Vienna Review of Books

I first discovered the voice of Edith Grossman while revelling in her translation of Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera. Of course I thought I was reading Márquez, but since I was not reading Spanish, I was actually reading Grossman.

The role of religion in fin de siècle Vienna would seem a closed case. As society escaped the grasp of the Church and the political landscape turned increasingly secular, one could safely assume that artists – the intellectual prophets of the changing times – had renounced God as an authority or even an influence. 

“If a story of the future is to be believable, it must be related to reality and remain closely connected with experience,” wrote suspense novelist Kurd Lasswitz.

The following is based on two excellent books on the history and origins of Viennese football: 

, by Jonathan Wilson and European Heroes: Myth, Identity, Sport 

Richard Holt, J.A.Mangan, Pierre Lanfranchi, eds

In 1940, the famed Mann brothers, twin giants of twentieth-century literature, met again in Los Angeles after a separation of several years. Thomas, the younger, had lived in Princeton for a year before Heinrich finally abandoned Europe to an ugly war and the totalitarianism that had engulfed it.

Before I had ever been to Europe, I was served a Viennese meal by a Viennese friend in California. It was Wiener Schnitzel with Austrian-style potato salad and sour white wine.

Set in a world that has faded from living memory, The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak is a searing coming-of-age story about a sharpshooter in the Austrian Army on the Italian front in the First World War. A finalist for the 2011 National­ Book Award, this taut, densely packed novel ranges across rugged physical and emotional terrain, bringing the horrors of war into crystal-clear focus in the crosshairs of a sniper’s sight.

WARUM KRIEG? DAS ERSTE WORT ALS WAFFE

The event “Why War? The First Word as a Weapon” seeks to raise awareness that one word can trigger a conflict. In a 1932 exchange of letters, the physicist Albert Einstein and the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud discussed why people fight. Their correspondence will be supplemented with historical documents on war. In German.

2 Dec., 19:30
Kulturkabinett
21., Freiligrathplatz 6, (01) 270 79 17
www.transdanubien.net

INJUSTICE: WHY SOCIAL INEQUALITY PERSISTS