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Post subject: The Radetzsky March by Joseph Roth
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| I'm reading this right now and it is wonderful. There are some passages that pull me right off the mundane floor of my daily work and drudgery and lift me on to a new level of thought. Roth was an Austrian Jew who served in the Kaiser's army during World War One. The Radetzky March deals with the breaking apart of that empire and Europe's thrust into the modern era, as told through the story of a noble family, the Trottas. The patriarch of the Trottas was a poor Slavic peasant who -- by chance, circumstance, and some common sense -- saved the life of the Kaiser during a battle. The Kaiser made him a Baron and looked after subsequent generations of his family, who are the main focal point of the story. The book really explains how so much change occurred with the destruction caused by WWI, with the politics that fueled that war and emerged from it, with the advent of the 20th Century. Anyway, it's cool and if you're into this kind of literature, I highly recommend it (even though I'm still not done with it). |
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 Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:51 pm |
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| wait, so is it historical fiction or a true story? sounds interesting. |
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| Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:07 pm |
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| It's purely fiction...it's a story based in the Austro-Hungarian Empire circa WWI and before. But the history of that era, in that place, comes shining through. I feel like I'm learning more about that era than if I read a "history" book. And, I spelled the title wrong: It's "The Radetzky March" (not "The Radetzsky March"). oops... |
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| Mon Jan 12, 2009 11:43 pm |
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| cool. i learn much better within a fictional context, too. maybe i can borrow it when you are done?? maybe we can start a book swap on here! |
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| Mon Jan 12, 2009 11:55 pm |
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