The Rings of Saturn

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But the fact is that writing is the only way in which I am able to cope with the memories which overwhelm me so frequently and so unexpectedly. For a German of Sebald’s generation — and, we might add, for anyone who can trace their beginnings to political, social or economic oppression — there is no way out of this labyrinth.

The Rings of Saturn - Penguin Books UK

Not even those who have found a place amidst the heavenly constellations have perpetuated their names: Nimrod is lost to Orion, and Osiris in the Dog Star.More importantly I tell it because only weeks after first visiting Southwold – and by sheer coincidence – I read WG Sebald’s Rings of Saturn. Abrams mournfully concludes his conversation by sharing with the narrator his realization that that no amount of reproduction can hope to capture the original. James Wood, in his enthusiastic review in the magazine, commented on the way in which Cole moves “in the shadow of W.

The Rings of Saturn Quotes by W.G. Sebald - Goodreads The Rings of Saturn Quotes by W.G. Sebald - Goodreads

As I have implied, The Rings of Saturn is the most emblematic of Sebald’s strange style, which is why it is in fact my favorite of his novels; that style being characterized by frequent recourse to the technique hinted at by his title’s reference to rings.And indeed, the narrator of The Rings of Saturn observes, apropos of Abrams’s model of the Temple, that “it is difficult to see any change from one year to the next. so full of false conceits, so futile, that it is little more than the shadow of the chimeras loosed by memory. G. Sebald suffered a heart attack while driving and was killed instantly in a head-on collision with a truck. But here was a book which didn't seem to care where it went in pursuit of its narrative - whatever that narrative was.