Customer Reviews

The Luneburg Variation

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

A short, nicely written book. I couldn't put it down during the last 40 pages. I recommend it. A better, but much longer book, is "The Eight" -- another mystery with a chess theme. "The Queen's Gambit" by W. Tevis is also good.

This book had me going right up till the end, and even then when I had finished I wanted to keep on reading. I thought at first that I was missing the last part of the book. But don't let the unorthodox ending deter you from this fine work. The characters and actions span a period of fifty years from the outbreak of WWII until the present. Effortlessly the author moves us from scene to the next with the precision of a grandmaster that has seen mate ten moves ahead. The characters are masterfully crafted in an artful chiaroscuro, which reveals just enough to tease the reader's appetite and leaving us aching to see into the shadows that remain. Not all the questions are answered in the end but enough are. It is refreshing to be forced to think as a reader, instead of being spoon-fed every point as if we were mindless infants. The story is strong and the blending of the chess games with the deadlier games the characters engage in is delightful. This book certainly ranks up there with the likes of other mysteries, most notably The Flanders Panel. The translation is smooth and clearly leaves the author's distinct voice to shine through. A great book for a raining night by the fire.

Frisch, a wealthy elderly German businessman, is found shot, apparently by his own hand, at a game of chess. Frisch was a chess master, editor of a chess magazine, collector of chess memorabilia, and had devoted much of his leisure to the study and analysis of the game. His sudden death remains mysterious until Frisch's dark past as a commanding officer in a Nazi death camp has been revealed. What made this thriller especially interesting to me is the narrative that weaves chess history together with fiction. Maurensig is obviously very familiar with chess, knows about its theory and history, and also knows how addictive this game can be; I felt this power in my own teenage years and had to tear myself away from its time-draining grasp. Grandmasters such as Casablanca, Rubinstein, Aljekhin, and others mentioned by Maurensig in this novel still remind me of their games and favored openings. Readers unfamiliar with early 20th century chess and its luminaries may miss some of the appeal the story had for me. Other reviews of this novel address its plot, the tension and language, all of which I found nearly flawless, even though,--or perhaps because--, Maurensig does not fully clarify Frisch's final act but leaves it to the reader's imagination.

I read "La variante di Luneburg" in Italian - published by the celebrated Adelphi. A very nice debut by Mr. Maurensig, but certainly not the masterpiece I was lead to believe it would be. Too many trite stereotypes simply depressed me - yes, you know them all, the nazi blond aryan, bad to the bone, no trace of recognizable humanity left, the jewish bohemian-bohemienne. All in all, It is one of those books that would have improved considerably through a ten year refinement in oak barrels.

Yet, the elliptic narrative that manages to condensate many decades in a little more than 100 pages is certainly to be commended; on top of that, the idea at the base of the plot, the nice mitteleuropean atmosphere (Maurensig is from Gorizia), the swift writing style - albeit occasionally predictable - still make it a nice, suspenseful, recommendable read, especially for chess lovers.

As for myself, I quite enjoyed it (and I'm not too crazy about chess).

Mr. Maurensig's first novel is certainly worth purchasing. I am a chess player and I really found the character Hans' training and upbringing by Tabori to be quite fascinating. It is clear Mr. Maurensig knows chess at the tournament level and I would be easily persuaded to believe he is at least expert level if not a master himself.

This book is quite a dark story. A lot of sadness entails it. Of course, it's a murder mystery which is quite well planned out and flows logically. What knicked it from getting 5 stars from me is that the story bounces too much. I personally like a start to finish book, this is not that. The author jumps back and forth several times which I must say lost my attention. The author did do a good job getting my attention back.

Ultimately, it's the story that carries any novel and this is a good story. I collect chess novels, and face it there are NOT very many in existence!! Period!! So, I thank Mr. Maurensig for his successful effort and the bottom line is I recommend this book to chess players looking for literature to read on chess.

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.

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.

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

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!