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Beware of Pity, by Stefan Zweig, publ. c 1935
Reviews

From: Remi
Category: Books
Date: 10 October 2005

Review

Just finished this book. Very glad to have done so. Even if it meant missing my ferry and two parties. I had to do. I got that feeling I haven't had in a long time, the one I used to get all the time, and which dominated my life. How art can make you intensely conscious of your own life, and others, and the passing of time. Pretty neat, huh? But I don't want to over-hype this novel, the only novel that Stefan Zweig wrote. I do realise that a story set in a Hungarian garrison town, in the years leading to the First World War is not everyone's idea of a hot pitch. It worked for me. The main character is a young cavalry lieutenant. His recit is told by someone else. How he became involved with a young woman. She has a motor neurone disease (my diagnosis). Their feelings all get a bit intertwined, stretched and wrenched. Other characters come into the affair. There's even a bit of politics. You never quite know how the plot will unfold. But I must say that at the end I was quite disappointed it had to come to an end. Why did it have to end like that?

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