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.
