BOOKS: Thomas Mann

How about some incisive insight into the life of Thomas Mann, author of, “Death in Venice,” “Doctor Faustus” and “Magic Mountain.” Just what was going on with this 20^th century author and what was he trying to say in his writings. Mann has baffled many a scholar__a seemingly happily married man whose works were laced with homosexual themes. Anthony Heilbut tries to figure it out in his 1997 book, “Thomas Mann Eros And Literature.” According to Heilbut, Mann was a troubled self-doubting man whose suppressed homosexuality colored all that he wrote. Heilbut even throws in a little genetic theory of his own citing that three of Mann’s six children were homosexual and Mann, closeted all his life, watch his children enviously as they lived out their lives. According to Heilbut every aspect of Mann’s work was affected by this suppressed eroticism. Heilbut even goes as far as calling Mann, “a great erotic writer.” Well__ I don’t know. Most of Mann’s eroticism is sub textual, not overt. By today’s seamy standards it’s nothing that would get the blood pumping. In, “Death In Venice, his most overt work, the protagonist never even talks to his object of desire, but just leers at him from a distance. That’s not to say that “Death in Venice is not great literature. It is indeed and it is erotic and forbidden, especially for the time period in which it was written. And it did happen almost as it was written. It's based on Mann's real life experience. But Heilbut seems to be saying that every sentence that Mann put to paper was infused with eroticism. Hmm. Perhaps. Even if Heilbut’s conclusion is not entirely on the mark, his book is a fine biography full careful research and fresh insights. It’s a critical study of Mann’s life and work “par excellence.” This is a richly textured biography and should be read by anyone wishing to understand Mann, his writing, his psychological state and his complex if not repressed life. Mann truly was a great writer who deserves a fresh look at this life. Even if you have only read one or maybe two stories by Mann, Heilbut’s biography is still worth a read. It is that good.