3 hours ago
3
I'm a sucker for these kinds of long family sagas, so I knew I'd like it going in, but the second half of the book in particular hit me hard. Such a powerful exploration of despair, yearning, and the need to escape the confines of your life. This passage near the end cut deep:
When the fever is at its height, life calls to the patient: calls out to him as he wanders in his distant dream, and summons him in no uncertain voice. The harsh, imperious call reaches the spirit on that remote path that leads into the shadows, the coolness and peace. He hears the call of life, the clear, fresh, mocking summons to return to that distant scene which he has already left so far behind him, and already forgotten. And there may well up in him something like a feeling of shame for a neglected duty; a sense of renewed energy, courage, and hope; he may recognize a bond existing still between him and that stirring, colourful, callous existence which he thought he had left so far behind him. Then, however far he may have wandered on his distant path, he will turn back—and live. But if he shudders when he hears life’s voice, if the memory of that vanished scene and the sound of that lusty summons make him shake his head, make him put out his hand to ward it off as he flies forward in the way of escape that has opened to him—then it is clear that the patient will die. [Mann, 591]
As the book goes on, the pall of gloom and hopelessness that hangs over it gets thicker and thicker. Even at the ending, all hopes of finding comfort in religion and family ring hollow, and the characters know it.
What are your thoughts on Buddenbrooks? I can easily see this becoming one of my favorites.
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