21st Century Literature discussion

This thread is for discussions up to 3/4 of the book — Modern Library p.225 / Penguin p.317,



Let us know what you think!

While I am loving this book, I must say the spa holiday part right before this section was quite slow reading.

The meeting with Vera and the visit to the Ghetto Museum though was absolutely intense. Seeing the details of what Agata experienced through the lens of this story and the way each detail was described … incredibly moving and disturbing.

I was close to tears when I was reading the Vera bits!

The (failed) spa-cure bit didn’t exactly bore me, but only because I was busy linking that to TS Eliot’s poems, to Ishiguro’s Unconsoled, and to other modernist fictions (or biographies) that featured similar endeavors. I’m not saying it’s intentional, but I keep getting a sense of “deja vu” reading it.

Did you catch the room number?

The room unlocked for us was Number 38—a large room resembling a salon. The walls were covered with burgundy-red brocade wallpaper...

A lot of stuff happened to Austerlitz in the year 1938, I feel a bit like Easter-egg hunting reading this, LOL.

But otherwise agree, it comes down from the emotional “high point” of the Vera discovery rather abruptly.


Also, the twin brother false memory:

the train was the original of the images that had haunted me for so many years. Then I recollected another idea which had obsessed me over a long period: the image of a twin brother who had been with me on that long journey, sitting motionless by the window of the compartment, staring out into the dark. I knew nothing about him, not even his name, and I had never exchanged so much as a word with him, but whenever I thought of him I was tormented by the notion that towards the end of the journey he had died of consumption and was stowed in the baggage net with the rest of our belongings...

Reminds me of The Book Thief.

Note to self: read TS Eliot and The Unconsoled prior to my next re-read!

I did catch the twin brother, but wasn't sure what to make of it. Did it have to do with his not wanting anyone too close? Love that you shared the quote--definitely worth savoring.

I missed the room number 38. Sneaky Sebald.

The days spent at the spa, yes, the narrative read a lot differently. What’s most curious about these pages is that it reads like a traditional narrative, where in any other circumstance I wouldn’t have had a problem with the pace, here I did. I attributed this change in approach, in comparison to the previous pages, to there being no images. The inorganic aspect of the narrative is missing, and its absence, I realized I had become accustomed to having images, moving the narrative forward at a quicker pace. At the spa, it was 100% Austerlitz centered and there were no breaks or moments to take a breath from everything he was learning about his family and background. Regardless, I enjoyed what came to light. I was overwhelmed, but I couldn't even fathom being in Austerlitz's shoes, coming to terms with my past.

It's also revealed here that the identity of the young boy in the image on many of our covers is in fact, for the sake of the fiction, a young Jacquot Austerlitz (183).

Kathleen wrote: "Note to self: read TS Eliot and The Unconsoled prior to my next re-read!

I did catch the twin brother, but wasn't sure what to make of it. Did it have to do with his not wanting anyon..."

I missed the room number 38. Sneaky Sebald.
I did too. Oy vez!