I can say the word but I have to be looking at it really close.
I have only read The Rings of Saturn which I picked up at a bookstore that serves Belgian waffles in Buffalo, New York, and I only picked it up because I thought the cover was great - sometimes that is a completely valid reason to buy and read a book!!! I have been wanting to read more Sebald since and might even use this book club to jumpstart finishing out his rather abbreviated bibliography.
Got my copy at the library where I work (which also has the German edition which I kinda wanna crack open and look at now that you describe Sebald’s approach—not that it would track for me anyway, but sometimes it’s just fun to lay your eyes upon something in its original language). But I admit I’ve started it with the audiobook so I’m not actually sure how far in I am yet lol. Definitely already obsessed with the vibe. Coming into this with literally zero awareness of Sebald but I’m very intrigued.
I've got my copy (ebook via Libby)... same edition but the pagination on there occasionally gets fucked up so I appreciate the scheduling note. Started reading it yesterday after seeing The Brutalist lol. Never read any other Sebald - main point of reference is the Caretaker score for that doc about him (which I've never seen).
I won't say anything about the book until our actual first post (I'm only like 15 pages in, anyway). Very much looking forward to getting further in, but with the understanding that I will probably spend as much time reading wikipedia articles about every building mentioned as I will spend reading the actual novel. I also tend to have trouble parsing my own reactions to art about the Holocaust - my dad's side of the family is Ashkenazy but mostly disconnected from any sense of Jewish culture or identity. So I look forward to being very inarticulate about all that.
I’m also only like 20 pages in and had to stop to google image search the buffet room at the Antwerp train station. It IS a big, intimidating clock! What are you making of the style/prose so far? I’ll admit that the big draw of Sebald to me is more aesthetic than thematic.
I'm still getting the rhythm but it's comfortable to read so far! I have very scattered thoughts about how the narrator seems to be condensing/synthesizing much longer conversations with Austerlitz, but I haven't read enough to really... Say anything.
Brendan here! I have read all four Sebalds and Austerlitz was the one I started with in 2021, so I’m looking forward to circling back. There are certain writers you only begin to read once you reread them (Pynchon comes to mind), and I believe WGS may qualify in this category.
Contra to the form of his other novels, much of Austerlitz is presented as the content of dialogue between Austerlitz and the narrator, and when I think back on this book I think about the way Sebald describes the spaces where they meet and walk while listening to these stories. That idea about how one’s memory of a space is linked to the information absorbed there will come up quite a bit, I expect.
Have you read Times Square Red, Times Square Blue? I was just talking about this with a friend, the way Delaney invokes our memories are related to space in that novel, even though formally he couldn’t be further from Sebald.
I've got my copy! This is one of my favorite books, but I haven't read it in probably two or three years and I'm really looking forward to revisiting it. I don't want to say more that might spoil the experience, but I'm really curious what the first-time readers (especially those who haven't read WGS before) make of the images included in the book.
Somewhere in a notebook I have a list of all the images included in the book with their page numbers in both the English and German paperback editions, which serves as an easy way to find the source for a given passage if you lack German reading fluency. If anyone is interested in that kind of cross-referencing, I can track that down (or just take the time to remake it).
Should have my copy tomorrow and will get cracking. I would advocate for a slower pace on the 60pp a week or so based on the pace of my prior group read of The Emigrants.
i’m gonna wait to read this until after i’ve started the book
*i’m looking forward to cracking up voice* i’m looking forward to finding out how much Jacques Austerlitz is like Lazsló Tóth
Literally zero book stores in the cursed city of Boston have this on their shelves 😡😡😡
My big city coastal elite biases are showing again, I’m sorry!!
It’s not ideal as a physical book but I can send you a [redacted] to tie you over til you can get a physical copy.
I am 20th on the library hold list!!!!
I can say the word but I have to be looking at it really close.
I have only read The Rings of Saturn which I picked up at a bookstore that serves Belgian waffles in Buffalo, New York, and I only picked it up because I thought the cover was great - sometimes that is a completely valid reason to buy and read a book!!! I have been wanting to read more Sebald since and might even use this book club to jumpstart finishing out his rather abbreviated bibliography.
Got my copy at the library where I work (which also has the German edition which I kinda wanna crack open and look at now that you describe Sebald’s approach—not that it would track for me anyway, but sometimes it’s just fun to lay your eyes upon something in its original language). But I admit I’ve started it with the audiobook so I’m not actually sure how far in I am yet lol. Definitely already obsessed with the vibe. Coming into this with literally zero awareness of Sebald but I’m very intrigued.
I've got my copy (ebook via Libby)... same edition but the pagination on there occasionally gets fucked up so I appreciate the scheduling note. Started reading it yesterday after seeing The Brutalist lol. Never read any other Sebald - main point of reference is the Caretaker score for that doc about him (which I've never seen).
I won't say anything about the book until our actual first post (I'm only like 15 pages in, anyway). Very much looking forward to getting further in, but with the understanding that I will probably spend as much time reading wikipedia articles about every building mentioned as I will spend reading the actual novel. I also tend to have trouble parsing my own reactions to art about the Holocaust - my dad's side of the family is Ashkenazy but mostly disconnected from any sense of Jewish culture or identity. So I look forward to being very inarticulate about all that.
I’m also only like 20 pages in and had to stop to google image search the buffet room at the Antwerp train station. It IS a big, intimidating clock! What are you making of the style/prose so far? I’ll admit that the big draw of Sebald to me is more aesthetic than thematic.
I'm still getting the rhythm but it's comfortable to read so far! I have very scattered thoughts about how the narrator seems to be condensing/synthesizing much longer conversations with Austerlitz, but I haven't read enough to really... Say anything.
Brendan here! I have read all four Sebalds and Austerlitz was the one I started with in 2021, so I’m looking forward to circling back. There are certain writers you only begin to read once you reread them (Pynchon comes to mind), and I believe WGS may qualify in this category.
Contra to the form of his other novels, much of Austerlitz is presented as the content of dialogue between Austerlitz and the narrator, and when I think back on this book I think about the way Sebald describes the spaces where they meet and walk while listening to these stories. That idea about how one’s memory of a space is linked to the information absorbed there will come up quite a bit, I expect.
Have you read Times Square Red, Times Square Blue? I was just talking about this with a friend, the way Delaney invokes our memories are related to space in that novel, even though formally he couldn’t be further from Sebald.
No but you’re not the first person to recommend this to me! It’s on the list
Just got my copy yesterday. The picture on the cover is sometimes how I imagine Fran thinks I look.
Just now seeing this - but yes
Ah I saw this recommended through Clare, I'm so hyped to join this. I have somehow never read Sebald, completely going in blind...
I've got my copy! This is one of my favorite books, but I haven't read it in probably two or three years and I'm really looking forward to revisiting it. I don't want to say more that might spoil the experience, but I'm really curious what the first-time readers (especially those who haven't read WGS before) make of the images included in the book.
Somewhere in a notebook I have a list of all the images included in the book with their page numbers in both the English and German paperback editions, which serves as an easy way to find the source for a given passage if you lack German reading fluency. If anyone is interested in that kind of cross-referencing, I can track that down (or just take the time to remake it).
Should have my copy tomorrow and will get cracking. I would advocate for a slower pace on the 60pp a week or so based on the pace of my prior group read of The Emigrants.