I wanted to make mention of the part I just read because I thought it was very interesting and I found myself becoming engrossed. Austerlitz describes the conversation he has with Uncle Alphonso about moths. Truly, I will no longer look at moths the same way. As a person who believes that your spirit moves on to other life forms after death I can appreciate his sadness for the death of the moth in his home. I really liked this story within a story.
Aug 27, 2008
Aug 11, 2008
Beginning...
I never noticed how much I rely on the existence of chapters. Then I started reading Austerlitz- at page 30 I was frantically flipping through the pages trying to find a break, a place to stop. You are right about the endless sentences (if sentence is the correct term). Also, I'm glad that you found the beginning description of architecture hard to get through. I thought perhaps I had missed an important piece of information, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the developing story is well worth it.
I'm not really sure why this idea came to mind but when he thinks of Austerlitz over the years it reminds me of how you think of yourself at different times in your life. It was as if Austerlitz is an extension of himself (the narrator). Finally Austerlitz begins his tale...
The most interesting and compelling detail of his identity being questioned is when he describes looking for people with his same last name. It really brings to life what it must be like to realize your reality has been a lie. How bizarre that he makes a strong friendship with one of his professors based mainly on his last name and its connection to one of the greatest battles in history. Hilary gives Austerlitz a decent male figure to look up to- a replacement for his "barely there" foster father. What did you think of the way he describes his foster parents?
I did not know this was the newest book on the list. I did notice that it was "recently" written, however I had not considered that it could possibly be the newest book.
I'm not really sure why this idea came to mind but when he thinks of Austerlitz over the years it reminds me of how you think of yourself at different times in your life. It was as if Austerlitz is an extension of himself (the narrator). Finally Austerlitz begins his tale...
The most interesting and compelling detail of his identity being questioned is when he describes looking for people with his same last name. It really brings to life what it must be like to realize your reality has been a lie. How bizarre that he makes a strong friendship with one of his professors based mainly on his last name and its connection to one of the greatest battles in history. Hilary gives Austerlitz a decent male figure to look up to- a replacement for his "barely there" foster father. What did you think of the way he describes his foster parents?
I did not know this was the newest book on the list. I did notice that it was "recently" written, however I had not considered that it could possibly be the newest book.
Aug 4, 2008
At the beginning...
Austerlitz. Yes Lindsey, I can see what you mean that this book is hard to get into. I did start reading it over the weekend. OK, what is with the endless sentence on pg. 9? I bet he did not use a program like Word that has a grammatical sentence checker because he would have gotten a message like "wordiness, consider revising". Also, I understand what you meant about all of the information at the beginning of the story regarding the details of the architecture, etc.
I worked on my stained glass project over the weekend and listened to the recorded version of the story and that was much easier to digest. Except the mention of all of the foreign places and names, I won't ever be able to recall them.
Austerlitz and the main character have met back up after 20 years had elapsed since they last saw one another. I can see the story being able to move forward from here with Austerlitz retelling the story of his mysterious childhood, who is he really? It was tragic that his foster parents both passed away before they could tell him about his past. How horrible to find out that your name is not really yours and that you are really someone else. It reminds me of the Boston Legal where Denny Crane (William Shatner) tells Alan Shore (James Spader) that his son, Donny Crane (Freddy Prinze Jr.) is not really his. It's clear that Donny is devastated by hearing this news. Your version of reality is totally turned upside down upon hearing news like this and you have to figure out who you really are.
It's uncanny how the narrator and Austerlitz meet up in the strangest of circumstances and continue their conversations where they had left off from their last meeting. I am not familiar with geography and need to brush up so I can understand the distances between the countries that are referred to in the story.
I did not realize that this was a newer story, when I heard that they meet again in 1996, I had to go and see when the story was published. Do you know, is it the newest book on our list?
I worked on my stained glass project over the weekend and listened to the recorded version of the story and that was much easier to digest. Except the mention of all of the foreign places and names, I won't ever be able to recall them.
Austerlitz and the main character have met back up after 20 years had elapsed since they last saw one another. I can see the story being able to move forward from here with Austerlitz retelling the story of his mysterious childhood, who is he really? It was tragic that his foster parents both passed away before they could tell him about his past. How horrible to find out that your name is not really yours and that you are really someone else. It reminds me of the Boston Legal where Denny Crane (William Shatner) tells Alan Shore (James Spader) that his son, Donny Crane (Freddy Prinze Jr.) is not really his. It's clear that Donny is devastated by hearing this news. Your version of reality is totally turned upside down upon hearing news like this and you have to figure out who you really are.
It's uncanny how the narrator and Austerlitz meet up in the strangest of circumstances and continue their conversations where they had left off from their last meeting. I am not familiar with geography and need to brush up so I can understand the distances between the countries that are referred to in the story.
I did not realize that this was a newer story, when I heard that they meet again in 1996, I had to go and see when the story was published. Do you know, is it the newest book on our list?
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