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A review by generalheff
The Confusions of Young Torless by Ritchie Robertson, Robert Musil, Mike Mitchell
2.0
This book describes Törless - a boy at boarding school - and his coming to terms with the onset of puberty and encountering "sensuality" for the first time by taking part in ruthlessly bullying and raping a fellow pupil who he and his friends caught steeling.
According to the introduction, German military schools at the turn of the twentieth century were ruthless places where such behaviour was not uncommon. Rainer Maria Rilke, for instance, once commented that he was reminded of his time attending the same school as the Young Törless upon reading Dostoevsky's description of being in a Siberian prison camp in Notes from a Dead House. So the shocking nature of the material is in itself not a reason to view the book negatively.
What is a reason to dislike the book, however, is just how tedious and pretentious it is. Around the distressing - thought somewhat parenthetical - descriptions of a boy being mentally and sexually abused, we are treated to tiresome discussions of philosophy as Törless grapples with philosophical questions like how do we articulate in words deep and dark feelings, or what are imaginary numbers (no doubt a tired metaphor for the boy's struggles but one I don't have any interest in decoding).
It's all so much a representation of Törless' growth, but it is painfully dull, utterly banal and not at all as sophisticated or "intellectual" as the introduction claims. Nor is it a view into "dictatorial attitudes that prefigure the outbreak of ... fascism" as the blurb suggests. It is, simply put, a poor description of some teenage mental turbulence grafted onto some pretty thinly drawn characters enmeshed in a disturbing story of abuse.
The book does have some insightful lines that just lift it out of the dread 1-star category: for example, when discussing why banal literature can be useful for young people, Musil amusingly comments that it can carry them "over the dangerous, soft emotional ground of those years during which one has to mean something to oneself and is yet still too much of an unfinished article really to be anything." This and a few more gems besides managed to grab my interest for a passing second but unfortunately it was too little to salvage the work.
In sum, I can see why I had never heard of this book before I picked it up in a three for two offer, had not heard of Robert Musil and am thoroughly grateful the book was so easy and quick to get through.
According to the introduction, German military schools at the turn of the twentieth century were ruthless places where such behaviour was not uncommon. Rainer Maria Rilke, for instance, once commented that he was reminded of his time attending the same school as the Young Törless upon reading Dostoevsky's description of being in a Siberian prison camp in Notes from a Dead House. So the shocking nature of the material is in itself not a reason to view the book negatively.
What is a reason to dislike the book, however, is just how tedious and pretentious it is. Around the distressing - thought somewhat parenthetical - descriptions of a boy being mentally and sexually abused, we are treated to tiresome discussions of philosophy as Törless grapples with philosophical questions like how do we articulate in words deep and dark feelings, or what are imaginary numbers (no doubt a tired metaphor for the boy's struggles but one I don't have any interest in decoding).
It's all so much a representation of Törless' growth, but it is painfully dull, utterly banal and not at all as sophisticated or "intellectual" as the introduction claims. Nor is it a view into "dictatorial attitudes that prefigure the outbreak of ... fascism" as the blurb suggests. It is, simply put, a poor description of some teenage mental turbulence grafted onto some pretty thinly drawn characters enmeshed in a disturbing story of abuse.
The book does have some insightful lines that just lift it out of the dread 1-star category: for example, when discussing why banal literature can be useful for young people, Musil amusingly comments that it can carry them "over the dangerous, soft emotional ground of those years during which one has to mean something to oneself and is yet still too much of an unfinished article really to be anything." This and a few more gems besides managed to grab my interest for a passing second but unfortunately it was too little to salvage the work.
In sum, I can see why I had never heard of this book before I picked it up in a three for two offer, had not heard of Robert Musil and am thoroughly grateful the book was so easy and quick to get through.