The book is nonlinear and exuberantly free-associative, less a narrative than an extravagant demonstration of sensibility ... The book’s oddities will delight devotees of Herzog’s singular cinema, but readers unfamiliar with his tragicomic tirades and brooding philosophical meditations may find his digressions vexing ... I got the impression that Herzog has not only never had a normal experience but that he has never encountered a normal person ... Is any of this true? These marvelously magical remembrances may not be flatly accurate, but childhood is, most essentially, a land of terrors and enchantments, and a sober account of its charms would only serve to distort them.
I don’t believe a word of the filmmaker Werner Herzog’s new memoir ... But then, I’m not sure we’re supposed to take much of it at face value ... The bulk...consists of Herzog’s thoughts on the subjects that interest him, about which he has made movies or would like to ... This book has been translated from the German by the superb Michael Hofmann. But every so often the language is awkward ... This book will be a boon to those people who, after dinner, sometimes like to unwind by reading choice morsels from books aloud. There are some instant classics here.
There is a great deal in this book about Mr. Herzog’s childhood and youth, a convention that can be dull, but not when the life is like this one ... Herzog has never made strictly linear films, and this is not at all a linear book. Observations about his films are nonchalantly mixed with tangentially related memories ... This year, Mr. Herzog turned 81. We can only hope that he continues the chase as long as possible.
Provides insight into Herzog’s films. It is less of a how-to guide — there are few technical details on the process of filmmaking — and more a deep, often tangent-filled dive into the director’s thought process and his inspiration ... Written in that rich, dramatic speaking style that many a Herzog impressionist has attempted ... Packed with memorable vignettes and tidbits of information.
Isn’t a cynical book, struck with relating the brutal indignity of sacrificing one’s all for the demands of art, but it’s a visceral one, ripe with passages devastating for their candor and for the beauty of their coincidence. Living is dangerous and revelatory and overwhelming as Herzog remembers his life, as if everything he tells us he’s witnessed first-hand with such clarity is too unbelievable to be confined to the life of one man ... Arresting ... Incredible details.
This autobiography reminds us once again that he is a fearsome and strange force ... Fans of his work (and perhaps fans of his persona) will find much to love here, all of it jumbled up into a kind of memoir-diary-polemic hybrid. At times so jumbled I found myself wondering: is this actually a book? But that hardly seems to matter, given the power and specificity of Herzog’s writing ... This is Herzog’s more public self, and for the most part a very entertaining bear he is. But, for me, the real story here is of a somewhat cross little boy with an empty stomach and a howling sense of his own difference, clinging to a mountainside populated by gods and demons.
Herzog’s memoir is really an autobiography, since it covers his entire life and delves into his family history. It comes as a surprise that, after recounting a life full of astonishing adventures and unique achievements, he closes on a pessimistic note.
Like his films, Herzog’s memoir is a decidedly nontraditional piece of storytelling ... The book is written in a literary voice that is outspoken and conversational ... (The translation by Hofmann, who has also translated books by Wim Wenders and Franz Kafka, is delightful.) A fascinating portrait of an inventive and idiosyncratic filmmaker.
Herzog in all his extravagant, perspicacious glory ... Herzog is witty and captivating as he recollects all kinds of odd, curious, and outlandish events ... Fans and neophytes alike will relish the opportunity to delve deeply into Herzog’s fascinating mind.
