A review by eleitner
Baron Bagge by Alexander Lernet-Holenia

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

No great intellect, no hours fretting over le mot juste. Just bare, easy storytelling. 

 

A twist on the it was all a dream narrative tho carried off with sophistication. The opening seemed pretty irrelevant. Fell into the same trap as lotr with the traveling and traveling. All the names of the cities got mixed up for me and so was hard to pay attention to the subtle changes between them. 

 

a reasonably solid story, as good as a novella can be, with the short story formula of a tight buildup with an explosive reversal, which I did not expect. Its form is after that of Tolstoys, no bells or whistles, just basic storytelling, which he has to a tee. The dialogue is stilted and not much in terms of character development 

 

Stumbled upon this slim conundrum stuffed between two mammoths at Barnes. I knew close to nothing, only that the endorsement came from Patti smith of memoir fame.