Amok Koşucusu - Sahaf Mendel

by Stefan Zweig, Gülperi Sert (Translator)

İlk öyküye adını veren Amok kelimesi Endonezya kültüründen gelmektedir ve bir tür sarhoşluk durumunu ifade eder, bu durumda olan kişi engellenemez kör bir öfke ile sadece düşmanına değil, önüne çıkan herkese Malezyalılara özgü yılan şeklinde Kris adı verilen bir hançerle saldırır, "kan kokusu onu daha da çıldırtır, dudaklarından köpükler taşar, çıldırmış biri gibi ulur; koşar, koşar, koşar, sağa sola bakmadan, tiz çığlıklar atarak elinde kanlı hançeri, korkunç koşusuna devam eder. Köylerdeki insanlar bir Amok koşucusunu hiçbir gücün tutamayacağını bilirler. O nedenle böyle biri yaklaştığında bağırarak önceden uyarırlar: Amok! Amok! Ve herkes kaçar, ama Amok koşar, hiçbir şey duymaz, hiçbir şey görmez, koşar, önüne çıkanı devirir, ta ki biri onu kuduz bir köpeğe yapıldığı gibi silahla vuruncaya kadar ya da kendisi ağzından köpükler saça saça düşüp ölünceye kadar."

İkinci öyküde ise, Yahudi asıllı Galiçyalı bir sahafın sade bir o kadar da iç burkan hikâyesinde Zweig eşsiz anlatımıyla sıradan bir öyküyü adeta devleştiriyor. Sadece kitaplardan oluşan dünyasında kendi halinde yaşayan, inanılmaz bir hafızaya sahip Mendel sadece bir sahaf değil bir kitap antikacısıdır.Kitapları dışında hiçbir şeyle ilgilenmediği için I. Dünya Savaşı'nın patlak verdiğini fark etmez bile. Fark ettiğinde ise çok geçtir. Komorn yakınlarındaki Rus sivil savaş tutuklularının kaldığı bir toplama kampında geçirdiği iki yıl, yüz binlerce kitabın ismini, yayın yılı, yeri, eski ve yeni fiyatını ezbere bilen, inanılmaz hafızaya sahip Mendel'den çok şey götürür. Savaştan, kavgadan tamamen uzak olmasına rağmen Birinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında gönderildiği toplama kampında yaşadıkları sonrasında bir daha eski haline dönemeyen Mendel ile Zweig adeta kısa bir süre sonra patlak verecek İkinci Dünya Savaşı ve sonrasında kendi yaşayacaklarını önceden seziyor, Mendel'in sonunda kendi sonunu görüyor.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, German Literature, Literature, Literary Fiction, Germany

109 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

Stefan Zweig was one of the world's most famous writers during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U.S., South America, and Europe. He produced novels, plays, biographies, and journalist pieces. Among his most famous works are Beware of Pity, Letter from an Unknown Woman, and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. He and his second wife committed suicide in 1942.
Zweig studied in Austria, France, and Germany before settling in Salzburg in 1913. In 1934, driven into exile by the Nazis, he emigrated to England and then, in 1940, to Brazil by way of New York. Finding only growing loneliness and disillusionment in their new surroundings, he and his second wife committed suicide.
Zweig's interest in psychology and the teachings of Sigmund Freud led to his most characteristic work, the subtle portrayal of character. Zweig's essays include studies of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky (Drei Meister, 1920; Three Masters) and of Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist, and Friedrich Nietzsche (Der Kampf mit dem Dämon, 1925; Master Builders). He achieved popularity with Sternstunden der Menschheit (1928; The Tide of Fortune), five historical portraits in miniature. He wrote full-scale, intuitive rather than objective, biographies of the French statesman Joseph Fouché (1929), Mary Stuart (1935), and others. His stories include those in Verwirrung der Gefühle (1925; Conflicts). He also wrote a psychological novel, Ungeduld des Herzens (1938; Beware of Pity), and translated works of Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Emile Verhaeren.
Most recently, his works provided the inspiration for 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

no, guys, it isn't that zweig...

i am grateful for my book club for wrenching me out of the world of teen fiction, if only momentarily. even though i have been enjoying some of the teen stuff, sometimes i just want to read about someone older than myself. otherwise i just feel elderly and out of touch.

this book contains four short stories; three parts devotion, one part despair.i am not sure if this review is the road to spoiler city, but i am going to discuss the situation that links these four stories together, because i figure if there is a collection of similar-situation stories, the publisher did it for a reason, and it is no secret. for example, this book:



is about zombie love stories. secret's out. rarrrr.

this zweig book contains four suicide stories. and maybe it is just a sick joke on the part of pushkin press because zweig did of course end up a double suicide with his wife, but i think apart from that biographical fact, the end result in these stories is of no consequence; it is the process each character takes to get to that point that is more interesting than the punch line.

i was told by a german woman that zweig was all head, no heart. and i thought to myself, "great, another book for this group that is all cerebral bullshit* like death in venice or the lover and why can't we read something with balls for a change?"

but this is oozing heart. maybe it actually gains something in translation. all of the characters in these stories feel love or duty so deeply that their own lives become secondary and when they have caused displeasure, or are to be separated from their object, or when their duty has been performed or their plans are obstructed, they have no choice - they cannot go on living. and that is so much more romantic than restraint, than moping about it and moving on. as character studies, they are fascinating.

i don't want to go into too much detail because 1) i am coming down from a brownie-scarfing-project-runway-finale high, 2) i am super sleepy, and 3) these stories are so short, that if i mention even three words of plot, there's half the story gone.

but i do believe i will be reading more of his work - and i love pushkin press and their handy-sized beautifully textured books, and their impressive list of authors.

let's pretend this review is better and more informative than it is so i can go to bed.

* by which i simply mean it does not fulfill my need for the tragically melodramatic in all my love stories.

come to my blog!

[Adam Dalva · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just a review of the title story, which Pushkin Press is selling separately as a novella. As with all Zweig novellas that I've read except for the phenomenal CHESS STORY, the fascination lies mostly in the outer frame, in which (inevitably), a writer who is essentially Stefan Zweig is approached by a strange person with a story to tell. I love that he consistently does this - it feels like a move that is at once from an older idea of literature (the "found" picaresque works, etc.) and ferociously contemporary.

Once inside the frame, unfortunately, there is a bit less to chew on then usual here. The title character is thoroughly irredeemable and yet the novella seems to consider him otherwise - though take this with a grain of salt, because I tend not to like books where an initial action is amoral and then the spiraling consequences attempt to make up for it. This is, interestingly, a novella that also deals frankly (for the time) with the ramifications of making abortions illegal, and for that, as well as the Zweigian touch, it is worth reading.

[Rowena · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I had seen a new world, I had taken in turbulent, confused images that raced wildly through my mind. Now I wanted leisure to think, to analyze and organize them, make sense of all that had impressed itself on my mind." - Stefan Zweig, Amok

I can relate to the above quote so well. I love the poetic, introspective tone...

A brilliant book. It's only my second Zweig book but I love him already. Zweig is a wonderful craftsman of short stories and these ones in are just stunning. They are all tragic tales and each story deals with some sort of obsession. The psychological depth of the characters is what fascinated me the most. It's easy to tell that Zweig really tried to understand the subconscious and the reason people do what they do.

Highly recommended.

[Ila · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. So far each of Zweig's stories has had a lasting impact on me. Ethereal by nature, they tap into that uncomfortable corner of our mind where the repressed reigns supreme. Freud's influence is obvious in the all too disturbing but nonetheless accurate portrait of his characters. Perhaps it would be beneficial to be aware of certain details of Zweig's life. A highly disturbed self, sensitive but not passionate as the Romantics, a sharp eye-only one as uniquely equipped as he could weave these tales together; in somebody else's hands they run the risk of being melodramatic or needlessly vicious.

In keeping with his tumultuous life, all the tales are tragedies of suicide. Sexual jealousy and obsession play out in distinct ways in "Amok" or "Leporella". Amok is one of the most disturbing tales I have read for its portrayal of descent into insanity. Leporella is far more twisted and is an example of how repression can rot the senses. Yet it is the "Incident on Lake Geneva" that hits too close no matter if it is somewhat predictable. The soldier's physical and psychological nudity, his aimless drifting, the realisation of a world fundamentally altered are parallels to Zweig's own.

It is a rare writer who narrates a story relegating plot to a subordinate position and manages to sustain my interest. Zweig certainly is the foremost among them.

[Mehmet]

..."kitapların kendi soluğumuzun ötesinde, insanları kendimize bağlamak ve tüm yaşamların en acımasız düşmanı olan fanilik ve unutulmuşluk karşısında kendimizi müdafaa etmek için yaratıldığını bilen ben, unutmuştum onu."

[Monica Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stefan Zweig is not your typical Viennese novelist, journalist, playwright and biographer. He and his wife committed a double suicide in 1942. Suicide is a touchy subject in the Land of the Free. We can't withstand the guilt suicide suggests in the hard-working and God Fearing U.S. of A.

Frankly, there is no glamour in it here.

I am not suggesting it by any means, but it is interesting to note that in other countries such as Japan, China and India, suicide is viewed as a more virtuous, perhaps even an honorable act. And maybe that's why there is romance and dignity in their double suicide. Maybe that is why Amok and Other Stories is so beautifully tragic. He appeals to the romantic in all of us. Yes, these four stories are tragic, but to some that is how life is. The protagonists in these stories love without regret or even encouragement; they love with a blind devotion that solely gives them purpose and when that object is taken away or goes away, there is no purpose. Zweig captures the anxiety and desperation of their emotions with such a light touch, it only makes us see them as sad and beautiful. When I read this next passage, I was struck by how accurate and light Zweig painted a waiter's obsession with a Baroness who was visiting the hotel he where he worked:

It was that faithful, dog-like devotion without desire that those in mid-life seldom feel, and is known only to the very young and the very old. A love devoid of any deliberation, not thinking but only dreaming.

Three out of the four stories in this collection put us in the hearts of those suffering from unrequited love. Zweig's style is so elegant and descriptive, the purity of this love scares and engages us. The last story draws us in to man who cannot find his way home, due to the war. This is the story I found most tragic because of its autobiographical slant. Zweig and his wife committed suicide because the home that they knew, was one they could never get to again. These stories are so worthwhile and if there is any credence to the adage 'write what you know' then Zweig was a man who wrote about loss and love with equal knowledge

[Harun Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

chess story আর letter from an unknown woman পড়ার পরই লেখকের ভক্ত হয়ে গেছি। জোয়াইগের সবচেয়ে বড় গুণ, তার লেখা পড়তে শুরু করলে থামা যায় না। নামগল্পতে একটা শব্দবন্ধ আছে running amok নামে। (নিরীহ বা সাদাসিধা কেউ যদি হঠাৎ উন্মত্ত আচরণ শুরু করে,  কোনো যুক্তিতর্ক তার মাথায় যদি না ঢোকে এবং যদি তা ডেকে আনে তার বিয়োগান্ত পরিণতি তাহলে সেই ব্যক্তিকে running amok বলে।) জোয়াইগের প্রধান চরিত্রদের প্রায় সবাই running amok, কোনো বিষয়ে তারা চূড়ান্তভাবে মোহাচ্ছন্ন, চূড়ান্তভাবে বোধবুদ্ধিহীন - যার ফলশ্রুতিতে ঘটে যায় অনাকাঙ্ক্ষিত সব ঘটনা। চারটি গল্পের সাধারণ বিষয় স্বেচ্ছামৃত্যু। আর এর প্রেক্ষাপট হিসেবে কাজ করে নিজের কোনো ঘোর বা বাস্তব বিরূপ পরিস্থিতি। বইতে আমার সবচেয়ে প্রিয় গল্প "লাপোরেলা।" প্রায় মধ্যবয়সী অনাকর্ষণীয় নির্বিকার এক গৃহকর্মীর তার ব্যারনের প্রতি ঘোর আর এর পরিণতি স্নায়ুক্ষয়ী তীব্রতার সঙ্গে বর্ণনা করেছেন লেখক। শেষ গল্পে আবার বিশ্বযুদ্ধে সাধারণ মানুষের দুর্দশা এবং অসহায়ত্ব তুলে ধরা হয়েছে। রাষ্ট্রগুলোর লোভ আর জিঘাংসার বিপরীতে নগন্য মানুষদের ব্যক্তিগত চাওয়া কতোটা তুচ্ছ তা এক পলাতক সৈনিকের নিজ দেশে ফেরার আকাঙ্ক্ষার মাধ্যমে ব্যক্ত করেছেন জোয়াইগ। তার অন্য বইগুলোও পড়ার ইচ্ছা রইলো।

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought soon.

[Swati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never thought I'd be picking up another Zweig within the span of a month! My first was his novella, The Chess Story, which I liked the most.

This book contains four different stories, but they all have a common morbid theme. The lead characters of these stories are ordinary people, driven by desire and devotion bordering on obsession, without which they are left with nothing but despair - hollow and lifeless.

My order of preference is, Leporella, Amok, followed by Incident On Lake Geneva, and lastly The Star Above The Forest.

[Abubakar Mehdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amok is, undoubtedly, one of my most favorite stories. It has everything in it, over brimming with tension, passion, morbid infatuation, colonialism, existential crisis and what not. It withholds in itself innumerable emotions, thoughts and experience that can't be put to paper by anyone. Anyone but Stefan Zweig. He is one of his kind in the craft mingling fiction with the reality of human psychology.
This is my absolute favorite.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark stories with colorful prose.

[Ricardo Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

El síndrome de Amok, ahora conozco el término gracias a Zweig.
No dejo de sorprenderme en como detalla sus personajes Zweig, no dejo de cautivaron la imagen altiva de la protagonista, que solamente pudo haber encarnado María Félix en la pantalla.
La ira y la autodestrucción que es producto del desprecio de la amada: Amok.
Las letras austríacas tienen en Zweig su máximo esplendor. Zweig va siendo, cada vez más, uno de mis favoritos. La arquitectura psicológica de sus personajes no tiene igual.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb ! - Nobody, just nobody could get even close.
Zweig is unsurpassed Maestro in the genre of the short psychological story !!!

The life is burnt in Amok with the fierce fire passion
Emotions run on high, like live volcano at eruption
The spark of human tragedy and pain of soul's despair
Death, doom of suicide and fatal end of unrequited love affair

[Titus · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Note: My edition of this book contains three of Zweig's novellas: 'Amok', 'Letter From an Unknown Woman' and 'The Invisible Collection')

I believe Hemingway's theory of iceberg prose can be perfectly applied to Stefan Zweig's writting. During his lifetime, Zweig wrote mostly biographies and novellas, the latter being as short as they are engaging. Written in a clean and polished style, Zweig's stories are characterized by an accessibility that masks their complexity. Here is an author interested in the contemplation of the recesses of the human mind, in exploring the intricacies of human consciousness, and doing so with a simple elegance that lends his works an undeniable power.

There is a passage in ‘Amok’ that serves as a perfect example of the beauty of Zweig’s prose:

"I groped my way to the deck, where there was not a soul to be seen. Looking first at the smoking funnels and the ghostlike spars, I then turned my eyes upward and saw that the sky was clear; dark velvet, sprinkled with stars. It looked as if a curtain had been drawn across a vast source of light, and as if the stars were tiny rents in the curtain, through which that indescribable radiance poured. Never had I seen such a sky.
The night was refreshingly cool, as so often at this hour on a moving ship even at the Equator. I breathed the fragrant air, charged with the aroma of distant isles. For the first time since I had come on board I was seized with a longing to dream, conjoined with another desire, more sensuous, to surrender my body – womanlike - to the night's soft embrace. I wanted to lie down somewhere and gaze at the white hieroglyphs in the starry expanse. But the long chairs were all stacked and inaccessible. Nowhere on the empty deck was there a place for a dreamer to rest."

Thinking of Stefan Zweig writing brings to mind the work of a painter, carefully choosing ink types, mixing colours and playing with textures. The resulting prose is simultaneously rich and fluid, able to paint such vivid pictures, to say so much so poignantly, in such little space, that the reader is left in absolute awe.

A particular and fascinating characteristic of Zweig’s stories is the narrative mechanism he employs: a story within a story. In both ‘Amok’ and ‘The Invisible Collection’ there is a narrator who chronicles an encounter with a figure that describes his past experiences. ‘Letter From an Unknown Woman’, on the other hand, is a third-person narrative about a writer reading the titular letter, shifting then to present to the reader it’s first-person contents; despite being a momentary break from the constant first-person perspective Zweig is known for, it proves very narratively similar to his common mechanism. Despite the fact that this narrative frame often takes the risk of becoming repetitive, it allows for meta-analysis and stimulates the reader to reflect further upon the main narrative.

Another striking aspect of Zweig’s writting is the richness and originality of his characters. In ‘Amok’ we meet a doctor working in India, whose isolation into the jungle makes him much more feral. Such bestiality is no more evident than when the doctor is visited by a misterious woman with an unusual request, a woman whose confidence (arrogance, even) ignites the doctor’s desire to crush her attitude, to bend her to his will, to dominate her.

“I had been rotting away there in my loneliness, and then this woman turned up from nowhere, the first white woman I had seen for years - and I felt as if something evil, something dangerous, had come into my room. Her iron determination made my flesh creep. She had come, it seemed, for idle chatter; and then without warning she voiced a demand as if she were throwing a knife at me. For what she wanted of me was plain enough. That was not the first time women had come to me with such a request. But they had come imploringly, had with tears besought me to help them in their trouble. Here, however, was a woman of exceptional, of virile, determination. From the outset I had felt that she was stronger than I, that she could probably mould me to her will. Yet if there were evil in the room, it was in me likewise, in me the man. Bitterness had risen in me, a revolt against her. I had sensed in her an enemy.”

The dynamic Zweig establishes between these two characters, and their first dialogue in particular, is one of the most original I’ve ever had the pleasure to read, and one of the aspects that makes ‘Amok’ one of the most unique novellas ever written. One would be pressed to dislike the doctor, but his animalistic impulses are described with such honesty and poignancy, and so real is his regret and his tragedy, that what would be a despicable figure becomes a sympathetic one.

‘Letter From an Unknown Woman’ tells us the story of a woman whose obcessive, unrequited love becomes her ultimate tragedy. This novella’s power comes mostly from Zweig’s description of the feelings of love, of it’s joys and of it’s pains, permeated by an overall feeling of inevitable loss. The beauty evoked by Zweig is juxtaposed with the merciless fate of the characters, making for a striking tale of passionate love and dangerous obcession.

At last we have the particularly interesting case of the art collector in ‘The Invisible Collection’. Blinded by age, the old collector takes great pleasure from simply touching his owned illustrations, all of which he stills remembers in astonishing detail. Only that such illustrations are no longer in his possession, having been replaced with regular paper by his wife who sold most of his collection in an attempt to make up for their decaying fortune. So the collector spends his days sliding his fingers through paper which he considers to be his cherished works of art, each of their lines existing in his imagination alone. A peculiar tragedy his is, indeed.

Zweig is an author of rare sensibility, with the ability to deliver works of short length but of great power. Despite some issues typical of his time, the worst being his racist depiction of Asian people (as well as other ethnicities), Zweig’s work should be read for it’s originality, it’s accessibility, it’s complexity of meaning, and, overall, it’s power.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a night when the moon has cast its brightest sheen over the darkest night sky, I will think of Zweig! This is because I have experienced the most beautiful moonlight reveries in several of his short stories. When gazing upon the brightest star in the sky on a moonless night, I will think of Francois, the waiter from The Star Above The Forest, because I will remember how I cried for him as he stared at that star above the trees of that forest. When I think of my Star Man ;), I will often be reminded of the doctor in Amok, because they are brothers of deep, fatalistic passions.

This is the beauty of that of Zweig’s writing I’ve had the pleasure of reading so far. The characters and settings attach themselves to your thoughts and remain there long after you’ve discovered them. I’m so thankful Zweig left such a rich body of work to be relished and explored, regardless of the tragic & too early ending of his life stemmed by uncertain world events. I want to keep him in my life as long as possible - so to speak. Though I’m quite an eclectic reader in that I find value in many types of writing & genres & in what some may consider shabby literature, it’s nice to know that when I want to read something in which I will be assured substance with maximum impact, something I consider interesting company and that finely tunes me into the human psyche, that I will have Zweig’s writing to immerse myself in. He is the best short story writer I’ve read so far and from the looks of the ratings here on GoodReads and the opinions of a trusted literary advisor ;), I expect it will stay that way. I look forward to experiencing his nonfiction and longer fiction. Without a doubt you are cheating yourself if you haven’t taken a look at his work!

Amok = 4 stars
Leporella = 5 stars
The Star Above the Forest = 5 stars
4th story (can't remember title) = 3 stars

[Blackjessamine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Credo che con Zweig stia nascendo una bellissima storia d'amore. Ne avevo avuto il sentore con "Mendel dei libri", e la lettura di questo secondo piacevolissimo racconto me l'ha confermato.
È un "racconto nel racconto": di notte, sul ponte di una nave che sta facendo ritorno in Europa, un uomo inciampa nel racconto vagamente delirante di un medico. E il delirio, lo stordimento dei sensi, la perdita di ogni controllo in favore di uno sconvolgente furor è il filo conduttore di tutto questo racconto. Amok è il termine malese che indica il folle delirio di chi improvvisamente cede ad una violenza inaudita e immotivata e perde ogni concezione di sé, abbandonandosi ad una corsa di sangue. Delirio che sembra avere le sue radici nel clima torrido ed estraniante dell'estremo Oriente, che scava lento e invisibile nella mente delle persone fino ad arrivare al punto di non ritorno.
Zweig è magistrale nel trascinare il lettore in uno sperduto villaggio di una colonia Olandese, nella casa di un tranquillo medico che, turbato da una misteriosa visita di una bella e austera donna, lentamente precipita in un vortice di follia sempre più incontrollabile, fino ad un tragico epilogo che lascerà l'uomo privo di forze, annientato, svuotato, proprio come la vittima dell'amok che crolla a terra, i nervi distrutti, al termine della sua corsa di follia.
Assieme al protagonista noi sembriamo essere travolti e al tempo stesso sfiorati solo in superficie dal racconto del medico, eppure un segno, una minuscola scalfittura sembra lasciarci, nelle ultime pagine, con l'inquietante sensazione che l'amok, incontrollabile, potebbe covare anche dentro di noi.

[Faustibooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a book! I read this book at a difficult time for me at university in which I lost the motivation to write among several other things. I decided to pick this up as some sort of distraction and some easy way to feel better. And it definitely worked. I love the works of Stefan Zweig and I see his beautiful writing work on me like a soothing salve on a wound. Agh! How I wish I could read these stories for the first time again!

This book contained four stories, three of which I thought were great. Amok was simply terrific and kept me engaged. Leporella and The Star Above the Forest were also beautifully written. There’s just something about the way Stefan Zweig writes his stories that entrance me somehow like almost no other author has been able to do for me yet. The only thing that slightly saddens me is that I am getting closer to having read all of Zweig’s works of fiction!

[Kiriaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Σαν δεύτερη σκέψη, σαν βιωματικό ντεζαβου, μπαίνοντας στη θέση του συνταξιδιώτη , μπορώ να νιωσω γιατί αυτή η γυναίκα αποδείχθηκε τόσο μοιραία για την ζωή του του αφηγητή. Η ταραχώδης, οξυδερκης, παθιασμένη και καταπιεσμένη περιγραφή δίνει ξανά το απόλυτο στίγμα του Γερμανού συγγραφέα. Έτσι υποθέτω πως επήλθε και ο πραγματικός θάνατος του. Λυτρωμός και ματαιότητα. Ματαιότητα και λυτρωμος.

[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

це якесь дивне видання "амок", але знайшла тільки його, тому напишу. стефан цвейґ did it again. темна хвороблива жага, перев'язана жіночою трагедією та тваринним началом. і знову поетично написано. слей

[Catherine Vamianaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grest book

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Amok to be an intriguing story that offers much to think about. It’s the story of a doctor facing an existential crisis in what was, when Zweig wrote this story in 1922, the Dutch East Indies. A psychological study that shows the character confronted by a moral dilemma that becomes an irrational compulsion which destroys him, the novella is framed as a narrative within a narrative. A stranger meets this distraught doctor hiding himself away from everyone as their ship returns to Europe, and the doctor unburdens himself to the stranger in the dark of the night, even though, as the reader eventually learns, there is some risk to him in doing so.

The voice in the dark hesitated again. ‘I would like to ask you something … that’s to say, I’d like to tell you something. Oh, I know, I know very well how absurd it is to turn to the first man I meet, but … I’m … I’m in a terrible mental condition, I have reached a point where I absolutely must talk to someone, or it will be the end of me … You’ll understand that when I … well. if I tell you … I mean, I know you can’t help me, but this silence is almost making me ill, and a sick man always looks ridiculous to others.’ (p. 21)

Tension lingers throughout the story from the opening paragraph, in which the unnamed stranger tells us that

In March 1912 a strange accident occurred in Naples harbour during the unloading of a large ocean-going liner which was reported at length by the newspapers, although in extremely fanciful terms. Although I was a passenger on the Oceania, I did not myself witness this strange incident – nor did any of the others – since it happened while coal was being taken on board and cargo unloaded, and to escape the noise we had all gone ashore to pass the time in coffee-houses or theatres. It is my personal opinion, however, that a number of conjectures which I did not voice publicly at the time provide the true explanation of that sensational event, and I think that, at a distance of some years, I may now be permitted to give an account of a conversation I had in confidence immediately before the curious episode. (p.11)

So as we read, there is not only the confessional conversation between the doctor and the stranger to consider, but also our curiosity about what this odd incident might be - which of course is not revealed until the end of the novella. There’s also the distancing effect of the first-person narrator (the stranger) narrating another character’s first-person narrative, and we see that he too – at a distance of some years – feels the need to unburden himself of this secret that he hasn’t ‘voiced publicly’. The urge to confess is powerful indeed.

To read more of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2014/02/22/am...

[Bookish Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked these peculiar little stories full of outliers, dogged servants, wanton men and lustful women. Of course, a lot of the language is backwards (the term 'native' is thrown around a bit too hastily for my liking). Zweig can make a more understanding, 21st century mind recoil with horror, he is a product of his time, although I know this is not an excuse. These are psychological horror stories that highlight the limits of human compassion. They are, in fact, quite silly and consciously so.

These 4 stories are mythic and strange, simple in structure (often involving a murder, suicide and ontoward character) but very entertaining. A strange character in the base of a ship talks to a startled young man in the dark about a failed abortion on a desperate young woman; a waiter falls for an unattainable baroness and kills himself with desire; a strange maidservant enters the house of a baron with eerie consequences and a naked man is washed up to shore and found by a passing fishing boat.

'Amok and other stories' provides and interesting portrait of unrequited love, obsession, loss, class and the dark underbelly of the human consciousness. These are worth a read.

[Arqam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply Outstanding! I am so much touched after reading this story and simply this is the best piece of literature i have ever read.
The way Zweig has put his experience on paper is so transcendental and surpassing that i believe i may not come across such epic piece of literature again, I have just finished reading this and i am so much moved.
The story itself if put it this way has been "AMOK" in a way, so fast and a lot of emotion has been there, that i am lost with words to describe how much i have liked it.
There had been a similar experience with me while i was travelling abroad and met a Psychotherapist on a flight, He narrated a story of young girl in a similar situation and i was ridiculously astonished, she did survived everything but then was a patient of Mental Disorder.
Its definitely a recommendation for everyone who want to start reading Zweig.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is of the story Amok only. A few months ago I read Zweig's novella Chess Stry, but found this one less unique and powerful. I find Zweig's style slightly offputting. He likes to cast himself in the story and have his characters break the forth wall. It doesn't work well for me. The main character is unlikable and irredeemable. The story lacks hope, which is what propels me through a story when there is so much about the characters and events to dislike. However, I was quite impressed that in 1922 Zweig tells a story about abortion, legality of such, and the ramifications.

[Catarina Pires · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Do you know, stranger, sitting here so casually in your deckchair, travelling at leisure around the world, do you know what it's like to watch someone dying? Have you ever been at a deathbed, have you seen the body contort, blue nails stabbing at the empty air while breath rattles in the dying throat, every limb fights back, every finger is braced against the terror of it, and the eye stares into horror for which there are no words? Have you ever experienced that, idle tourist that you are, you who call it a duty to help?”

[S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtil !
(suivie de la lettre d'une inconnue, et la rue de la claire lune )

Amok, une fidélité effrénée d'un médecin... La question qui m'a traversé l'esprit jadis était liée aux limites: celles où commence le professionnel qui arrête l'humain en nous.
L'indécision y est également et le texte qu'Elif Shafak avait rythmé de compte à rebours, Zveig l'avait précédé en ponctuant son récit de coups d'horloge.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can write nothing here that would describe the wonder of these stories, without betraying the elegiac beauty you should discover for yourself.
A masterful writer and storyteller, he explores an aching love and vivid sadness that I have only seen clearly before from Wilde and Poe.
Suffice it to say that Stefan Zweig now holds a place amongst my favourite authors.

[Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Dios mío! Este hombre es tan brillante que no sabría por donde empezar. Como si no fuera suficiente con su manera de escribir, en este libro de relatos habla de la muerte, del suicidio y de la motivación o razón de ambos. Es sencillamente una delicia.
No le doy 5 estrellas porque es un libro de relatos, sino se las llevaría de calle.

[Carlos Murillo Usuga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro espectacular, gran muestra de las obras de zweig. La versiòn que tengo contiene: Carta de una desconocida, Amok, Una noche fantástica y Terrible secreto. Debo decir de este libro que más allá de lo buenos que son estos pequeños relatos, me encanta la manera como Zweig construye sus personajes, dándole especial importancia a estos en cada una de sus historias.

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Descarnada desnudez de escondidos repliegues psicológicos.
Huracán desatado de pasión insensata.
Fuego vivo en el que se retuerce y crepita, abrasado al rojo blanco, el ser esencial, el ser íntimo.
Torturado amasijo de bestia y de ángel, de carne y de espíritu, de inteligencia y temperamento. "
.AMOK.