Peter Murmann

I received The Postman as a birthday present, fittingly in the mail. I felt obliged to start reading it. After a while it dawned on me that I encountered the plot before in a movie, which I had found terribly disappointing. It walked out of the theatre and wen to dinner early. But the book [Read More]

For many years, I have been an admirer of Stefan Zweig without knowing it. One of my favorite films during my college days, Secret Burning, flowed out of his pen.  I learned this after I googled Zweig half way into his wonderful Chess Story. He reveals himself as a master of the psychological drama. This [Read More]

I barely finished Peter Pan. The reader of my diary will remember that I was very excited about the first couple of pages of B. F. Berrie’s famous children’s story. The last few pages again were excellent. But in between lay for the adult reader one hundred forty painfully boring pages.  Even as a child [Read More]

This tale is magnificient. Roth became famous for his novels Job and Radetzky March. For the contemporary reader Radetzky March is tedious. The slow decline of the Austrian Empire by itself can no longer hold our attention without connecting it to a larger, more universal story. The Tale of the 1002nd Night, in contrast, feels [Read More]

This autobiographical short piece of fiction is the best writing of Thomas Mann that I have laid eyes on. For me it was much more compelling than his famous first major novel The Buddenbrocks. At least one German writer (Martin Walser) claims to have learned the entire novella by heart so that he could readily [Read More]

Joseph Roth died in his Paris exile, leaving behind thirteen novels as well as many stories and essays. The Confession of a Murderer Told in One Night is after Job Roth’s most spellbinding novel that I have read to date. Roth had to flee from the Nazis in Germany. The book is a wonderful parable [Read More]

Roth has the ability to create suspense even though we are reading about the "Life of a Simple" man. The central theme of the novel is the role of destiny in human life that has become surrounded by the products of science and technology. The tale begins with a prophecy in prerevolutionary Russia and [Read More]

I have lately become quite enchanted with Jorge Luis Borges. What a pitty that he did not get the Noble Prize for his work! I hereby bestow upon him the Murmann Prize! If you don’t enjoy his work,  write to me and I may give you back the money you spent on Borges. Read his story [Read More]