressed by the sheer beauty of Anthea
Bell's work. I remember, years ago, when
I first read Shakespeare and then Schlegel & Tiek's translation,
not being able to decide which I preferred.
I will now read the book again in english, looking
forward to a similar (and very rare) experiencie,
this time the other way round.
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