Saturday’s Book: The Tobacconist by Seethaler

You can’t hide for long…
Naomi’s Photos

I have mixed feelings about this book.

One hand I certainly have patience for “slow-moving books and I prefer books that don’t feed you every bit of information with a teaspoon.

I also think it is a clever idea to have an imaginary character having conversations with Freud in Vienna on the eve of  WWll.

However, some things really annoyed me.

The main character’s infatuation with a woman who doesn’t give him the time of day is one of the  important influences on Franz ( the main character) on the path to growing up and truly seeing what is happening around him,  I understand that. However,  the amount of detail and the length of the descriptions were way more than necessary. It’s as if the author to lost for a while.

While I’m willing to accept that Franz was sort of a simpleton who achieved an awareness, I found the mother’s letters harder to believe in. They didn’t fit.

In short, this book has some annoying parts, especially in the middle section but does have some interesting parts as well.

I’m quite hesitant about recommending it, there are so many other books I would rather recommend. If you have it available, read it, but don’t make an effort to get a hold of it.

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