Since this book is actually a compilation of 8 different stories, I figured I'd write a short review of each story after I've read it:
Death in Venice:
Absolutely terrible bordering on pedophilia. I'm sure there's some significant underlying theme or allusions or hidden meanings in this story but to me it was an (almost) sickening recounting of an old man's passion for a young boy.
Tonio Kroger:
The story of a bourgeois manque. Pointless, to me this story didn't go anywhere or accomplish anything.
Mario and the Magician:
The story of a family that sees a hypnotist's show over their holiday in an Italian beach town. Since I'm not a fan of hypnotists its tragic ending for him did not bring about any sympathy from me.
Disorder and Early Sorrow:
Another story where nothing much happens. This short story recounts an evening in a German family's house shortly after World War I. The Cornelius family hosts a small party for the younger generation and their young daughter has her first crush.
A Man and His Dog:
Another story that basically is summed up completely in the title. The first 10 pages of this story deal with the physicality and physiology of the author's dog, Bashar. The next 10 pages deal with where he takes his dog for a walk and the last 10 pages tell what the dog does when he's on his walk.
Will I ever finish this boring book?
The Blood of the Walsungs:
I probably haven't encountered a more shallow, vapid, annoying almost incestuous couple in any story I've read in my life. The twins Siegmund and Sieglinde just deserve to be slapped back into reality.
Tristan:
The story of a doctor who has peculiar dealings with a sickly married woman while they are both "taking a cure" at a spa. His motivations and goals aren't completely understood but he seems to be a man without scruples in taking advantage of the sick woman without resolution at the end of the story.
Felix Krull:
The story of a man recounting his childhood and adolescence growing up along the Rhine in a family that isn't part of the bourgeois of the town. In the end of the story the family loses everything in bankruptcy and the father commits suicide.
A very boring book in total and I would not recommend reading it to anyone, nothing really happens in these stories and you get angry if not sometimes disgusted reading them. Thankfully I finally finished, because once I start a book I have to finish it.
...ContinuaDeath in Venice and another 6 stories by Nobel Prize Winner Thomas Mann.
Translated by David Luke, a lecturer in German of Oxford University.
******
Death in Venice is a incredible story telling you that a man, passed by Venice, attracted strongly by a beautiful boy and following the footprints of this fragile young gentleman finally he was walking the way to death.
...Continua
