Sunday, July 19, 2020

Confusion by Stefan Zweig


Listening to Chopin's Complete Works.


                     Brooklyn Bridge by Emil Holzhauer

 While in Florida I visited an old friend whom I had not seen in many years.  We knew each other in Florida but lost touch when she moved to Spokane, Washington and I moved to New Jersey.

She recently moved back to Florida so I spent an afternoon with her last week while my parents were at a doctor's appointment.

My friend and her family are some of the most interesting people I know personally.  Debbie has a sister who is a Hollywood actress, their daughter is a sculptor in Boston and most interesting of all, Debbie's husband, Ed, a journalist and writer, has a famous uncle.

Ed's uncle is Emil Holzhauer, one of the Ashcan Artists.  Holzhauer was a student of Robert Henri. Debbie and Ed live in Holzhauer's house on a bayou near my parents' home.

Here are some photos of Holzhauer's work in their house:











The precious lady in the hall is Ed's older sister.  She suffers from dementia and is the sweetest person you could meet.  Hercule (of course I brought him, he's so clingy) liked her a lot.  He politely refused the Teddy Bear she offered him, however.

I asked Ed if he'd Beta-read a mystery I wrote.  As I was sending it to him, one of my birds hit the screen and sent the attachment off to the Cloud Grave yard in the sky.  So I sent him a ghost story I wrote.  Of course now I'm pins and needles hoping he likes it.

For some reason, I didn't take a photo of Debbie and Ed.  Oh well.  Next time.










The Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig: Burning Secret, A Chess Story, Fear, Confusion, Journey into the PastThe Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig: Burning Secret, A Chess Story, Fear, Confusion, Journey into the Past by Stefan Zweig

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This particular review is only of the story Confusion. I have reviewed the previous stories separately.

Confusion is about a young man who becomes the student to a professor at the university he attends. The professor's expertise lies in Shakespeare's works. The student becomes obsessed with this professor and his work. Finally he rents a room in the same house the professor and his wife are living.

Things are strange. The wife is emotionally distant and sardonic. The professor is in turns, kind and gentle and caustic and cold. This puts the young man in turmoil. He doesn't know why the older man is treating him like this.

Also the professor takes to disappearing for a few days, telling no one of his whereabouts.

Furthering the mystery, his fellow students and the other professors have become cold toward the student and begun to exclude him from their circles.

Nothing is solved until the end, and I won't give it away, just to say, that I find so many things unrealistic and wrong about it.



View all my reviews

9 comments:

Brian Joseph said...

Hi Sharon. Visiting old friends is nice. I have several old friends that I have known for decades. I do value the these friendships.

I do not know a lot about art but I took a look at Emil Holzhaue’s work that was posted online. I like it.

Someday I will give Zweig a try.

Stay healthy and safe.

mudpuddle said...

provocative review! unfortunately i haven't got this one. but it sounds well worth reading... does Hercule ride in the car? i think i've heard of Holzhauer; i like his pictures, tx for showing them...

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Brian,

I think you would enjoy Zweig because of the psychological analysis in his stories.

Have a great week.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi mudpuddle,

Hercule does ride in the car with me, usually on my shoulder, sometimes on the wheel.

I left the other birds with Josh, but Hercule gets upset without me and needs a lot more attention than the others.

I forgot to say that the beginning of the novel seems slow and uninteresting, but a quarter through it turns a corner and becomes a real page turner.

Loree said...

Thank you for popping over to my blog and leaving a comment. I live reading so I'll probably be coming round to reading your reviews very often.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Thanks, Loree,

You have a great blog. I hope to visit it often as well. Take care!

ashok said...

Nice to drop by your blog. Cheers

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Ashok. I visited your as well. I love your photos. I'm not subscribed to your blog.

R's Rue said...

Beautiful