Carregue numa fotografia para ir para os Livros Google.
A carregar... The Turning Point: Thirty-Five Years in this Centurypor Klaus Mann
A carregar...
Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. "The baby carriage is the paradise lost. The only happy period in our life is that part of it we spent asleep. There is no happiness where there is memory. To remember things means to yearn for the past. Our nostalgia begins with out consciousness." I nearly started this post pointing out again that Klaus Mann's literary output has always suffered from being overshadowed by the works of his father. But really, whilst this is true, I don't want to lead the discussion into a comparison of Klaus and Thomas because I personally have a much higher regard for Klaus' writing. He was a master satirist, a sensitive observer, and at the same time he had a passion for making a point. The Turning Point is partly a memoir and partly a historical sketch describing both the Mann household and the political and social events that shaped the family and the first half of the 20th century. Klaus' wit shines through at the beginning of the book, but the latter parts are full of his disdain of German politics during the rise of Nazism, which eventually lead him to be utterly frustrated with German society which cast him out and which he could not return to. Even on his return to Germany from exile at the end of the war, he could no longer fit in - because people had changed. There was no going back. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Mann family or the detail of political and cultural life in Germany during the 1920s and 30s. My recommendation does, however, come with a caveat: I did get the impression that Klaus was not the most reliable of narrators. It is not that I felt he was deliberately misleading, but in the first instance, he was a novelist and a dramatist, and I got the impression that at times poetic licence may have prevailed over research or analysis. Still, it is a a fascinating read and we do get to find out why Thomas Mann was referred to as "the magician": "He came to see us at bedtime - a rare event in itself! - and developed his proposed strategy. The decapitated guest, he suggested, wasn't really so frightful. He tried to get the better of us by sheer bluff. "Just don't look at him when he comes again!" he advised us. "Then he'll probably vanish. If he still annoys you ask him politely to beat it. Tell him that a children's bedroom is no place for a decent phantom to hang out and that he should be ashamed of himself. This may be enough to get rid of him, but if he still hesitates, you may warn him that your father is very irritable and just doesn't like to have ugly spooks in his house. At this point he'll disappear without making any more fuss. For it is a well-known fact in ghostly circles that I can make myself very unpleasant, indeed." We followed his advice and the spook presently dissolved. It was an imposing proof of Father's almost superhuman insight and influence. From that time on we began to call him "Zauberer" - magician." sem críticas | adicionar uma crítica
Pertence à Série da EditoraBibliothek des 20. Jahrhunderts (Dt. Bücherbund) (Mann, Klaus) Privé-domein (87) Notable Lists
Klaus Mann, writer of Mephisto and the oldest son of Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann, describes the life of intellectuals in Europe before the Nazi seizure of power, then moves on to depict the restless existence of the often bohemian literary circles of writers in Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, New York, and Hollywood in the 30s and 40s. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
Current DiscussionsNenhum(a)Capas populares
Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)838.91209Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Miscellaneous German writings 1900- 1900-1990 1900-1945 Individual authors not limited to one specific form : description; critical appraisal; biography; collected worksClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
É você?Torne-se num Autor LibraryThing. |
Thema, Genre und Inhalt
Ein Lebensbericht, das Tagebuch eines intensiv gelebten Künstlerlebens ist in seiner Gesamtheit noch wesentlich mehr. Diese Autobiografie ist ein eindrückliches, differenzierendes und in seiner Vielseitigkeit umfassendes Bild der Zeit.
Ein kurzer Prolog schildert kurz die Familie Mann und ihr Umfeld bis zu jenem 18. November 1906, an dem Klaus Heinrich Thomas Mann geboren wurde. Ab hier schreibt Klaus Mann chronologisch, beginnend mit der Kindheit, daran anschließend die Zeit des ersten Weltkrieges und die Jahre danach. Wir erleben den Wunsch des jungen Klaus Mann, Schriftsteller zu werden, seine Liebe zur Literatur und zum Theater, seinen ersten Aufenthalt in Paris und die Atmosphäre dieser Stadt, die ihn sofort und für immer anzieht. Klaus Mann ist ein Suchender, der schon früh die gesellschaftspolitischen Entwicklungen, besonders in Deutschland, sehr kritisch und besorgt beobachtet. Diese Sichtweise teilt er mit seiner Schwester Erika und so ist klar, dass sein Lebensweg ins Exil führt. Die nachfolgenden Kapitel sind intensive Zeitdokumente der Situation der Emigranten, besonders der Künstler, die einander in den jeweiligen Städten weiterhin in Künstlerkreisen treffen. Klaus Mann führt der Weg während dieser ersten Jahre der Verbannung aus Deutschland nach Amsterdam, Paris, Nizza, Zürich, dazu kurze Reisen nach Wien und Moskau. Wie auch seine Schwester Erika hält er Vorträge gegen Krieg und Faschismus, zunächst in Europa, dann in Amerika. Das zwölfte und letzte Kapitel „Der Wendepunkt“ umfasst die Jahre 1943 bis 1945 und schildert die Ereignisse dieser Jahre ausschließlich in Briefen von und an Klaus Mann, der die letzten Kriegsjahre als Mitglied der amerikanischen Armee in Italien erlebt.
Neben den Ereignissen und persönlichen Erlebnissen schildert Klaus Mann seine eigenen Gedanken und Eindrücke, seine Hoffnungen, seine Zweifel. „Die Veränderungen, die nach dem Wendepunkt kommen, mögen zunächst nicht sehr drastisch sein, werden es aber im Lauf der Zeit, immer drastischer, von Monat zu Monat, von Jahr zu Jahr: im Guten oder im Bösen. Ich prophezeie, daß wir um 1965 eine Welt haben werden, die sehr viel schlechter sein wird als die heutige – oder entschieden besser.“ (Zitat Seite 695)
Fazit
Diese beeindruckende Autobiografie, auch sprachlich großartig, ist ein intensiver, zeitlos aktueller Blick auf die Geschichte und Menschen dieser Zeit und gleichzeitig ein interessantes Bild der Kunst- und Kulturszene. ( )