W.G.Sebald

There are some books you read which are so brilliant the experience is almost physical, indeed orgasmic if I may say. It doesn't happen a lot but when it does it's a rare feeling; a tingling sensation. Is that what an orgasm feels like? There are a handful of authors who can do it for me, and I'm sure you will all have one or two who do it for you. Some we save for special occasions; when a good book is life's only cure. I think I'm going to rescue the semi-colon from obscurity. It's not been used much by me recently; so just to show there are no hard feelings will use it in this post. I'm sure there are rules for it's use but if so I don't remember them.

I've been reading W.G. Sebald's book Austerlitz which is as good as or maybe even better than Rings of Saturn, which I think I've mentioned before. He's one of the best authors I've ever read; his death so young was a sad loss to the world of literature. I'm sure he would have gone on to the Nobel prize had he lived. He was killed in a car crash at the age of 57 in 2001.

Austerlitz is not about the famous 19th century battle of that name, but the name of one of the two main characters in the book, the other being Sebald himself in fictional form. Austerlitz came to the UK from Prague in the Kinder transport in 1939 and ended up living with a family in Wales. The book is the story of the various meetings between the storyteller and Austerlitz and how Austerlitz recovers his story and his family story under the Nazis. It's deeply moving and a work of genius.

As a writer Sebald is unique. There is no-one else writes quite like him. There are no paragraphs or chapters in the book; the text is interspersed with grainy black and white photos which act like breaks and are incredibly effective. The book reads like a true story, which it might as well be.

I recently went to the Filmhouse to see a film called Patience (After Sebald) which is based on his book The Rings of Saturn and was made by a Grant Gee. Superb film making. I can only repeat what Mark Kermode said about it in the Guardian "great triumph.... manages to bewitch, bother and ultimately bedazzle"; "quietly extraordinary movie".

It's now available on Amazon, but I would read the book(s) first, though Kermode says he still hasn't read any Sebald; his loss obviously. I'm very happy to have got to know this writer; it's thanks to Will Self, whom I heard talking about him some time ago, and he was full of praise.