"I dod not like the writing. Almost entirely about homosexuality."
"I can relate to regretting a hasty travel decision and wishing it wouldn't pan out somehow.
But the pedophilia just creeps me out."
"This is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. It takes a while to get going, but it's eventually made clear this work is about a man delving into becoming a pedophile. It's a book that never should have been written, there is nothing uplifting or redeeming to be found here. Yes, the man comes to a tragic end, but I don't think I needed to read this book to make that realization. I was reading about Thomas Mann on wikipedia and apparently he struggled with his own sexuality and this story was written about an eleven year-old boy he had similar thoughts about to Von Aschenbach in this book had for fourteen year-old Tadzio. I find that to be very sad and unnerving in every way."
"Basically this was an older man's ultimately lethal obsession with a young boy. Wish I knew that ahead of time because that's not exactly my thing. It was short, that's about all I can say about it that was good. Besides that, there just wasn't anything that hit me as exceptional about this. Maybe it's just personal as I just don't get off or see much in the old person sexual obsession with youth, regardless of sex.
I mean I'm pretty liberal about things like this and welcome everyone to get the most out of life as long as all parties agree and it doesn't exploit children. Fantasies about young children even as literature strike me as a bit creepy and I wonder if they don't get more credit for that than their actual literal merit.
This is just sticking in the back of my mind I guess as I read Lolita recently too and was equally underwhelmed ... I'm not convinced that literary arguments or the amount of symbolism discussed actually redeem these works as much as they're hyped. I guess I'm cynical enough to believe it's just a dated PG sexual fantasy regardless of what others say.
So to wrap up, in this day there's much better porn out there on the internet if that's your thing. I wish we'd just call this type lit what it was, risque soft porn of the time, that way I don't accidentally waste time reading more of these type 'classic works of literature'."
"There is nothing appealing to me about lonely middle-aged man who becomes obsessed by a 14 year old boy."
"I have no idea why I've read in the past year so many books about old people obsessed with little kids."
"the end could only have been worse if it was a 'and then i woke up' book...but it might as well have been"
"a 160 page celebration of a pederast and his target. I find it interesting that Mann is revered as an author, but most people would be hard-pressed to come up with 3 books that he wrote."
"As I can still recall how annoying boys are at that age, I found it hard to swallow that such a sophisticated and worldly author would fall in love with a little boy based purely on looks."
"What an insane book. I don't know how you give a lot of stars to a book about a dying pedophile but most of what I remember about the book is the graphic descriptions of how everyones genitals smelled, which I guess is worth something."
"I just didn't like it. Sorry, sorry, sorry, Mr. Nobel-Prize-Winner, I - just - dont - like - it. Too much blabla (and I'm not even referring to the looooong sentences, no), it just didn't give me anything. At all. Sorry, no points of friction there"
"He seems to be talking about how amazing and deep artists are, and how their lives and struggles are so important and set them apart from mere mortals.
If he's serious, then -- ugh and ick. You're just another dude who writes books, okay?"
"Spoils the magic of Venice"
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