6.0
The book contains three dramatic works by the famous German writer Herman Broch (ok, I`m not so sure that he was that famous indeed but his name seems familiar to me - and that`s something). Note: after consulting Wikipedia (I`ve been mentioning this source of information quite often lately but only because it`s very informative and not because They would pay me for it, although I`d feel happy if they would) I know that Broch comes from a Jewish family and that he`s considered an Austrian writer. He`s mostly known for his novel "The Death of Virgil" which I`ll probably read later to be more educated than I am now. Yet I can`t say that after reading some of his plays I`ve become particulary interested in Broch`s writing. Out of the three plays published in the book I got from my library - "Die Entsuehnung", "Aus der Luft gegriffen oder Die Geschaefte des Baron Laborde" and "Es bleibt alles by Alten" I found only one that really worked for me. The first play - a tragical piece about a factory is - is too sad, boring and has too many characters for me to really get it on paper (rating 4.0). The second is a comedy and it`s fine - I always like to read something about con-artists and villains (8.0). The last play is also a comedy and it`s nothing really - nor good, nor bad, passable and not more (5.5). Maybe it wasn`t the best start of learning to know Hermann Broch.
2005-10-21 00:00:00
book, 0
5.5
It`s one of those boring books in German. By the way, I`ve noticed that most Austrian writers are even worse than classical Germans themselves. With the exception of Kafka surely. God, what makes people like Broch waste paper to write about characters I have very little interest for? So, he writes about a man who`s a mathematician and a physicist. That`s cool. But the way he writes! It just drives me mad! Broch seems to be the German Joyce yet I can`t find anything experimental in his work it`s basically just depressingly uninspiring. The most interesting thing about this book wasn`t its contents for sure. When I was on the tram on my way home from work two days ago I intended to go on with reading "The Unknown Value" but I found it missing from my bag. "I`ve forgotten it on my table at work," was the first reaction. Despite that I checked at home whether the book was there (although I had read it on the way to work the very same day therefore it couldn`t be at home by definition). Yesterday when I came to work first thing I wanted to do was to put the book in the bag so I won`t forget it once again. But I couldn`t find it anywhere. Now that got me worried. I never like losing books from libraries and this seemed to be just the case. Luckily a colleague of mine with whom I also study together claimed to have noticed a book in German on a table in the University a day ago. So we went to our English class and after the class I went to the doorkeeper to ask whether anybody had brought in my lost book. But before I could ask him I already noticed the book on his table. How huge was my relief!
2005-11-03 00:00:00
book, 1933