AmosL
05-12-2008, 05:28 PM
Weiss, Andrea. “In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain”, University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Making a Way in the World
Amos Lassen
The story of Erika and Klaus Mann, the children of Thomas Mann, is one that books are written about and Andrea Weiss has written an intrinsically dramatic book about the two. Their lives combine homosexuality, political conflict and above all the fact that are the children of a father who overshadowed them—a man who is regarded as Germany’s greatest author. Weiss looks at the children and the father and gives us a wonderful book.
Klaus and Erika Mann were unconventional and rebellious and they were completely devoted to each other. They were anti-Nazi at a time when Europe was succumbing to Fascism. They were openly gay at a time of secrecy and repression—they were not just open but defiant. They were serious actors and performance artists before the medium ever had a name and they were political visionaries who wrote articles and lectured. What we get in Weiss’s book is a look at the literary climate, the intellectual life, the political atmosphere and the sexual mores of the times of their lives.
As children Klaus and Erika had a make believe world that they created and this was the beginning of their devotion to each other. When the Nazis came to power, they added political commitment to their artistic talents and because of this they were exiled. After leaving Germany, they came to the United States and went into the armed forces. When they went abroad they had a wide coterie of friends including Jean Cocteau, Christopher Isherwood, and Andre Gide. Erika actually married W.H. Auden. Klaus’s life was not so fortunate Life in exile was not good for him and he developed a serious heroin addiction and he took his own life in 1949. Erika died twenty years later.
The two were self-indulgent and they were both involved with drugs and sexually promiscuous. They remained elitists all of their lives. Klaus wanted to be a writer but had a rough time being unfavorably compared to his father.
There is a great deal of information about the Mann family in the book and the political climate in which the Manns lived plays a major role in the book.
I do not know that we really need to know so much about the younger Manns but as I read the book I could not help think what an amazing time in history was the time in which they lived.
Making a Way in the World
Amos Lassen
The story of Erika and Klaus Mann, the children of Thomas Mann, is one that books are written about and Andrea Weiss has written an intrinsically dramatic book about the two. Their lives combine homosexuality, political conflict and above all the fact that are the children of a father who overshadowed them—a man who is regarded as Germany’s greatest author. Weiss looks at the children and the father and gives us a wonderful book.
Klaus and Erika Mann were unconventional and rebellious and they were completely devoted to each other. They were anti-Nazi at a time when Europe was succumbing to Fascism. They were openly gay at a time of secrecy and repression—they were not just open but defiant. They were serious actors and performance artists before the medium ever had a name and they were political visionaries who wrote articles and lectured. What we get in Weiss’s book is a look at the literary climate, the intellectual life, the political atmosphere and the sexual mores of the times of their lives.
As children Klaus and Erika had a make believe world that they created and this was the beginning of their devotion to each other. When the Nazis came to power, they added political commitment to their artistic talents and because of this they were exiled. After leaving Germany, they came to the United States and went into the armed forces. When they went abroad they had a wide coterie of friends including Jean Cocteau, Christopher Isherwood, and Andre Gide. Erika actually married W.H. Auden. Klaus’s life was not so fortunate Life in exile was not good for him and he developed a serious heroin addiction and he took his own life in 1949. Erika died twenty years later.
The two were self-indulgent and they were both involved with drugs and sexually promiscuous. They remained elitists all of their lives. Klaus wanted to be a writer but had a rough time being unfavorably compared to his father.
There is a great deal of information about the Mann family in the book and the political climate in which the Manns lived plays a major role in the book.
I do not know that we really need to know so much about the younger Manns but as I read the book I could not help think what an amazing time in history was the time in which they lived.