Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Wonderful and moving!

Austerlitz is grounded on the intimacy between two men. They meet by happenstance in the 1960s and intermittently carry on one-sided conversations for decades. In these conversations the eponymous Austerlitz � I’ll call him Mr. Austerlitz to avoid confusion with the book’s title � updates the story of his search for his past. How the search continues after the book’s last page is unknown. Although the emotional weight of the search lies in the particular life of Mr. Austerlitz, the author draws the reader in through the context of his search � that Mr. Austerlitz was or believes himself to have been one of the very youngest children on a Kindertransport.

Almost all of the book are Mr. Austerlitz� narrations provided, seemingly verbatim, by the other man � I’ll call him Mr. Reporter. Therefore, the book is embedded in the relationship of the men. The intensity of Mr. Austerlitz’s story is thereby mediated by the patience, exacting attention and labor of Mr. Reporter. This means that Mr. Reporter has affection for Mr. Austerlitz or at least concern. The result of the interplay is that we grow to have greater compassion for Mr. Austerlitz. We may not know him better, but we have more feeling for him as he makes the tormented journey of his life.

In sum, the unity of Mr. Austerlitz and Mr. Reporter shows a strong bond. It is often the way in which we relate our concern for a person to a third party. Austerlitz is a very humane book.

The question of the double-narration in Austerlitz was my own main preoccupation. But there are other aspects of the book that bear mentioning. One is that I do not think that I have ever read a book in which the "nausea" that a person might feel for existence is so well described. It is as if Mr. Austerlitz' life were an ocean voyage on which he is perpetually seasick. Mr. Austerlitz cannot find any firm ground for his life. And Mr. Sebald is so good at showing this. There is the elusiveness of events that Mr. Austerlitz wants to extract from times past. For example, he wants to be with his mother on her walk to the collection point in Prague. But of course he cannot ever be. In addition, he must rely on the "facts" of this walk through Vera who is herself recollecting it out of the past. Therefore, the event is wavering and imprecise. Mr. Austerlitz will never grasp it. He will never "be" there. On top of this uncertainty there is the question (my own question) whether Vera is reliable or even whether Vera is talking about a person who is Mr. Austerlitz' mother. Perhaps, there is some grand mistake about Vera and Mr. Austerlitz's seeming recognition of each other.

There is another image of uncertainty. This is represented by the new Biblioteque Nationale in Paris. Here is a building that purports to organize all of a grand history and scholarly methodologies into modern categories while, in reality, it has destroyed the grand history and methodologies that existed and functioned quite well in the old, venerable Biblioteque Nationale. Moreover, not only does the new library sit on the bones of the old, as it were, it sits on a plot of land that during World War II was the Nazi depot and warehouse for confiscated Jewish property. The building itself is a layer on top of an old world and a more recent awful purpose. (Also, Mr. Sebald comes through here. His description of the new library is a rant. It is actually funny.)

Towards the end of the book, Mr. Reporter relates the scene in a book in which the author stands on the edge of an abandoned diamond mine in South Africa. He looks down into what is actually an abyss. Not even light penetrates its depths. There is a fantastic image for Mr. Austerlitz's nausea and uncertainty.

Austerlitz is an excellent read. Mr. Sebald has the gift of "flow." That is, he carries the reader from one scene to the next. All of them, whether the railroad station in Antwerp, Theriesenstadt, or the grotesque veterinary museum, Mr. Austerlitz's London house, etc., etc. are a journey for the reader to enjoy.

Lawrence says: Check it out.