1001 Round-Up June 2023

This month’s winners and losers.

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship by Goethe What GR says: Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, a novel of self-realization greatly admired by the Romantics, has been called the first Bildungsroman and has had a tremendous influence on the history of the German novel. The story centers on Wilhelm, a young man living in the mid-1700s who strives to break free from the restrictive world of economics and seeks fulfillment as an actor and playwright. Along with Eric Blackall’s fresh translation of the work, this edition contains notes and an afterword by the translator that aims to put this novel into historical and artistic perspective for twentieth-century readers while showing how it defies categorization.

My thoughts: Complicated, slow paced, doomed love, illegitimate children, Hamlet and Shakespeare. Confession time I read this at the start of the month made the above notes to prompt my memory and they have failed completely so all I can say is it hasn’t traumatised me nor made a major impact on my life.

3 Stars – More meh than yeah

The Clay Machine Gun by Victor Pelevin. What GR says: A manic satire of psychiatry, crime and corruption in Russia. Peter Null is undergoing treatment in Moscow’s Psychiatric Clinic number 17, where his consultant believes the way to treat his condition is to humour his delusive personality until it achieves reintegration with the rest of his psyche. Hmmmm

My Thoughts: I read it I didn’t hate, it didn’t disgust me like some 1001 books but I totally didn’t get it at all and have no interest in trying to re-read it again with the group insights.

3 Stars – Not a book for me but it could be for you.

The Immoralist by Andre Gide. What GR says: In The Immoralist , André Gide presents the confessional account of a man seeking the truth of his own nature. The story’s protagonist, Michel, knows nothing about love when he marries the gentle Marceline out of duty to his father. On the couple’s honeymoon to Tunisia, Michel becomes very ill, and during his recovery he meets a young Arab boy whose radiant health and beauty captivate him. An awakening for him both sexually and morally, Michel discovers a new freedom in seeking to live according to his own desires. But, as he also discovers, freedom can be a burden. A frank defence of homosexuality and a challenge to prevailing ethical concepts, The Immoralist is a literary landmark, marked by Gide’s masterful, pure, simple style. I can agree with the pure, simple style not going any further than that though.

My Thoughts: Another 1001 book that didn’t really appeal to me. Married man suffers near death illness and as a result decides to betray the woman who nursed him through it. His recovery leads him to discover a life of sensuality which in this case means he discovers he is gay and possibly a paedophile. Yawn.

The sex and sexual attraction are not graphic in fact they are only subtly hinted at throughout the book and that makes for a better reading experience the problem I have with it is that in this day and age this kind of thing has been done to death, even older writers have done this to death and honestly self-indulgent male protagonists just don’t do it for me.

3 Stars – at 124 pages this is a quick read to knock off the list.

Have you read any of these? Let us know your thoughts.