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1913 - Der Sommer Des Jahrhunderts (2012)

by Florian Illies(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

3100368010 (ISBN13: 9783100368010)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

S.Fischer

review 1: An everyday story of mid-European artistic folkThe main character in this book is, unusually, a year, which is explored chronologically through its comprising months and the lives of a large cast of players.The tone is that of a social observer, or a soap opera, or even like reading a Facebook news feed. The author writes with the hindsight and style of the modern age but nevertheless with affection and humour.Regarding the cast of characters, the focus is on the German-speaking and the cities of Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Prague with mentions of New York or London being few and far-between. This meant that many of the names were at the edge of consciousness for me and I had frequent diving into Wikipedia to remind myself of who was who. I read the Kindle edition an... mored I'm not sure whether the paper editions have more pictures, or maybe a "cast list", but I would have found both of these helpful.Having said that, I did become immersed in the stories of many of the individuals. Like watching the film "Titanic", you know where it's all heading, but you nevertheless become involved in the lives and loves of writers, painters and poets living on the cusp of the modern age, in the days when the full title of the emperor ran to 20 lines of text!
review 2: You can't ask for a more dynamic opening two paragraphs than what Florian Illies provides in "1913: The Year before the Storm."In the first second of 1913, Illies writes, a gunshot rings out through the dark night. Police arrest a 12-year-old reveler named Louis Armstrong who "had wanted to see in the New Year in New Orleans with a stolen revolver." The gunman is sent to the Colored Waifs' Home for Boys, where his unruly behavior continues.Out of desperation, the institution's director hands the troubled youth a trumpet."All at once," Illies writes, "Louis Armstrong falls silent, picks up the instrument almost tenderly, and his fingers, which had been playing with the trigger of the revolver only the previous night, feel the cold metal once again, except that now, still in the director's office, rather than a gunshot, he produces his first, warm, wild notes from the trumpet."The vivid anecdote is but one of many Illies recounts in a historical work of nonfiction that often reads like a novel. Arranged chronologically, the narrative includes a slew of historical figures: a struggling young painter named Adolf Hitler who peddles his art to tourists; a love-sick writer named Franz Kafka who pens one of the world's worst marriage proposals; and an Austrian skater named Alois Lutz who decides to launch himself off the ice and into the air. Illies himself leaps from topic to topic, taking an innovative approach to recounting the events of a year that introduced the world to new art forms and ended with the recovery of the stolen Mona Lisa. It was the year when Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived in Vienna and were shaped by the time and place.As absorbing as many of Illies' anecdotes are, others fall flat. He devotes a lot of attention to early 20th century artists. If you're anything like me and lack knowledge in that field, you're likely to find those passages tedious.Other than Armstrong and fleeting references to the likes of Henry Ford, Americans don't get much attention in Illies' version of 1913. The focus is almost totally on Germany and Austria-Hungary (not surprising from a German author).While the author's attention to setting a scene is amazing, it's also suspect.In describing Hitler's days in Vienna, for example, Illies writes that when the talk turns to politics, a spark rushes through Hitler."He throws his paintbrush aside," Illies says, "his eyes flash and he holds blazing speeches about the immoral state of the world in general, and of Vienna in particular...He flings back his strand of black hair. He sweats. Then, all of a sudden, he breaks off from his diatribe, sits back down and turns his attention to his watercolours."That's pretty detailed stuff. But, without any footnotes, the reader is left wondering whether such accounts may spring from the author's imagination.As good as it is, "1913" could have been better had it taken a broader approach that incorporated what was happening outside Europe. Some references beyond a general bibliography would have been nice, too. less

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