Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann

 

Considering what I have just written about Juli Zhe, I had to double-check the nationality of Kehlmann, and decided that I'll consider him Austrian and not German for the sake of my coherence (though I wonder how he feels, considering his upbringing between the two countries?). 

This is a book that was suggested to me by a former basketball teammate of mine, and I read it with fairly low expectations. And my fairly low expectations were ultimately met. Yes, the book is well-written and the stories of Humboldt and Gauss are interesting and fascinating. However, I already knew a bit about them, and I guess that bit was enough. 

Still, I'll probably give it to one of my relatives who often talks about a young Gauss discovering the formula to calculate the sum of consecutive positive integer numbers. 

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

  

One of the closest things to a history book that I've read over the last couple of years. Yes, I'm truly an excellent historian...

This book was given to me as a thank-you gift by a student I worked with as he was writing his dissertation (I wouldn't say supervised because I'm not allowed to do that, but man did I read some drafts!). Apparently, it was one of his go-to gifts to friends, and I can understand why. 

Given the subject-matter, this is obviously a very compelling read, though it's clearly written by someone with a sizeabale ego. Then again, if one survives the Holocaust I think s/he is entitled to have whatever kind of ego. 

I've also read plenty of reviews criticizing the author's idea that his attitude contributed to his survival. Yes, I highly doubt that attitude had much to do with survival in a concentration camp and think that many other factors - including pure chance! - had a more significant impact. Then again, if one survives the Holocaust I think s/he is entitled to believe whatever they want as a way to explain coming out of it alive.

Radetzky March - Joseph Roth

Ah, Joseph Roth and the finis Austriae! Does it get any better than that? Well, in a way it does, considering that my favourite Roth novel (or rather a short story - The Legend of the Holy Drinker) is actually set in Paris...

Radetzky March is a wonderful novel (despite the fact that it took me a week to finish it because of the impending fatherhood and, erm, the Olympics...) and one of those books that I wish I could persuade my students to read.

Interestingly, Roth ultimately seems to love his characters despite the fact that more often than not these have to be bailed out by the Emperor, and that their careless actions lead directly or indirectly to the death of a number of people throughout the book (then again, the atmosphere surrounding the duel in the first half of the book reminded me of Ridley Scott's The Duellists so those deaths are justified!).

Speaking of the Emperor and his powers - the chapters directly related to his ageing are possibly the best-written of the book, but (speaking as a historian...) Roth seems to conveniently forget the fact that by 1914 the Austrian one was ultimately an empire hell bent on starting a war with Serbia (although not with the whole of Europe).

The Legend of the Holy Drinker – Joseph Roth

At age 14 I was confused between The Legend of the Fisher King (the way in which the Terry Gilliam movie is titled in Italy) and The Legend of the Holy Drinker. So I watched both movies (the latter directed by Ermanno Olmi and with a masterful Rutger Hauer) and read Roth’s novella over the span of a few days – stealing it from my aunt’s bookshelf, although she had probably stolen it from ours years before.

I am unsure whether this book can be considered a masterpiece only because of its diminutive size, but it’s surely a work of absolute beauty and, surprisingly, not one of despair like I was expecting. I immediately came to care quite a lot about Andreas’s fortunes, but the way in which these develops – both at their highs and their lows – is pure poetry.

I can’t remember whether it’s the movie or the book (or actually, probably both) that ends with the line “May God grant us all, all of us drinkers, such a good and easy death!” but it’s probably one of the most remarkably memorable closing lines in the 20th century.

The Emperor’s Tomb – Joseph Roth

I read this book without having first read Radetzky March, something which I now regret (slightly) but that still didn’t prevent me from loving this novel. And I didn’t just love it, I also used it in an essay about the relationship between architecture and memory that won the praise of my Cambridge professors (probably the only time that happened).

There is something in the classy decadence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that is particularly appealing to me (and I don’t even come from the part of Italy that was under Austrian control for a long time). I’m not particularly at ease with the way in which Trotta treats his wife, but that probably (and sadly) is justified by his upbringing.

Oddly enough, this is another book whose details are now escaping me, but the final walk to Franz Joseph’s crypt is a wonderfully melancholic picture that I think will always stay with me.