We all have our reasons for reading the books we do. For me, I saw a video where the actress Gillian Jacobs talked about having read WG Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn and, because I’m madly in love with her, I decided there was no better reason than to pick it up! And I’d heard the author’s name for some time now and was curious to see what he was like.
Unfortunately, The Rings of Saturn is pretty dang snoreworthy. I’m not even sure it’s a novel - it’s the author walking the East Anglian coast while recounting random snippets of history and culture, ie. the production of silk through the ages, the trial of Roger Casement, Conrad and the Congo, and numerous other things. Rambling while he rambles, in essence!
It’s classed as fiction but I’m doubtful which parts of it are made-up (if any). I don’t think he even mentions the rings of Saturn so no idea why it’s titled this way or what the point of it all was! The transience of existence or something lofty like that? If so, the book didn’t really put that vague notion across very well.
A lot of it is very dull. It’s mostly academic-sounding episodes that come off sounding like a dreary lecture I didn’t want to hear. Parts of it were sorta interesting like Joseph Conrad’s life and experiences in the Congo, and that country’s horrible colonial history, and I liked the inclusion of plenty of pictures to illustrate the esoteric subjects Sebald was discussing.
I appreciate Sebald’s book for showing me the possibilities of what a novel can be - if this counts, anything does! - but I wouldn’t call it remotely interesting to read and I was often very bored. I still loves ya, Gills, but your taste in literature is questionable!
No comments:
Post a Comment