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lori85's review against another edition
3.0
If you DNF this within the first chapter of the first book, don't feel guilty. It took me over a month to plough through all 650 pages of this trilogy. Hermann Broch isn't exactly beach reading, with essay chapters on philosophy that are downright impenetrable. These occur in the third book, The Realist (1932), a characteristically Modernist mix that also includes constantly shifting POVs, poetry, and newspaper articles. I personally found [b:The 42nd Parallel|7101|The 42nd Parallel (U.S.A., #1)|John Dos Passos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440885254l/7101._SY75_.jpg|10275] by John Dos Passos (1930) and [b:Berlin Alexanderplatz|243381|Berlin Alexanderplatz|Alfred Döblin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1298025058l/243381._SY75_.jpg|1473268] by Alfred Döblin (1929) much better examples of this technique. (The latter is also German language.)
Ironically, it was precisely those most difficult chapters that ended up being the most rewarding. The Realist, together with "The Sleepwalkers" trilogy as a whole, is deeply concerned with the concept of a "style of the epoch," and while its Lost Generation "waste land" disillusionment may be familiar to anyone who has read other books from this post-WWI era, Broch takes a Hegelian deep-dive into what he, a Catholic convert, perceives as a slow slide into the cultural abyss that began with the Protestant Reformation and for which the Great War is merely a final act. The dry academic jargon takes an increasing tone of urgency, climaxing in the epilogue, where Broch fuses his previously detached musings with the POV of one of his main characters, a man who. T.S. Eliot called such adrift souls the "hollow men" for whom the world would end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Broch, a German witnessing the rise of Hitler, predicts the opposite.
Ironically, it was precisely those most difficult chapters that ended up being the most rewarding. The Realist, together with "The Sleepwalkers" trilogy as a whole, is deeply concerned with the concept of a "style of the epoch," and while its Lost Generation "waste land" disillusionment may be familiar to anyone who has read other books from this post-WWI era, Broch takes a Hegelian deep-dive into what he, a Catholic convert, perceives as a slow slide into the cultural abyss that began with the Protestant Reformation and for which the Great War is merely a final act. The dry academic jargon takes an increasing tone of urgency, climaxing in the epilogue, where Broch fuses his previously detached musings with the POV of one of his main characters, a man who
Spoiler
has committed rape and murder and gone on to live a respectable life as a prosperous businessman after the war. Huguenau represents German society as a whole, as one who has succumbed to the irrational and in doing so, can never be restored to an old order found empty and meaningless. He exists in a kind of haze, vulnerable to a savior preaching national redemptionLost generation! as non-existent as Evil itself, featureless and traditionless in the morass of the indiscriminate, doomed to lose itself temporally, to have no tradition in an age that is making absolute history! Whatever the individual man’s attitude to the course of the revolution, whether he turns reactionary and clings to outworn forms, mistaking the æsthetic for the ethical as all conservatives do, or whether he holds aloof in the passivity of egoistic knowledge, or whether he gives himself up to his irrational impulses and applies himself to the destructive work of the revolution: he remains unethical in his destiny, an outcast from his epoch, an outcast from Time, yet nowhere and never is the spirit of the epoch so strong, so truly ethical and historical as in that last and first flare-up which is revolution, that act of self-elimination and self-renewal, the last and greatest ethical achievement of the old disintegrating system and the first achievement of the new, the moment when time is annulled and history radically formed in the pathos of the absolute zero!
juuhae's review
4.0
Unfortunately, Hermann lost me in the last twenty pages. Too much pathos-drunk verbiage for my taste (even though he would probably argue that I'm a victim of the cold, ornament-less modern style of thinking). Not to mention the dusty language from the first half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the strictly theoretical and structure-emphasising composition, especially with the essay on the collapse of values in the third book. What amazes me above all is that, despite the fact that the whole trilogy is a huge, social-theoretical essay on the collapse of values at the start of the modern age, you can empathise with the characters so well.
Each book contains a complex, perfectly thought-out constellation of characters built around the main character. All the characters act in such a way that their personalities are believable. They never degenerate into symbolic instruments, which in my opinion is a gigantic narrative achievement considering the theoretical foundation. What's more, you get an insight into the innermost, intimate world of the characters and subsequently take each one to your heart. In short: I would love to have Hermann Broch's writing skills!
Each book contains a complex, perfectly thought-out constellation of characters built around the main character. All the characters act in such a way that their personalities are believable. They never degenerate into symbolic instruments, which in my opinion is a gigantic narrative achievement considering the theoretical foundation. What's more, you get an insight into the innermost, intimate world of the characters and subsequently take each one to your heart. In short: I would love to have Hermann Broch's writing skills!
almarais's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
coffeebooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
christiannasbooktrips's review against another edition
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Just amazing.... Broch's art on writing is unbelievable
regitzexenia's review against another edition
2.0
Oh dear I never thought I would finish this. Holy moly. The only thing I have to say is that I am glad I'm done with it.
kingkong's review against another edition
4.0
The first two parts are pretty cool because theyre about these neurotic guys trying to get laid, but I dont even know what the third part is about. Goodreads staff please add 3 instead of 1 to my '2013 books read' because this is a trilogy
dcandia_riq's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0