Book Review: "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man" by Thomas Mann

“That's what people are like: they want talent, which is inherently peculiar, yet they absolutely don't want the peculiarities connected to it - perhaps necessarily bound up with it - which they refuse to understand or forgive.”

- "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man" by Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann is an author I've consciously chosen to read more works by this year and it was mainly because I recalled my love of the book Lotte in Weimar from a post I had written some years' ago. I feel like there's every chance for me to move away from this author as well - there are plenty of great 20th century novelists out there and Thomas Mann is probably nowhere near the top of the table. But, for some reason I find his books fascinating and so, I'm back having found another in the used books department. The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man tells the story of a man who uses his appearance and personality and charm to flatter, deceive and entice. But as always with a Thomas Mann novel, it might be time to look under the rug to see what is truly going on here.

Felix Krull is born into a family who are clearly above the mid-line of the class system. His father runs a small hotel and his mother provides just the correct dosage of emotion to keep the reader interested in the story. From early childhood, Felix notices the power of charm and appearance. He is exceptionally handsome, observant, and witty, and he quickly realises that these traits allow him to influence people around him. One could call him a machiavellian archetype but who wouldn't do this if they had the power and charms to? Well, maybe he is just showing us a mirror of ourselves. We can see him in the pathetic social media influencer culture, but we can also see him in the very psyche of the entertainment world. You don't have to be intelligent, you just have to be able to charm and have good looks. Even though Felix has some amount of intelligence, there are definitely more references to his looks.

As he gets a little older, he hones this talent and his maturity brings him more intelligence. However, he also recognises the advantages of presenting a refined persona to society and begins experimenting with deception. He uses flattery to gain access to small favours and begins to copy what adults are doing. Thomas Mann's desperate attempt to show us the gullibility of human nature, to trust appearances and charm over good character, is good don't get me wrong. But I feel like this is buried under deception and thus, if the deception of Felix Krull worked (which we can assume from the book that it did), the people he gains favour from would not know about his character because they would have been (and have been) successfully deceived. Maybe the author wants to watch this point a little because it can come off a little confusing.

After his father dies and the family's financial situation becomes unstable he is sent to boarding school. It is here where he tests his growing talents, observing authority figures and exploiting their weaknesses. He gains status and favour in school by outwitting people and making fools out of others. Often, we can see him honing the skill of machiavellianism but I think this is supposed to be more humorous (and if you've read enough Thomas Mann, to think this man has a sense of humour is something else entirely. But then again, I have read books like Lotte in Weimar, The Holy Sinner, Death in Venice and others before this one). I liked the fact that there was more of a character exploration and not many of these quick-fire dialogue scenes. This is another thing that was balanced well in this book. For me, if I am getting a character deep-dive, I want there to be description, philosophical thoughts and of course, the internalisation and projection of the world around the character. What I don't want is huge chunks of dialogue and I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Felix takes a position at a luxurious hotel and it exposes him to the wealthy, refined, and often pretentious elite. Felix hones his abilities to observe, flatter, and deceive, learning how to manoeuvre within social networks for personal gain. I mean, when I was reading this the first thing I thought was that perhaps you don't want a guy like this working in a place where the people he has to learn from are the sociopathic rich folk. But then again, it is really here where he develops his persona: the confidence man. He becomes engaged in many romantic and sexual affairs and exploits social expectations of love and fidelity, even though these relationships are motivated as much by strategy as by desire. He definitely doesn't allow himself to be outwitted, or even remotely deceived. He becomes a master of disguise, adapting his appearance, accent, and demeanor to suit his audience. I am not going to lie, but a character who is able to do this automatically becomes the most fun character ever.

I'm not going to tell you exactly what happens apart from the fact that this is an in-depth character study of someone who starts off his life by learning from the worst people operating in society and yet, we still feel attached to him. It kind of shows our own gullibility. We want to read more about Felix because he's interesting. But perhaps he is deceiving the reader too...