 Perhaps the novel most emblematic of Sebald's style is the
peripatetic “The Rings of Saturn”. Published in German in 1995
and English in 1998, it is nominally the story of a man on a
walk along the south-eastern coast of England—a walk so inimical
to mind and body it sends the hero to the hospital, from where
he recounts his experience. The book lacks a traditional plot
and instead concentrates on the narrator's encounters with place
and memory. Ruminating on topics as varied as African
colonialism, Thomas Browne, Nazi savagery and 17th-century sea
battles, the novel's present exists only in so much as it evokes
the past. It has inspired a new documentary by Grant Gee called
“Patience (After Sebald)”, which had its American premiere on
October 2nd at the New York Film Festival. Shot over eight days
in the spring of 2010, Gee's film retraces the steps detailed in
the book. Though bereft of Sebald's erudite tone, it provides
stark imagery and intelligent commentary from an array of
writers and intellectuals, i