Home » Reading & Literature » Contemporary Fiction » German Novelist Offers <i>Vertigo</i>

German Novelist Offers Vertigo

© Robert Powers

German writer W. G. Sebald has been developing an international reputation as a writer who seems headed for greatness. When his novel, Vertigo (New Directions, $23.95) was published recently in the U.S., readers on this side of the Atlantic received a chance to dip into the unknown.

Vertigo is an unusual story, delving into lost love, sickness and death. It's about the making of memories, as Sebald takes the reader through an adventure, scaled into four separate sections, which of course meld into a single entity by the end of the book.

The opening section deals with Napoleon's army and a young man who joins just as troops invade Italy. The second part involves Casanova's imprisonment in Venice, the third with Kafka's woes in Italy. The final section deals with the author's own return to his childhood home, a small village in Bavaria.

Vertigo, requires some patience to fit its pieces together, but it's worth the trouble.

Con Man's Life

Christopher Bram wrote the novel that was turned into the magical film, Gods and Monsters, dealing with the last years of director James Whale, whose greatest achievement was the first film version of Frankenstein.

In his new novel, The Notorious Dr. Bram (Morrow, $26) focuses on a strange man whose life takes a strange turn when his abilities as a pianist are combined with his belief in the spirit world. There's also a love triangle, with Dr. Bram with an ex-slave named Isaac and Alice, a prim white governess.

While it's been proven that Bram is a decent enough writer, The Notorious Dr. Bram moves at a snail's pace. The characters are seldom likable, and a sense of humor (which could have added much to the novel) seems almost entirely lacking. At nearly 500 pages, it's much ado about very little.

Union View

Books dealing with the Civil War continue to attract interest and buyers. A new edition, much expanded, of the diary kept by a union sympathizer who lived in Lexington, Ky., should attract those who are fascinated by the infamous War Between the States.

Frances Peter was one of the eleven children of a surgeon for the Union army. She was 19 and because of epilepsy seldom ventured outside her home. But by reading newspapers and talking to friends and neighbors, she gathered a lot of information.

A Union Woman in Civil War Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky, $22.50) takes the reader on a journey not often experienced as this young woman wrote with frankness and courage about the turmoil that surrounded her and her family.

The copyright of the article German Novelist Offers Vertigo in Contemporary Fiction is owned by . Permission to republish German Novelist Offers Vertigo in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.