The Luneburg Variation

Rating:
Summary: Flawed but still compelling
Review: A great novel, intense and breath-taking. Written in a pregnant style with a peculiar circular structure. It sometimes reminded me of certain atmospheres of Herman Hesse's books. Absolutely worth reading. One of the books I liked most in last years.

Rating:
Summary: You will enjoy it.
Review: Admittedly, I have a strong bias for books dealing with chess. That aside, I can still recommend this book. On a superficial level it is a compelling read; on a deeper level its form is insightful and well suited to the nature of the tale.

The fundamental ideas allegorically portrayed in the course of the novel are well suited to the themes Maurensig has chosen. While the philosophy proffered may not agree with that of the reader's, certainly its presentation is not objectionable.

The approach to chess is the approach to life, and the case for the approach is well met. The weakest element of the novel is compensated for in its form: justification of the characters' actions is delivered not by the author, but the reader.

It is not a long novel; and certainly worth the time spent reading.

Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Modern Novel
Review: Admittedly, I have a strong bias for books dealing with chess. That aside, I can still recommend this book. On a superficial level it is a compelling read; on a deeper level its form is insightful and well suited to the nature of the tale.

The fundamental ideas allegorically portrayed in the course of the novel are well suited to the themes Maurensig has chosen. While the philosophy proffered may not agree with that of the reader's, certainly its presentation is not objectionable.

The approach to chess is the approach to life, and the case for the approach is well met. The weakest element of the novel is compensated for in its form: justification of the characters' actions is delivered not by the author, but the reader.

It is not a long novel; and certainly worth the time spent reading.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive
Review: I met Paolo Maurensig via his latest novel, which up to today hasn't been published in the US. He has a very highbrow style and there is a lot of introspection but this is nonetheless a page-tuner! I think that what makes this novel so enjoyable, apart from Maurensig's brillian writing and the fascinating plot (narrated in a long flashback) is the fact that the writer has found the perfect balance between width of the tale and weight of the book (in terms of pages). a hundred pages more and most readers would have found this too pompous to be enjoyable and on the other hand if the plot wasn't so intriguing 140 (in the italian edition) pages would be to many (and trust me, I've met writers who built 500 pages monsters on a plot that could be effectively summarized in one sentence). Buy it as soon as you can!

Rating:
Summary: mysterious, chess and the Holocaust
Review: Our book club us now reading this book as a foil for The Reader: A Novel, another great short, post-WW II book. If anything, this is better written and has the pace and feel of its 'chess' theme. One need not be a chess aficianado to enjoy this book though my chess nut friends seem to have enjoyed it even more.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed but still compelling
Review: Paolo Maurensig's "The Luneburg Variation" begins with the death of a chess master. Found inside a hedge maze with a patchwork chess board made from old cloth and buttons scratched to be makeshift pieces, the master has been shot. The novella then backtracks to fill in the events that led up to the death. And the story is a complex one, including the metaphysics of chess, the Holocaust, and more. The title itself refers to a chess strategy.

Maurensig devotes a great deal of attention to the nature of chess, whether a mental war or an oasis of sanity, a compulsion that takes over one's life or a reason for living. Maurensig's evident affection for the game makes these passages engrossing without a lapse into discussions that require any particular chess expertise to understand. Less effective, albeit still powerful, are the scenes in the concentration camp.

While "The Luneburg Variation" is a compelling read, it suffers somewhat from the structure. Maurensig presents the story in bits and pieces, and the result is that there is not the fluidity one might like. It is not that the book switches between characters so much as it is that the story switches time frames frequently. The intent seems to have been to disclose bits and pieces when they most add to the suspense, but the effect is to cause abrupt shifts that reminded me that I was in fact reading; in short, they took me out of the story, even if only briefly. Finally, kudos is due Jon Rothschild, who translated the story from the original Italian. I cannot comment on the accuracy of the translation since I haven't seen the original text (and wouldn't be able to read it if I did), but the English in which "The Luneburg Variation" is presented is exquisite and bears no resemblance to a secondary work.

Rating:
Summary: As complex - and satisfying - as a great game of Chess
Review: Paolo Maurensig, The Luneburg Variation (FSG, 1993)

Talk about brushing greatness. Paolo Maurensig's first novel comes so close it could probably smell the fetid, decaying breath of greatness on its shoulder, then turned away at the last minute. to leave the reader with an almost palpable feeling of something being missing.

Maurensig sets things up beautifully, opening with the discovery of the body of a chess magazine editor in his garden. When the police can't decide if it were murder or suicide, the death is labelled "mysterious circumstances" and filed away. We then travel back in time to a few hours before the man's death and are given the circumstances surrounding it. This happens in two extended flashbacks, the first of the victim's long train ride to his country estate, the second the story of a legendary chess player during world war II. (There is much more to these, but to reveal more details of them would set off a chain of unforgivable spoilers.)

All works quite nicely, and everything is going along swimmingly, until you get to the book's last page and wonder where the final present-day scene, the one the whole book begs for, went. It's certainly not in the book. It's possible the author left it out in order to preserve the "mysterious circumstances" surrounding the editor's death, but in that case, why write the rest of the book?

Maurensig has been compared to Friedrich Durrenmatt on a number of occasions. From the perspective of writing style, the comparison may well be justified; both seem fond of brief, straightforward novels with mysteries at their center about which the greatest question is "why" rather than "who?" (Heinrich Boll is another author who does this very well.) However, Durrenmatt is capable of handing the reader all the clues and letting him work things out; Maurensig left out a few pieces of this puzzle, and it makes the book, ultimately, a frustrating exercise. ** 1/2

Rating:
Summary: As complex - and satisfying - as a great game of Chess
Review: Robert P. Beveridge, the reviewer just before me (and a "top" reviewer at that), doesn't get the end of this book. If you've read the book carefully, the ending is perfectly clear and perfectly just. I won't spoil anyone's enjoyment by explaining the end, because I think the reasonably intelligent and literate reader is capable of figuring it out for himself. Suffice it to say, like great chess, or like any valuable work of art for that matter, EVERY detail counts. Pay attention, and you will be richly rewarded. I'm on my second reading, and my pleasure in the Luneburg Variation only grows.

I also think the reviewers who made a lot out of the concentration camp scenes miss the point. The book isn't about Nazis, Jews, the Holocaust, etc., at all. The author needs all that for the mise-en-scene, but the book is really ultimately about chess itself and what it can mean.

Rating:
Summary: Great debut
Review: This is the first novel by Mr. Maurensig, and it is enjoyable even though it is too brief. The comment on brevity is not a complaint; I just wish it had been longer.

The Author uses some familiar ideas and locations for this short story, but he is able to do so without sounding cliché. Using a train for the locale of an unfolding mystery is familiar, as is the most complex of games, chess, with which the Author unwinds his story. When he is done the result is a very enjoyable albeit a brief read.

The read is not as cliché as some of the commercial reviews would have you believe. I am bothered that the same reviewers found it necessary to expose so much of the story; it is after all only 140 pages. It is true that some elements have been used before, but that is true of every book that has been written. Every book in English uses the same words, it's the arrangement of them that matters. A bad Author with a new idea produces nothing of interest, a talented Author like Mr. Maurensig can take what is familiar and make it fresh.

Rating:
Summary: Great debut
Review: This is the first novel by Mr. Maurensig, and it is enjoyable even though it is too brief. The comment on brevity is not a complaint; I just wish it had been longer.

The Author uses some familiar ideas and locations for this short story, but he is able to do so without sounding cliché. Using a train for the locale of an unfolding mystery is familiar, as is the most complex of games, chess, with which the Author unwinds his story. When he is done the result is a very enjoyable albeit a brief read.

The read is not as cliché as some of the commercial reviews would have you believe. I am bothered that the same reviewers found it necessary to expose so much of the story; it is after all only 140 pages. It is true that some elements have been used before, but that is true of every book that has been written. Every book in English uses the same words, it's the arrangement of them that matters. A bad Author with a new idea produces nothing of interest, a talented Author like Mr. Maurensig can take what is familiar and make it fresh.