2007 books

[peteryoung]

57) Patrick Süskind, The Story of Mr Sommer, 1991
Every book I have so far read of Süskind's has been of an entirely different genre from the last, and this is no exception (and I have yet to read Perfume). It's a story about growing up in small-town Germany after WW2, though the supposed object of the story (the mysterious and reclusive Mr. Sommer) is completely detached from the real subject (a rather vain narrator looking back on his childhood, and far too conscious of his own peculiarities). Unfortunately the reader never discovers anything valuable, least of all about Mr. Sommer which is certainly deliberate, leaving this book as something of a disappointment without any tangible resolution.