Confessions de Fèlix Krull, lladre i farsant (1954)

A friend's review of this is: great first half, dull second half. My review is the exact opposite, which suggests that this is just about taste. The first half, for me, was a little too cutesy with the symbolism, as Krull discovers how much he enjoys acting, impersonating, and being praised for his beauty. Well done, but also (for me) hampered by the impossibility of doing anything new with the first part of life-stories. You'll be surprised to learn that Felix has a family, there is a crisis, he matures and strikes out to start life on his own. There is fun to be had with the threefold perspective of young Felix, narrating Felix, and implied author Mann, but to be honest, if you haven't had your fill of unreliable narrators at this point of history, I don't know what to say.

The second half, on the other hand, is a perfectly done 18th century picaresque, but in the early 20th century--and here the threefold perspective comes into its own, since the combination of modernist narrator and picaresque tale is something I, at least, haven't seen much of before (I don't count the pomo narrators in this category).

There's not much else to say. It's very funny, parts of it remind me of many other novels I have loved (a dash of Proust; a hint of Bassani; Mann's other works, of course). I, unlike my aforementioned friend, am very sad that he never finished it. This could easily have surpassed Buddenbrooks and the Mountain, simply because big serious novels are so rarely hilariously funny.

Also, I read somewhere that Mann modeled the narrative voice after Goethe's memoirs, which he found unbearably pompous. I enjoyed reading it much more once I could assume that the pseudo-aristocratic style really was meant to be mocked. ( )

Felix Krull, Sohn eines bankrotten Sektfabrikanten, blickt auf sein Leben zurück und schreibt seine Bekenntnisse, eine Geschichte seiner gesellschaftlichen und erotischen Erfolge. Er erzählt dem Leser vom köstlichen Gefühl an der Brust seiner Amme, der Genugtuung des wiederholten Schokoladendiebstahls im Kindesalter und vom Diebstahl an seinen Liebsten. Die Welt will betrogen werden, ist seine Auffassung - und er betrügt sie. Die einschneidenste Veränderung seines Lebens ist sein Rollentausch mit dem Marquis de Venosta. Mit den Papieren, dem Vermögen und dem Namen des Marquis ausgestattet, stehen den ehemaligen Hotelpagen die Türen zur Gesellschaft offen, die er für sich zu nutzen weiß.

This was one of the most pompous, superficial and uninteresting books I have ever come across. I understand that this was one of Thomas Mann's uncompleted works, but this should have never saw the face of publishing. The characters are dull, the plot laughable and the writing detached and forced. Do not even bother, it is not worth the trouble. ( )

יצירה אחרונה ולא גמורה של המייסטר. ספר שקשה לקטלג אותו.. בחלקו סטירה חברתית, בחלקו אוטוביוגרפי ובחלקו יומן אירוטי. כתוב בשפה ארכאית ופרחונית ועם זאת מודרני לגמרי ביחסו למין ולאומנות. קצת מעייף ובכל זאת מאוד מהנה. ( )

No valid German National Library records retrieved.