I was skeptical about this book, and that skepticism was not unwarranted. I don’t remember when I picked this book up, but it has the look of something I got from a free table at an old apartment or at a used book sale at the library. I probably picked it up because I’ve wanted to read Thomas Mann (who won the 1929 Nobel Prize in literature; this book was written in 1940) for a while and thought this very slim book would be an accessible one to start with. When I was getting ready to go on a trip recently, I wanted to bring something that wouldn’t weigh down my bag too much, and this fit the bill. When I read the back cover, I got the sense that it might not be the best introduction to Mann, but it was short, so I gave it a try.
The Transposed Heads is supposedly a retelling of an Indian legend about two friends, one of whom marries a woman they both find attractive. At a shrine to a Hindu goddess, each one kills himself by cutting off his head. Their heads are then switched, and they have to decide whether the head or the body determines which man should be with the wife.
I didn’t find much about the original legend the novella is based on, so it’s hard to know what is coming from that legend and what is coming from Mann, but I didn’t find this version particularly appealing. The men had a bit of wooden characterization, and the wife was basically a prop. The whole premise of a German retelling an Indian legend smacked of orientalism, and I didn’t get the impression that Mann approached this in a way that would mitigate that problem. Not surprising, considering the era, but reading it today was a bit cringey. The prose itself didn’t impress me terribly. It was fine, but nothing special.
I am still interested in reading Mann’s other novels. I think The Magic Mountain is one I’ve heard good things about. The Transposed Heads was not my thing.
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