Friday Friyay: 'Tyll' by Daniel Kehlmann

I really enjoyed last week's read, Dune by Frank Herbert, even though I had my quibbles with it. I would love to know your thoughts on that one if you have time to drop by my review! But now that I'm moving back to Germany I'm getting back into my weird fairytale-vibe. And one of the first books I thought of was Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, which I have seen around for quite some time but never got around to reading. So here we go!

Daniel Kehlmann masterfully weaves the fates of many historical figures into this enchanting work of magical realism and adventure. This account of the seventeenth-century vagabond performer and trickster Tyll Ulenspiegel begins when he's a scrawny boy growing up in a quiet village. When his father, a miller with a secret interest in alchemy and magic, is found out by the church, Tyll is forced to flee with the baker's daughter, Nele. They find safety and companionship with a traveling performer, who teaches Tyll his trade. And so begins a journey of discovery and performance for Tyll, as he travels through a continent devastated by the Thirty Years' War and encounters along the way a hangman, a fraudulent Jesuit scholar, and the exiled King Frederick and Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia.

Tyll displays Kehlmann's remarkable narrative gifts and confirms the power of art in the face of the senseless brutality of history.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'The war had not yet come to us. We lived in fear and hope and tried not to draw God's wrath down upon our securely walled town, with its hundred and five houses and the church and the cemetery, where our ancestors waited for the day of Resurrection.' 1%

The war mentioned is the Thirty Years' War, which took place from 1618 to 1648. Millions of people died during this war, which raged across a lot of Northern Europe, and it really deeply affected the population of Germany. So I'm very intrigued by this opening and by the deep faith that still marks this village. I do hope the war kind of passes them by. 

F56:

'And still the Kaiser won battle after battle. He defeated the Union, he defeated the King of Denmark, and for the first time it seemed possible that Protestantism would vanish again from God's world.' 56%

Of course the Thirty Years' War was a war about religion. It was a consequence of the Reformation, in many ways, but also of old power structures struggling with a changing world. And as someone who is Dutch I am also very aware that Dutch independence from the Spanish Empire was one of the good consequences of this conflict. 

BBH:

This week's question was suggested by Billy himself:

Have you ever switched reading genres? If so, why?

I guess when I was younger I was really focused on Fantasy and Historical Fiction, but then as I got older I began to switch it up because I really started exploring on my own rather than following reading recommendations from family. And then I had quite a few years where I devoured almost every genre, from Paranormal Romance to Biographies. 

Now I'm in the place where Fantasy and Literary Fiction are my main go-to, those are my big loves. And then everything else comes in around that. On a rainy Saturday I curl up with a thriller, on a long train journey I choose a doorstopper of a SciFi book, and during the evenings I listen to Classics. And sometimes I sneak in a YA Romance because it's cute. So I guess the basic answer is yes, I switch genres because my moods change and different genres fit at different times.

So that's it for me! What do you think of Tyll? And do you switch genres?