A courageous life

“.....the story of a German who wanted to be a European, of a European who wanted to be a citizen of the world”, someone who “spent the best time of his life in a social and spiritual vacuum, striving for a true community but never finding it, disconnected, restless, wandering, haunted by those solemn abstractions in which nobody else believes – civilization, progress, liberty”.

Review of 'Cursed Legacy', a new biography of Klaus Mann: 

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/manns-inhumanity-to-mann/

The two Manns did not go along very well: Thomas was a classicist, skating on thin ice; Klaus was a romantic, thirsting for redemption. As a character, Klaus was morally superior to his father, but that only added to his troubles.