Today's review is of a collection of seven short stories or novellas by Thomas Mann, with Death in Venice being the longest and most famous.I read five and then put it down.
Mann's form is wonderful- he's a gifted writer (especially Death in Venice- wow)- but his content got old. All five of the tales I read were essentially the same- a tortured character (often an artist of some kind) is upended by someone or something, he becomes obsessed, and eventually dies. There's a good deal of philosophizing about beauty and art, too, and the artist's perspective on life (which is misunderstood or unappreciated, these works imply).
After reading four stories, I read about half of the ample (60-page) introduction, where my suspicions were confirmed: Mann was a devotee of Nietzsche among others, and his writings certainly reflect that. On the one hand, these works are insightful because they (rightly) conclude or imply that life, on its own, is vanity (see the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes). On the other hand, Mann never arrives at the way forward (as the Ecclesiastes author does); for him, God is not present, and so his stories end in the abyss. This is also to correct conclusion- those without the Lord engage in futility and, ultimately, result in despair. So these works are valuable from that perspective- a helpful reminder to be sure. But I didn't need to read the same thing repeatedly, so read one more and stopped after five.
Rating: B
No comments:
Post a Comment