I'm a little over a quarter through this book. I found it on sale for $1 at used book sale and since I love the poet Rilke, and learned this was his only novel, I decided to read it. I'm not that knowledgeable about the expressionists, but I'm fascinated by artists like Egon Shiele and the whole period that encompassed their work. Rilke was an incredible poet, and because his poetry speaks to me like no other, I will finish Brigge even though it's not an easy book to read. By "not easy" I'm talking about its abstract, dis-embodied voice that seems to float above life, as well as the fragmentary notebook form that seem to have little continuity other than a vague nausea that Sartre and Kafka would later magnify. Brigge is semi-autobiographical, and the scenes that portray his childhood in his grandfather's dining hall are truly unforgettable. Like other expressionists' work, Rilke's images of faceless people, people who were afflicted with modern life in one way or other, were ahead of their time and are strangely resonant even today.

Update: Finished the book. Parts of it were stunning, for example the passages on subjects like fear and time. Other parts I had to force myself to push through, perhaps because of the growing distance from Rilke's milieu. The value of the book for me is to see the strands of thought that are later woven into Rilke's mature poetry.

IMO those who find the book boring may be suffering from the diseases of speed and superficiality; not their fault, but nonetheless it's a sad legacy of consumer culture. ( )

I didn't get all of this, but I really enjoyed reading it. ( )

I'm a patient reader, I read many 900-pages Victorian novels but really, this book stretches my limit and I gave up halfway. The prose is beautiful but the fragmented narration is just irritating. Sure, the fragmentation has a point, but surely that point can be made without the sacrifice of the reader's interest. ( )

Rilkes "danske" roman, der dog for størstedelen foregår i Paris. ( )

Rilke was a poet and his only novel demonstrates that on every page. The focus on themes of death and family kept me reading as I enjoyed his beautiful writing. More importantly this is an early contribution to the literature of existentialism and bears reading and comparison with Kierkegaard, Gide and Camus. ( )