Customer Reviews

Austerlitz

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4 star:		(0)
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This is a beautifully written book, and although it is a work of fiction it reads simply as recollections told to a narrator, who meets Jacques Austerlitz during his wanderings throughout Europe. Rather than tell Austerlitz's story directly, Sebald allows it to unfold through a series of chance encounters with the narrator (whose name escaped me, if he has one in the book). It is the story of a man who literally does not know who he is or where he came from, and who sets out on a journey through his past. Through the use of detailed images and specific observations, Sebald binds us to the present time, yet the book has a luminous, dreamlike quality. Were I restricted to one adjective for this book, it would be this: haunting. Both with beauty and with ghosts. I intend to read this book again.

I still havn't gotten further then 30 pages into this book. Each time I pick it up I start at the beginning again and I don't get far before I put it down and get lost in thought. And it can take months before I can pick it up again--it's been years.