Austerlitz

This is the story of Austerlitz, a man who was adopted (when he was a toddler) out to an English pastor prior to the horrors of Nazism in Germany. He decides, in his retirement, to go out and find out what happened to his mother and father (who gave him up to save him).

I usually love WWII related books ….but this was kind of boring. And I hate to say that. I think it was the translation, which was a little frustrating because some pieces weren’t fully translated or just didn’t make sense. It was originally in German, but the translator pieces some of the reading into French without further explanation. I can tell this author is otherwise excellent but this was still difficult to get into. Some portions of the book were extremely unique, it had pictures dating back to who knows when (some of which were creepy for a reason I can’t really put my finger on). Another difficult part of the novel is that Austerlitz isn’t narrating, someone else who knows him is doing that job. So that translation of knowing when Austerlitz is talking and the narrator is talking also made it hard to follow. There are no chapters, just a continuous writing, and in that sense it was very Virginia Woolfish.
I think it could have been better. Especially since this is being considered a “modern classic”. And maybe I just didn’t get it, similar to my feelings to Lord of the Flies, which I hated but many people adore. That being said, I am intrigued by the author, especially since he died young and has other novels that are well received and highly rated (and with different translators!).