I have read Buddenbrooks
Me and my friend J have a book club. It’s
small but perfect. We have just read Thomas Mann’s ”Buddenbrooks”, a 1000 page classic published 1901.
This is my review in ten bulletpoints.
• Buddenbrooks is a story about a family that got rich from trading in Lübeck in the end of the 19th century.
• The book starts with a dinner party in a big house the patriarch just bought. There all there to celebrate the family’s success.
• Now you understand in what direction this story will go. Down.
• But the decline takes time. The story plays out through generations and there’s several key figures.
• The descriptions of people’s clothes, furniture, food and ceremonies are many and very detailed.
• There’s is love, births and deaths.
• There’s siblings rivalry.
• There’s a black sheep.
• European history? A lot of it.
• You like short sentences? Don’t read Buddenbrooks.