First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

A spectacular novel of ideas, The Magic Mountain is one of Germany’s most formative contributions to modern European literature, both for the themes it discusses and for its highly sophisticated structure.

Young, naive, and impressionable, Hans Castorp arrives at a sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps to find himself surrounded by exponents of widely differing political and philosophical attitudes. Amid sickness and decay he is forced to explore both the meaning of love and death and the relationship of one to the other. As he does so, the pattern that emerges from his discussions with his companions, and from his own musings, becomes a symbol of the forces below – forces that would culminate in the First World War and the destruction of pre-1914 civilization.

Happy third of November everyone! Happy first Friday of November! We made it through the week; thankfully, we only had to report to the office twice this week. November 1 and 2 and October 30 were all holidays here in the Philippines. I wanted to go on vacation but I realized I no longer have any available leaves. Nevertheless, I hope everyone is ending the week on a high note. I hope your work week went smoothly and that you were able to accomplish all your tasks for the week. Otherwise, I hope you will be able to find the time to rest and relax during the weekend. For those who are caught in the crossfire in Israel and Palestine, my prayers are with all of you. It is my fervent wish that the two states will find a peaceful resolution to their decades-old conflict.

Woah. Time does fly fast. We are inching ever closer to the inevitable end of 2023 and the start of a new one. But we must get through the holiday season first. Christmas music is again back in the airwaves after a brief interlude caused by Halloween. All over the city, Christmas lights are twinkling. The signs are there: Christmas season is just around the corner. As the year approaches its close, I hope the rest of the year will be kind to everyone. I pray that it will be overflowing with blessings and positive news. As always, I hope everyone will be healthy during the rest of the year and in the coming year.

To cap the work week, I am sharing a fresh First Impression Friday. Following the conclusion of my literary excursion across Latin America – it was splendid, as always – I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean to commence a literary journey across Europe. My journey has, so far, brought me to France, Italy, and Russia. I am now in Switzerland, with Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. I first encountered the novel through must-read lists. Despite not having an iota about the book or the author, I immediately knew I wanted to read the novel. I was really looking forward to it and thankfully, almost a decade after this first encounter, I am finally reading the novel by the Nobel Laureate in Literature.

Originally published in German in November 1924, The Magic Mountain is going to play an important part in my reading journey. Not only is it the first Mann novel I read but it is also the 1,100th novel I read all-time and the 110th book I read this year. Anyway, the novel is set in the decade prior to the First World War. It introduces Hans Castorp, the only son of a Hamburg merchant family. He was an orphan who lost his parents when he was young. He was then raised by his grandfather and, following his grandfather’s death, by his maternal uncle James Tienappel. He was in his early twenties and was studying for a career in shipbuilding. The first few pages of the novel built the profile of Hans who was described as the representative of the German middle class.

The crux of the story was when he decided to take a break from his engineering studies to visit his cousin, an officer in training named Joachim Ziemssen. Joachim was suffering from tuberculosis and was convalescing in the International Sanatorium Berghof, which is in the Swiss Alps near the town of Davos. It seems that this is where the novel derived its title. There was something special about the air in the high altitudes. During his stay in the sanatorium, Hans met a diverse group of people who came from different parts of the world. Among those he interacted extensively were Ludovico Settembrini, a self-described freethinker from Italy; and Clavdia Chauchat, a Russian woman he started to admire.

I am nearly halfway through the novel – it is over 700 pages long – and I can’t help but be in awe of Mann and his storytelling. His prose created a vicarious experience. He made me walk through the halls of the sanatorium and interact with its residents as well. Hans was an interesting character and so were the individuals he met at the sanatorium. With the second half of the book before me, I surmise that there will be more philosophical intersections. I am looking forward to Hans weaving himself into the tapestry of the place. I am interested to know what makes this place magical. How did the book earn its title?

On the sly, I noted how the story was preoccupied with the temperature. Occasionally, I would encounter references to the day’s temperature. At one point, a character even bought a thermometer. I don’t know if this has any bearing on the story as a whole but it does make me feel the chill that embraced Hans and the other characters who took residence in the sanatorium. It might not amount to something later on. Anyway, I can already foresee that this is a work of Bildungsroman, and Hans’ character development is seminal to the appreciation of the novel. I am counting on Mann to hold my attention.

Here’s a trivia about the book. The book’s title first piqued my interest thinking it was somehow related to the 2009 film Race to Witch Mountain. It turns out it is not. HAHA. Anyway, I am hoping to finish the book over the weekend even though I have quite a lot of commitments. How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you taking with you for the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy them. Again, happy weekend everyone!