The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald

For days and weeks on end one racks one's brains to no avail, and, if asked, one could not say whether one goes on writing purely out of habit, or a craving for admiration, or because one knows not how to do anything other, or out of sheer wonderment, despair or outrage, any more than one could say whether writing renders one more perceptive or more insane. Perhaps we all lose our sense of reality to the precise degree to which we are engrossed in our own work, and perhaps that is why we see in the increasing complexity of our mental constructs a means for greater understanding, even while intuitively we know that we shall be able to fathom the imponderables that govern our course through life.


Sebald has crafted an intelligent, well-written book. This is a first person account of travels on England's Northeastern coast. Towns with profitable pasts during expansive industrial times are visited. They are mostly skeletons of cities now. The author uses the town histories to launch into tales about prior residents or the history that helped define the town in its prime. The digressions are often quirky and help contribute an overall feeling of other worldliness in this book. To enjoy this book, the reader must let his mind wander and enjoy details left out of history books. As someone who grew up reading encyclopedias, I loved it.

The author is superb at finding details to support a melancholic meander through a place time left behind. He leaves the reader pondering empires, wars, economic progress, rapid changes, and simple lives in forgotten places. A good book for a slow read.