I've finished it too - and reading this discussion is very enriching for me!
I am arriving after many pages of this thread, and many very perceptive insights from you. As others have said, the German speakers have helped a lot understand the context of the dialects (providing much more colour for instance to Tony's permanence in the south), and others have added useful background information on the relationship between Mann and his treatment of the historical context.
What did I make of this book? As I said already, I remembered it as absolutely "unputdownable", while my experience this time has been very different. So in short I find myself very much in agreement with:
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertblues
Well, part of my deception of reading the book was the lack of depth and growth of the
characters.
...
It began as an interesting family saga, but I found it too long....
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Tony is too much of a "child", and thinking of how she was always treated in the family (e.g. the passage on the first marriage that
fantasyfan highlighted), I would have found it more interesting if somehow her character had developed more rather than staying "a child" throughout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
As for Gerda, she's an enigma. ... It's a little surprising that Mann didn't use her thoughts as a mouthpiece for his own commentary
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Indeed, I wondered what Gerda's role was: as it is, her amused smiles are maybe a pause for reflection for the reader here and there. Or maybe she is a metaphor for Thomas' initial enthusiasm and hopes for something different and better for his firm that eventually crumbles - Gerda doesn't, but there is a sense in which she was always foreign - in this sense Hanno's destiny seems to fulfil the same "prophecy".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I'm finding the later parts of the book much more interesting than the early ones because there seems to be much more introspection, particularly by Thomas Buddenbrook....
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I also enjoyed the last two parts the most, one of which was taken mostly with Hanno's day at school. More in general, there isn't much on Hanno as compared to the other characters, but I really enjoyed what is there.
As an undercurrent, medicine and death seems to be two recurring topics, which are interrelated. Dr Grabow's universal recipe of bread and white meat is mocked from the word go, and the scenes at the dentist are hair raising! Medical practice could affect your life at various ways (and if we had not thought about it when Hanno's healthy molars are removed, he reminds us ourselves of this when despairing on his situation with Kai), and death is really a constant presence. I found teenager Hanno's (implicit) preoccupation with death quite touching.