Teach me to read (a particular book)

November 27, 2013 1:14 PM

I'm a devoted reader but every now and then a book will just stump me. I am about to start reading The Man Without Qualities and I'm afraid it may fit this description. I'd appreciate any hints as to how to approach it for most enjoyment and absorption.

As an example, I know more than one person who regards William Gass's The Tunnel as a masterpiece and I find myself lost when trying to read it.

I can't off the top of my head think of any other examples, although I know they exist.

If you read & loved The Man Without Qualities, what would help me immerse myself and get swept up into it?

posted by janey47 to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

The Man Without Qualities is a contender for my favorite book of all time. I actually think you'll find it immensely readable. I don't really consider it in the same vein as Gass.

The writing is absolutely exquisite. It's a very philosophical novel, but it isn't particularly difficult. If you like puzzles and inquiries and metaphysics and such, it will be right up your alley.

I mean, keep in mind it's a lot of commentary about modernist Germany. And there isn't much of a story, exactly. And the novel is unfinished (many argue could not be finished), so it's definitely it's own sort of thing. But I really don't think it's hard to get swept up in it.

God, just the first page. One of the best beginnings of a book of all time. I say dive right in.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:21 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Can you address what it is that's stumping you? Language, historical/literary/social reference, etc. Because there are times when I've been kind of stuck in a novel because I was getting lost in historical references, so I've gone ahead and done a little reading around about that particular time and place and then gone back to the novel.
posted by rtha at 1:23 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Try supplementing with something else from that decadent fin de siècle mental space, when text and narrative flowed like unmeasured fabric. Maybe parts of Snow's Strangers and Brothers, Powell's Dance to the Music of Time, or Durrell's Avignon Quintet.
posted by Nomyte at 1:47 PM on November 27, 2013

Doris Lessing used epigraphs taken from A Man Without Qualities for many of the chapters of A Four Gated City, but a Romanian friend of mine who now lives in Austria and for whom German is his fourth language, and who can occasionally be persuaded to stop singing the praises of AMWQ and move on to other topics of conversation only with difficulty, claims that the English translations, including the one used by Lessing, are crap.
posted by jamjam at 2:16 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

including the one used by Lessing, are crap.

The four-gated city came out long before there was a good translation of AMWQ. The Pike/Wilkins translation, from 1996, was really the first decent translation. And by decent I mean the english is wonderful.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:20 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure why you feel the need to prepare yourself; surely you'll either enjoy it or not? I would just start reading it and see how it goes. If you do enjoy it, of course you'll want to read some good criticism to help you see things you missed and make a second reading more enjoyable, but it seems unlikely you'll enjoy a book you would otherwise have disliked because of the proper preparation.

> Try supplementing with something else from that decadent fin de siècle mental space, when text and narrative flowed like unmeasured fabric. Maybe parts of Snow's Strangers and Brothers, Powell's Dance to the Music of Time, or Durrell's Avignon Quintet.

Snow's Strangers and Brothers series was published between 1940 and 1970. Powell's Dance to the Music of Time was published between 1951 and 1975. Durrell's Avignon Quintet was published between 1974 and 1985. None of them remotely qualify as fin de siècle, and only the Durrell qualifies as "modernist" in any real sense. (Not to mention that I wouldn't wish reading C. P. Snow on anyone.)
posted by languagehat at 2:25 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

The Man Without Qualities is one of my favorites of all time too. The only thing intimidating about it is the length. Other than that, it's kind of like interlinked character studies evoking the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the emergence of modernity. The prose is not strange at all--think Tolstoy, not Joyce--but just don't expect the plot to go anywhere. It's a languid, thoughtful experience that has more to do with attitudes than action. Musil's Five Women is also worth your attention, e.g. if you just want to test the waters and read something that demonstrates what he can do with character portraits.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 2:53 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

What would help would be if you really enjoyed irony. Personally, I found The Man Without Qualities to be pretty challenging, so it would also help if you like taking on an intellectual challenge.

(For those with less time to spare, Musil's earlier novel, Young Torless, is more compact. Note: some disturbing content).
posted by ovvl at 3:08 PM on November 27, 2013

Snow's Strangers and Brothers series was published between 1940 and 1970. Powell's Dance to the Music of Time was published between 1951 and 1975. Durrell's Avignon Quintet was published between 1974 and 1985.

Published, yes. But they're all set much earlier, describe somewhat similar lives, and proceed in a way I would definitely describe as "languid." And that's the thing that made it somewhat difficult for me to interact with the Musil initially: I didn't understand how his characters thought of the universe around them, what mindsets they departed from and what they hoped to reach.
posted by Nomyte at 3:09 PM on November 27, 2013

It is worth noting that there are at least two translations out there, and they are really quite different. How different? Well, there is one chapter title which the older translators rendered as "The Like of It Now Happens", while the newer ones called it "Pseudoreality Prevails".* If you have access to both versions, you may want to compare to see which one gives you more pleasure.

I prefer the older version by Wilkins and Kaiser to the newer one by Wilkins and Pike (it's a different Wilkins!). Here are two reviews (with brief textual comparisons) from others who agree with me. But there is no consensus -- see Lutoslawski's comment above which calls Wilkins-Pike the first decent translation.

* The German title for that chapter is "Seinesgleichen geschieht" and, to be fair, I'm not sure it can be translated. If Wilkins and Kaiser didn't try very hard, I'd say Wilkins and Pike tried much too hard.
posted by aws17576 at 3:11 AM on November 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Maybe the book "1913" would be a good companion read. It is very well written and may give you a feel for the era that "The Man without qualities" is set.

(I really like "The Man without qualities" btw ;-)
posted by ironicon at 3:30 AM on November 28, 2013