The Emergence of Memory: Conversations with W. G. Sebald

This the next best thing I've found to reading Sebald himself. It is especially gratifying to find so many others excited about this author. There is something about the way he writes, mysteriously but beautifully. Lynne Sharon Schwartz's collection helps me understand Sebald but does not take away

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any of his beauty or mystery.

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A series of short interviews and essays on the German writer W. S. Sebald--which lend much insight into his thinking and the creative process behind his work. The more recognizable names being the British novelist/Italian translator Tim Parks and the Yugolslavian born American poet Charles Simic.

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Sebald, of courses, died abruptly in December 2001 in an automobile accident. In a rather short space of time before he had rocketed upward from obscurity to a kind of international fame with a series of books many of which related back to World World and specifically the holocaust.

If anything the essays and interviews make clear it's Sebald's alienation from his own German culture--one that in his mind preferred to forget rather than to confront its past. This disenfranchisement the reason behind his voluntary exile in England a place to which he admits he is out of place. FWIW his voice is always lucid, his reasoning is open and very often quite humorous. Whether or not this book edited by Lynne Sharon Schwartz gets to the essence of what Sebald's work was about I at least feel a lot closer. It is a good read and for Sebald fans I think it would be a must.

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I received a copy of The Emergence of Memory: Conversations with W. G. Sebald, edited by Lynne Sharon Schwartz, through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. Many thanks to the publisher, Seven Stories Press, and to LibraryThing, for the chance to obtain and review this book.

When I found out I'd

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won this book through the ER program, I felt guilty for requesting it, because I've never read anything by W. G. Sebald. However, now that I've read the book, I'm so glad I requested and won it. Sebald's work sounds difficult, experimental, hard to define, but very fascinating.

The collection contains several interviews with the writer, as the subtitle states, but also several essays and reviews, and a solid introduction by the editor, Lynne Sharon Schwartz. The interviews introduce a very intelligent, humane, and likeable writer. He was serious about his work and the topics he explored, but the interviews show that Sebald had a sense of humor as well. I also found the essays to be interesting and thought-provoking: not mere book reviews, nor academic criticism heavy with literary theory, but engaging essays for serious readers.

One of the essays, by Michael Hofmann, is not complimentary, and that's a good piece for Schwartz to include. Because Sebald's themes were complex, his methods unusual and experimental, his books are not for everyone. Moreover, any artist who explores the rough edges of the canvas, who tries to stretch the boundaries of what is expected and accepted, is likely to stumble at times. As Schwartz says in the introduction, the "vulnerabilities" in Sebald's work that Hofmann discusses "are real and should be taken into account in any assessment of his work."

Having been introduced to Sebald before being introduced to his writing, in a sense, I hope to read one or two of his books for myself before too long, with The Emergence of Memory near at hand to redirect me if I start to get lost. Fans of Sebald's books will certainly want to read this collection and likely enjoy it. In my case, I think I'll understand and appreciate Sebald's works a good deal more because I read this book first.

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DRAFT--Still reading
It has taken me time to get through this collection because it has necessitated the rereading of Sebald's works. I'm only 70 pages in but so far love what I've come across. The introductory essay by Lynne Sharon Schwartz is tightly written and insightful from beginning to end.

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This raises hopes for the rest of the book. I found the subsequent short essay by Tim Parks, "The Hunter" to be a little too abbreviated to be pleasurable; it may simply require rereading. What follows is a fantastic interview with Sebald by Eleanor Wachtel. This is fascinating stuff. We get a behind the scenes view of THE EMIGRANTS. I was surprised to learn how very much of that text is based on reality. For example, all the characters actually existed and led the lives depictetd, and 90% of the photos have a genuine connection with the narratives. So far Ms. Schwartz's book is very strong. i look forward reading (and reviewing) the rest of it . . . .

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