Paul's aversion to the Church of Rome was far more than a mere question of principle. though; he genuinely had a horror of God's vicars adn the mothball smell they gave off. He not only did not attend church on Sundays, but purposely left town, going as far as he could into the mountains, where he no longer heard the bells. If the weather was not good he would spend his Sunday mornings together with Colo the cobbler, who was a philosopher and a downright atheist who took the Lord's day, if he was not playing chess with Paul, as the occasion to work on pamphlets and tracts against the one True Church. Once (I now remember) I witnessed a moment when Paul's aversion to hypocrisy of any description won an incontestable victory over the forbearance with which he generally endured the intellectual infirmities of the world. In the class above me there was a pupil by the name of Ewald Riese who had fallen completely under the Catechist's influence and displayed a degree of overdone piety- it would not be unfair to say, ostentatiously- quite incredible in a ten-year-0ld. ....Who am I to disagree with Susan Sontag who called this book a masterpiece? I concur, wholeheartedly. Like other Sebald books, this one is about places and spaces. He describes realities that are magically dreamlike. Included in this book, as in his others, are unusual photographs that seem to have come out of an old trunk. The photographs interspersed throughout the text add immensely to the journey Sebald takes us on. Reading Sebald is like wandering into a secret room that you don't want to leave.
The Emigrants covers four displaced people in its four sections. They have all fled a horrible past to live unique lives. Together the tell a compelling story of the human spirit exploring areas most often left unexplored. This may be my favorite Sebald book and I love them all.
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