A review by kurtwombat
Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir by Werner Herzog

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

 
This book is simply astonishing. We follow the insatiably curious and creative mind of Werner Herzog from his starved childhood sleeping under a thin blanket in an unheated home in German winter to his self-invention as  an often honored world travelling filmmaker who chases ideas and not dollars. You don’t have to be interested in movies or have even heard of the author to fall under this book’s spell. Movies are referred to mainly for the ideas he was trying to pursue, secondarily how the process affected him and what he learned and rarely what benefit or boost his career received. You can see Herzog reflected back by the friends he has made and the dramatic depth of their connections. His ability to endure and his willingness to keep putting himself in situations where that endurance would be tested provokes the reader throughout the book to ask how and why. The narration left my mind swimming with often hallucinatory visuals and the details he cuts into his memories are almost painterly precise as if each word a frame, each chapter a scene and the book as a whole a dream on film. I listened to the audio version read by the author—his deep and gravelly voice is almost like a musical accompaniment bringing his words to life.  This book is simply astonishing.