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Memories are selective and personal. With The Years, Ernaux wants to rescue them from time, things that never will be again.
From the 90's, she gets more annoyed and falls into the trap of all old people. Nostalgia, things that were better in the past. Her anchors are 1968 and 1981 (start of the Mitterand era).
When she wants to get closer to memories, she uses first person plural. Days with her sons, major issues.

A memoir in third person. A quick ride through the years. Small vignettes often inspired by photos, otherwise by entries in her diary. Sometimes it's about events of the time albeit selectively, mostly about her thoughts. Frequent mention of books she read, music she listened, products used. What was common, how she distinguished herself from her parents and fellows.

The main character Siebenstädter doesn't ring true to me. He feels clichéd. The conception of the book itself seems slightly off the tracks. A radio moderator still playing a role in the political world in 2021, wearing suits and expensive leather shoes. At least, his demise is foreshadowed from the beginning, caught with his skepticism between political correctness and covid deniers.

Many of the reviews sound like hit dogs barking. It's a neverending rant after all that should be taken for what it is. Not as a reflected image of society. I really like it so far for aphorisms like this: With 27, you should have the time of your life, but I spent most of my time wondering what to watch on Netflix.

The origin from folk tales is obvious. Many stories follow the same pattern. Someone is challenged by something supernatural, they succumb to their greed, lust or another vice, they get punished. Most often with death but also with suffering for the rest of their time. No one comes away with bad deeds.

The stories are consistently solid, no real standouts in any direction.

Folk tales revolving around the wild hunt of Herr von Rodenstein, being eternally condemned to ride between his two castles on the Schnellert and the Rodenstein, whenever a war is about to start or end. Some of them directly about it, some covering related witchery or dramatic stories in the vicinity.

Death is the common motive. The one without end. When time isn't anymore.

Chaos is Everett Moon. He's called to SF by childhood friend Case. Again, reality is not what it seems. Case is dreamt by his father. Chaos dreams himself back to Wyoming, returning to the Case's father's dream as a clock.
"FSR" (finite subjective realities) compete against each other with few people controlling the others in their own realities.

An apocalypse happened. But not your common atomic or epidemic apocalypse. No, an apocalypse of weirdness. Each region has its own weirdness. Like a green blindness. A commonality are joint dreams in between foretelling and fears. The protagonist called Chaos has lost his memory but in the dreams, some of them come back. That's at least what he thinks.

While mostly lauded for its characters, I'm a bit bummed. The characters are simply too positive. So understanding, so excellent in their field. The supposed main character Rosemary remains pale compared to some of the others. Then, out of nowhere she has fallen in love with Sissix (a reptiloid) and they get intimate. But instead of raunchy details, we get sweet words. The world-building remains a strength though.

Diversity meets science fiction. Humans took to space and learned humility as one of the minor species in the Galactic Council. Intercultural awareness gains a new meaning, calling a reptiloid species lizards is derogatory. One species is addressed as "they", unknown ones as "xer". There are love interests between a human and an AI and a human and an alien. Feelgood positive characters, nice worldbuilding, shallow.

Doderer lets Geyrenhoff speak about the demons. They are ideologies, anything which creates a second reality. A "Jenseits im Diesseits" (a beyond in the here and now). They are beside the real life, nothing material. Something to get lost in and lose the way.
Finally, the day of the Vienna Justice Palace fire (15 July, 1926) as manifestation of demons is seen from the eyes of each more or less relevant character.

After 1,000 pages, the third narrator Geyrenhoff finally starts taking part in the narration himself which the other two narrators Stangeler and Schlaggenberg have done from the beginning.

Some topics: an embezzled heritage, nationalist Hungarian activities, a reciprocal attraction from the distance, the difficulties of an independent life.

Beside the political demons, sexual demons get their due. Somewhere in between impertinence and ridicule, Doderer spends 50 pages written in a pseudo-medieval German on a fictitious manuscript. An report from an informal witch trial in the 15th century, the point being that a big part was sexual interest in what you would call BDSM nowadays. Big kudos that he managed to place this own demon into a book in the 50s.

There are at least 4-5 tiers of characters.
1 - the 3 narrators
2 - the main cast: Leonard, Grete, Mary K (followed in their life)
3 - the focused specialists: Jan Herzka, Levielle (close to 2, but narrower focus)
4 - the support: Cornel Lasch, Laura Konterhonz (most characters)
5 - the environment
Names are examples. Even on tier 4, characters can get pages of details.

Leonard Kakabsa spends his weekends with a colleague in the Burgenland. This is just the hook for introducing a bunch of new characters and elaborating on the rising conflict between socialist workers and right-wing nationalists escalating first in the Burgenland, then culminating in the fire of the Justizpalast in Vienna. Doderer moves freely along his timeline and previews things to come repeatedly.

Verbose and slow-going. Even relations between minor characters are developed in drawn out conversations. After 500 pages, a new character appears and holds a long speech about revolutionaries. A treatise on a key topic, the old order has ended and the new one is still in development with demons rearing their heads in a vie for power.

Fat Women ("Dicke Frauen") are a recurring topic. Dicke Frauen even was the working title. Especially Staggenberg muses on their advantages vs. the bony young women wasting men's time, vying for their place in society. But the fat women get a voice as well, leafing through fashion magazines for young women. Being fat is synonymous with not young when it comes to women in Die Dämonen.

The characters often reflect upon the past and it is important for their actions. A common trait with his Strudlhofstiege which had the subtitle "Die Tiefe der Zeit". He believed that a human at certain points in time will have fractures in his personal life when enough events and developments in the past have accumulated. Déjà-Vu's and random associations are a frequent occurance.

Doderer uses at least three different narrators. Sektionsrat Geyrenhoff is the main voice, writing in first person. On a meta level he is paying two other narrators, Rene Stangeler and Kajetan Schlaggenberg for their notes.
Two chapters in now. The respective events mostly serve as an origin of narrators' ponderings or descriptions of Vienna.

I'm getting increasingly disheartened when I start another one of these mammoth books. I could read a handful other books instead with a lot less frustration. Alas! 1,300 pages of Vienna 1927 fit well with the just read 870 pages of Munich 1921/4 in Feuchtwanger's Success.

Feuchtwanger uses the collage technique to give width to his picture of society. Epitaphs for four random Bavarians, repeated mention of the exchange rate of the dollar to the Reichsmark and prices for bread, seemingly unrelated chapters like the one about the successes and failures of Amundsen's polar expeditions.

Feuchtwanger takes a deep dive on the mindsets of the people who support the "True Germans" in the beginning as the Nazi party is called in this book. A fascinating look knowing that this was written before the Nazis took power in Germany. All the opportunists joining the Nazis for various egoistic reasons. Making a career, feeling disadvantaged, using the Nazis to get rid of the communists hindering business.

The case of the sentenced Krüger is not much more than the common thread running through the narration. The viewpoints shift between a lot of characters, showcasing different parts of society. An all encompassing view of Bavaria in the early 1920s. Feuchtwanger depicts the Bavarians as a bunch of dull ignorant backward people. He's showcasing the mindsets leading toward the Third Reich. Written before it even began.

Bavaria 1921. The nationalist conservative forces in power use a controlled judicial system to get rid of disliked opponents. Does that ring a bell?

Non-fiction, but not scientific. More an angry outcry. Feminist, but with opinions which will have many feminists' hairs stand on end. Despentes states that she's writing this for the ugly ones, the unfuckable, the neglected ones. Not the seducers. The ones who are more King Kong than Kate Moss, like herself.

Almost every of the 13 chapters will get a brief mention in the succeeding book. Usually in a short chapter without much detail. Great to read the details of events crucial for the characters in "Candy House". Rob tells the story of his drowning which was a main reason for Bix to invent "Own your Unconscious". Sasha's dire straits in Naples get accounted for. We learn how Jules ended up in prison.

Works great being read as a prequel to Candy House. Egan repeatedly hints at situations which would be told in the latter book. I wonder how much of the sequel she already had in mind. An example is the story of Mindy Kline. Here, she's not much more than a young disposable lover of Lou. Her role as second wife and groundbreaking scientist is only briefly mentioned as an afterthought. More overlap than I expected.

Except for difficult novels like Pynchon's I read English books in the original. Not sure how this book ended up in my library in German. Alas, it's there and I just finished its successor.

Since reading two of Zola's books in the "wrong order", I like reading later books first if a book in a series can still be read on its own.

"The secret to a happy ending is knowing when to walk away."
Egan's framing of the linked narratives is done meticulously with this imperative in mind. Usually not going for the happy ending. None of the narratives on its own is essential. Only together, something larger comes into being.