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:

The Strudlhof Steps is an unsurpassed portrait of Vienna in the early twentieth century, a vast novel crowded with characters ranging from an elegant, alcoholic Prussian aristocrat to an innocent ingenue to “respectable” shopkeepers and tireless sexual adventures, bohemians, grifters, and honest working-class folk. The greatest character in the book, however, is Vienna, which Heimito von Doderer renders as distinctly as James Joyce does Dublin or Alfred Döblin does Berlin. Interweaving two time periods, 1908 to 1911 and 1923 to 1925, the novel takes the monumental eponymous outdoor double staircase as a governing metaphor for its characters’ intersecting and diverging fates. The Strudlhof Steps is an experimental tour de force with the suspense and surprise of a soap opera. Here Doderer illuminates the darkness of passing years with the dazzling extravagances that is uniquely his.

Happy Friday, everyone! Thank goodness, we are done with yet another workweek. I hope you are ending it on a high note. I hope you were able to accomplish all the tasks you wanted to accomplish this week. I hope you are making significant progress in your goals. But hey, it is finally the weekend! It is time to ditch those drab corporate clothes, wear something more comfortable, and let your hair down. It is now time to slow down and take a breather. Don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back for making it through the workweek. I hope you get to spend the weekend doing things you’re passionate about, spending it with the people you love, and/or completing your errands. Thankfully, the monsoon rains here in the Philippines have relented, and the sun is shining brilliantly.

With the workweek coming to an end, it is time for a fresh First Impression Friday update. This book blogging meme has become an essential component of my weekly book blogging. It has become the perfect way to cap the blogging week. In July, I immersed myself in the works of European writers. This comes after I spent the first half of the year reading exclusively works of Asian writers; the only exception is Richard Powers’ Playground, the first book I read this year. With several works of European literature included in my 2025 reading challenges, I will be extending this journey this August, and perhaps even September. On top of the books on my reading challenges, there are other works of European literature I can’t wait to dip my hands into, among them Fredrik Backman’s My Friends, Pierre Lemaitre’s The Great Swindle, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.

My current read, however, is one of the twenty-five books I listed on my 2025 Top 25 Reading List. Before 2024, I had never heard of Heimito von Doderer. Apparently, he is a prominent name in Austrian literary circles and was even nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature at least four times (1959, 1960, 1962, 1964). It was during a random trip to the bookstore that I came across the Austrian writer’s novel, The Strudlhof Steps. The book’s heft – at over 800 pages, it is the very definition of heft – immediately caught my interest, although I had to hold back myself from acquiring a copy of the book the first time I encountered it; my lack of knowledge about von Doderer precluded me from acquiring it. I eventually relented when I once again came across the book. It really is reeling me in. Further, the book was published by New York Review Books, making me more curious about what it holds, hence its inclusion on my 2025 Top 25 Reading List.

Originally published in German in 1951 as Die Strudlhofstiege oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre, it was only translated into English seven decades after its initial publication. The titular Strudlhof Steps pertain to a famed elaborate outdoor staircase in Vienna. It is a masterwork of art nouveau architecture, diversified with terraces, ramps, and fountains, and opened in 1910. It connects two levels of the hilly area north of central Vienna. From the Boltzmanngasse – part of a residential quarter near the university, inhabited by many professional people – you descend to the more modest and varied Alsergrund. Primarily set in the 1920s, the novel weaves in and out of the past and the present as some memories take the readers between 1908 to 1911 – the novel chronicles the lives and fortunes of a diverse cast of characters, quite reminiscent of Charles Dickens, who were living within the proximity of the staircase.

Prominent among the interesting and diverse cast of characters is Melzer; the novel is alternatively published as Melzer and the Depth of the Years. Melzer served as a lieutenant for the Austro-Hungarian Army in the Balkans and is one of the main threads binding the characters together. Moving within his orbit are characters who are born into well-off families, including military officers, businessmen, government officials, physicians, artists, academics, lawyers, and their families. Their stories were captured by an anonymous narrator, accompanying and guiding the readers across the seemingly labyrinthine tale. The concerns of the characters slowly unfold as the story progresses. Minutiae of their lives are intertwined with the opinions and views of the narrator, providing nuance to the story.

Actually, there are a lot of plotlines that can be quite challenging to track. But I do enjoy this kind of challenge. At times. Anyway, the life stories of the different characters bring different textures to the story. It does remind me of Georges Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual in how the stories and characters are connected to a place and a time. Indeed, Vienna comes to life with von Doderer’s masterful prose. As the story progresses, Vienna itself becomes a character in the story. There is a strong evocation of a time and place. Ironically, the story rarely moves to the other sections of the city. In a way, the stairs are an allegory. Socio-economic themes are subtly woven into the story. The upper section is occupied by members of the upper middle class, while the lower section is occupied by lower-level employees. Melzer himself was born into a lower-middle-class background.

One struggle I had with the novel, however, was the long paragraphs. Conversations were also sparse. Still, I am regaled with details of the city and the interesting stories of the characters. As can be expected in a novel as massive as The Strudlhof Steps, some characters are more interesting than others. Some feel ephemeral, even caricatural. Nevertheless, these characters give life to the story. I am also glad with my progress with the book. With a little over 200 pages more, I am nearly done with the book, which I expect to complete over the weekend. How about you, fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!