Modern Classic

Releasing in the Small Box of Small Books Bookbox to start it's travels.

I'm claiming this from the Small Box of Small Books (see the rest of my selections in the bookbox journal here). I've read some of Mann's other work, but not these stories.

Later: Mann's prose always conjures a solid sense of place and mood - but it's a shame that so many of those moods are so very bleak! It's hard to escape the painful emotions of the characters or their situations when the writing's so rich... The title story's a wrenching account of a man who attempts to live his life happily without the romantic connections that his deformities keep at bay, only to find that he's been lying to himself. (The casual cruelty of so many of the people in his life only make matters more depressing.) There's the startlingly-incestuous siblings in "The Blood of the Walsungs," also casually cruel to the people that they're going to hurt.

Oddly enough, perhaps my favorite entry here is "Railway Accident," in which the author (or his narrator - not sure if this is based on an actual experience or not) recounts the details of a railway journey that's mundane at first, featuring the usual mix of fellow passengers (about whom the narrator tosses in casual judgments) - and then there's a crash, leading to the chaotic attempts of the survivors to extract themselves from the wreckage. This one reads like a modern disaster-memoir, with some nifty little kicks about the privileged passengers who can't seem to grasp that, post-accident, their views may no longer reign supreme.

I hadn't been to this repurposed-tiny-fridge Little Free Library in some time, and was pleased to find it still there. Spent some time admiring the horses in the pasture. Hope someone enjoys the books!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

** Released for the 2022 Keep Them Moving challenge. **