Thomas Mann: A Life

German novelist Thomas Mann (1875- 1953), as depicted in this demythologizing biography, was an egotist who lacked feelings for others. A lifelong hypochondriac, he was an aloof parent; his six children were left largely to their own devices. His wife, Katia Prinsheim, daughter of a wealthy mathematics professor, served as his dutiful business manager, chauffeuse and social secretary, allowing him to compartmentalize his life. Using Mann's diaries, Prater, biographer of Stefan Zweig and Rainer Maria Rilke, throws light on Mann's strong homosexual proclivities, which he concealed and apparently never acted upon, but which, from childhood onward, intensified his feelings of being an outsider. In an engrossing, remarkably intimate narrative, Prater ably charts Mann's metamorphosis from reactionary jingoist during World War I to antifascist humanist and opponent of Hitler, and he follows the novelist's ``increasingly representational'' life in exile in the United States and Switzerland. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)