Austerlitz: W.G. Sebald

[poliphilo]

Austerlitz is an ancient mariner with a tale to tell that has no albatrosses in it, a man beached and abandoned by history, an observer of life whose single most decisive action has been to burn his accumulated observations, He tells his story over time as he fades- improbably- in and out of the life of an equally ghostly narrator.

This is music for woodwind- with oboe predominant: discursive, melancholic- and flowing, flowing, flowing, 

Comments

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

I like Austerlitz a great deal. Have you read The Rings Of Saturn? It's a wonderful book.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have. I think it's the better book. I don't think Austerlitz (the character)is a particularly successful creation.