Zweig is the author of my favorite short story, “Letter to an Unknown Woman,” so I had high hopes for his novella Chess Story. I got off work, reread “Letter to an Unknown Woman” to get me into a Zweigish mood, picked up Chess Story, and had read the entire novella by 10:45 that night. It’s a very quick read with prose that effortlessly flows.
The writing is definitely the highlight of the novel. It’s psychological fiction, reminiscent of Russian authors such as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy whom he admired very much (which might be why I keep having to remind myself he’s a German author and not Russian). And the psychological exploration was definitely insightful and made for realistic character depth, but I’d argue that the vocabulary and the syntax are what makes this book so incredibly gripping. I can only imagine the beauty of the prose in the original language.
What interested me is the persistent theme of dichotomy: the black and white of the chessboard, the black and white mind of the simpleton World Chess Champion in the book, the separation of Dr B’s consciousness into two, arrogance vs humility, intellect vs madness, etc. Zweig brilliantly and mournfully depicts the complexity beneath the black and white.
Alas, I don’t have a lot to say about such a short work of fiction. I will say that I found this book to be more of an entertaining read than extremely thought-provoking despite the insightful character depth and descents into madness.
4.5 stars.
