374. Auto-Da-Fe

Auto-Da-Fe
Elias Canetti
1935
Around 465 pages

After the a brief scenic detour, we are back to novels doing their best to shock, appall, and disgust us. Although Canetti goes in a much more creative direction than usual when it comes to freaking us out.

Herr Doktor Peter Kien is dangerously obsessed with books. He shuns society but is fanatical about protecting his library and believes human lives are worth less than his precious page pals. In other words, he's the Austrian me. Kien thinks he should marry his housekeeper, because she's good at taking care of his books, if you know what I mean. Kien doesn't know what I mean, and has some pretty fucked up ideas regarding human sexuality. But then his housekeeper knocks over one of his books and he has to lock himself in the bathroom and weep. I was with him up until this point, and then he really goes off the deep end.

Even though this book was uncomfortably relatable to somebody who has written 374 posts about novels by dead people, this novel rubbed me the wrong way. I would categorize this as something like 120 Days of Sodom, with a healthy dose of Kafka body horror thrown in. 

Skip, unless being grossed out your thing. And if it is, you've clearly chosen the right List to follow.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

First American translation's title was The Tower of Babel.

The title refers to the burning of heretics during the Inquisition.

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