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Available
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Genres
Collection
Publication
Pantheon (1986), 192 pages
Description
It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of World War II in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by burning down the home of an innocent family; only twelve-year-old Anton survives. Based on actual events, The Assault traces the complex repercussions of this horrific incident on Anton's life. Determined to forget, he opts for a carefully normal existence: a prudent marriage, a successful career, and colorless passivity. But the past keeps breaking through, in relentless memories and in chance encounters with others who were involved in the assassination and its aftermath, until Anton finally learns what really happened that night in 1945--and why.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member kidzdoc
This brilliant novel opens in the Dutch city of Haarlem in early 1945, during the Hongerwinter, the famine that afflicted millions of residents of the German-occupied western portion of the Netherlands due to a blockage of food and fuel by the Nazis. Anton Steenwijk, a 12 year old boy, and his
Anton is sent to live with his well to do uncle and aunt in Amsterdam, where he studies and establishes himself in a notable profession. He is haunted by the events of that fateful evening, and although his future is a bright one with a beautiful young wife and child his view is to the past, as he desires to learn what happened to his parents and brother, and to find out more about the events that led up to the Inspector's shooting. He eventually meets key people who were involved with or were observers of the episode, and those encounters, along with fragments of his memory that he is able to uncover, permit him to piece together the full story of that night in Haarlem.
The Assault is a powerful and unforgettable novel about memory, responsibiiity, and one's past history and how it affects, and sometimes mars, the future, which is relevant not only to survivors of war and personal strife, but to anyone who has experienced a difficult or eventful past life. The book was the source of a movie of the same name, which won won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film that same year. Harry Mulisch is considered to be one of the Great Three Dutch postwar writers, along with Willem Frederik Hermans and Gerard Reve, and this outstanding novel makes it easy to see why this is the case.
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parents and older brother were spending a quiet evening at home, huddled around a lantern to keep warm and trying to keep hunger out of their minds. Their peace was broken by the sound of nearby gunshots, and when they looked outside they noticed the body of a man lying in front of their next door neighbors' house. Those neighbors then moved the body to the front of the Steenwijk's house, and they saw that the dead man was the local Inspector of Police, a notorious collaborator who was reviled and feared for his cruelty towards his fellow citizens. The family panicked, and after German soldiers arrive the Steenwijks are falsely accused of the murder. Anton is separated from the rest of his family, taken briefly to a local prison for the night, and later he learns of their fate.Anton is sent to live with his well to do uncle and aunt in Amsterdam, where he studies and establishes himself in a notable profession. He is haunted by the events of that fateful evening, and although his future is a bright one with a beautiful young wife and child his view is to the past, as he desires to learn what happened to his parents and brother, and to find out more about the events that led up to the Inspector's shooting. He eventually meets key people who were involved with or were observers of the episode, and those encounters, along with fragments of his memory that he is able to uncover, permit him to piece together the full story of that night in Haarlem.
The Assault is a powerful and unforgettable novel about memory, responsibiiity, and one's past history and how it affects, and sometimes mars, the future, which is relevant not only to survivors of war and personal strife, but to anyone who has experienced a difficult or eventful past life. The book was the source of a movie of the same name, which won won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film that same year. Harry Mulisch is considered to be one of the Great Three Dutch postwar writers, along with Willem Frederik Hermans and Gerard Reve, and this outstanding novel makes it easy to see why this is the case.
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LibraryThing member knotbox
I will quote for you the blurb:
“It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of the war in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by slaughtering an innocent family: only the youngest son,
The Assault traces the complex repercussions of this nightmarish event on Anton's life. Determined to forget, he opts for a carefully normal existence—a prudent marriage, a successful career, and colorless passivity. But the past keeps breaking through, in relentless memories and in chance encounters with the other actors in the drama, until Anton finally learns what really happened that night in 1945, and why.”
Once again, this novel's magic lies in the author's handling of the narrator. Published in 1985, I have no idea why we didn't read this after reading all those heavy holocaust novels, perhaps because in this novel, there is no easy discussion in the classrooms. But because of the large room of thought this novel creates, I feel it is all the more important.
When I say The Assault is though-provoking, I am freely invoking that cliché. Perhaps you know how deeply personal The Assault was for me as it dealt with things that German children must cope with on their own, guilt, the past, ignorance, excuses, avoidance, et cetera. I'd never inspected my coping methods as acutely as when confronted in spectacular luminosity the way in which Anton avoids the past his entire life. But like the Greeks, he is always facing it.
The Assault reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day its quiet narrator who reflects on events typical of the second world war, but there the similarities end. Had this been eligible, The Assault would have won the Booker prize, but what are awards anyway? Where Remains had been affable in it's avoidance, there is no pretension about what Mulisch and Anton conspire to do. Anton refuses to remember, forced down 'memory-lane' while it is his subconscious that lures him into not turning away the unwanted guest, yearning to be fulfilled.
A reader might be tempted to pity Anton from the blurb, as one freely did after reading Remains, but pity or hate the butler, Mulisch does not bring us through these moments, titled 'episodes', to make us feel sorry. Mulisch, in actuality, feels sorry for us, the readers. But he does not pose questions of morality to us with apology. These are things we all must face in our lives, unless we are like that aloof butler traveling the countryside.
This novel isn't cynical, nor is it hopeful in the way The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherril is. The heart races as the events in Anton's life come to a head, but we do not pity him, not because he is unsympathetic and 'merely' the child of fate, but because Mulisch has written a concise novel that does not have room for misplaced tears. We mourn the lost child, the one whom Anton has forgotten, who died along with the rest of his family. Perhaps because Anton has been indifferent for so long, that when he finally concludes this history and looks to other memories, we only feel immense satisfaction.
I am letting myself imagine, now that the book is shut, that Anton has begun to come to his own conclusions about the many questions that Harry Mulisch poses, as I must now attempt to do. But further, that Anton changes his life, going home and finally climbs up into the cockpit, and finally opens up to the person that he once was.
While I will not answer any of the questions posed within, dealing with our history, the morality of causalities, the innocence of the guilty, I am curious about your own thoughts. The tome is not very long, and it is a fabulous piece of literature, important for many reasons, and I encourage you to read it, if not immediately buy it. Once you have, come back and let me know your thoughts. I gladly welcome discussion in the comments.
185pp. Random House. 1985.
“It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of the war in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by slaughtering an innocent family: only the youngest son,
Show More
twelve-year-old Anton Steenwijk, survives.The Assault traces the complex repercussions of this nightmarish event on Anton's life. Determined to forget, he opts for a carefully normal existence—a prudent marriage, a successful career, and colorless passivity. But the past keeps breaking through, in relentless memories and in chance encounters with the other actors in the drama, until Anton finally learns what really happened that night in 1945, and why.”
Once again, this novel's magic lies in the author's handling of the narrator. Published in 1985, I have no idea why we didn't read this after reading all those heavy holocaust novels, perhaps because in this novel, there is no easy discussion in the classrooms. But because of the large room of thought this novel creates, I feel it is all the more important.
When I say The Assault is though-provoking, I am freely invoking that cliché. Perhaps you know how deeply personal The Assault was for me as it dealt with things that German children must cope with on their own, guilt, the past, ignorance, excuses, avoidance, et cetera. I'd never inspected my coping methods as acutely as when confronted in spectacular luminosity the way in which Anton avoids the past his entire life. But like the Greeks, he is always facing it.
The Assault reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day its quiet narrator who reflects on events typical of the second world war, but there the similarities end. Had this been eligible, The Assault would have won the Booker prize, but what are awards anyway? Where Remains had been affable in it's avoidance, there is no pretension about what Mulisch and Anton conspire to do. Anton refuses to remember, forced down 'memory-lane' while it is his subconscious that lures him into not turning away the unwanted guest, yearning to be fulfilled.
A reader might be tempted to pity Anton from the blurb, as one freely did after reading Remains, but pity or hate the butler, Mulisch does not bring us through these moments, titled 'episodes', to make us feel sorry. Mulisch, in actuality, feels sorry for us, the readers. But he does not pose questions of morality to us with apology. These are things we all must face in our lives, unless we are like that aloof butler traveling the countryside.
This novel isn't cynical, nor is it hopeful in the way The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherril is. The heart races as the events in Anton's life come to a head, but we do not pity him, not because he is unsympathetic and 'merely' the child of fate, but because Mulisch has written a concise novel that does not have room for misplaced tears. We mourn the lost child, the one whom Anton has forgotten, who died along with the rest of his family. Perhaps because Anton has been indifferent for so long, that when he finally concludes this history and looks to other memories, we only feel immense satisfaction.
I am letting myself imagine, now that the book is shut, that Anton has begun to come to his own conclusions about the many questions that Harry Mulisch poses, as I must now attempt to do. But further, that Anton changes his life, going home and finally climbs up into the cockpit, and finally opens up to the person that he once was.
While I will not answer any of the questions posed within, dealing with our history, the morality of causalities, the innocence of the guilty, I am curious about your own thoughts. The tome is not very long, and it is a fabulous piece of literature, important for many reasons, and I encourage you to read it, if not immediately buy it. Once you have, come back and let me know your thoughts. I gladly welcome discussion in the comments.
185pp. Random House. 1985.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Sweet_Bee
A stunning novelization that explores the themes of guilt and innocence using a single devastating incident in the life of a Dutch child who survives the Nazi occupation of Holland. He reaches adulthood not fully understanding all that went wrong, the domino effect of one act of violence which cost
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him his family and the life they shared. Through a series of encounters with those in his past we learn the complex truth about this one moment in time. It reminds one that it is all too easy to assign blame without knowing all the facts. Once all the layers of the onion are peeled away every act of courage revealed, as well as the unintended consequences of making honorable choices. Show Less
LibraryThing member msf59
A gripping WWII novel, set in a war-torn Dutch town. After a A Nazi collaborator, is gunned down, while riding home on his bicycle, setting off repercussions, that resonate, with all the people involved, guilty and innocent, through the rest of their haunted lives. An excellent look at the ravages
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of war. Show Less
LibraryThing member EBT1002
This is a wonderful short novel about the absurdity of notions of guilt vs innocence, especially in times of war. Anton is twelve years old, just trying to survive WWII with his parents and his older brother, when a police officer is gunned down in the street near their house. After the neighbors
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drag the corpse to the walk in front of Anton's family's house, Anton's parents and brother are murdered in retaliation. The novel explores the role this trauma plays in the rest of Anton's life, and we see the parallels between political and personal paths as they are determined by the vagaries of circumstance. The novel loses half a star for its too many far-fetched coincidences that enable Anton's unfolding consciousness, but the novelist can be forgiven for utilizing these devices in order to touch the reader as he does. In the end, the layers of paradox are simply stunning. Show Less
LibraryThing member .Monkey.
I don't have much to say here. I enjoyed this. If one were to read it without any sense of emotion or history, it is a detective story, of a murdered collaborator and the family whose doorstep he winds up at. But it is so much more than that. As one of the blurbs on the back of the book nicely puts
"Everything was made of dirty, rattling steel, which somehow told him more about the war than he had ever understood before."
"Boundaries have to be continuously sealed off, but it's a hopeless job, for everything touches everything else in this world. A beginning never disappears, not even with the ending."
"Besides, whoever keeps the future in front of him and the past at his back is doing something else that is hard to imagine. For the image implies that events somehow already exist in the future, reach the present at a determined moment, and finally come to rest in the past. But nothing exists in the future; it is empty; one might die at any minute. Therefore such a person has his face turned towards the void, whereas it is the past behind him that is visible, stored in the memory."
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it, it is "a dark fable about design and accident, strength and weakness, and the ways in which guilt and innocence can overlap and intermingle." Easily recommended. And, since I really don't have anything more to elaborate on, I will just drop some lines I enjoyed."Everything was made of dirty, rattling steel, which somehow told him more about the war than he had ever understood before."
"Boundaries have to be continuously sealed off, but it's a hopeless job, for everything touches everything else in this world. A beginning never disappears, not even with the ending."
"Besides, whoever keeps the future in front of him and the past at his back is doing something else that is hard to imagine. For the image implies that events somehow already exist in the future, reach the present at a determined moment, and finally come to rest in the past. But nothing exists in the future; it is empty; one might die at any minute. Therefore such a person has his face turned towards the void, whereas it is the past behind him that is visible, stored in the memory."
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
The Assault by Harry Mulisch is one of the best novels I have read, in fact it is possibly one of the finest examples of European postwar fiction. Mulisch focuses on the persistence of memory in his protagonist, Anton Steenwijk. It is his memory of the massacre of his family near the end of World
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War II that permeates and shapes the rest of his life in ways that he has difficulty comprehending. Mulisch, using a taut and subtle style, explores questions of guilt and innocence, heroism and cowardice in this spellbinding and moving novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
In January 1945, a few months before the end of the war, a Dutch Nazi police officer is assassinated by the Resistance as he cycles home from work. The attack sets of a chain of tragic events in which young Anton Steenwijk and his family are caught up.
Mulisch looks at the repercussions of the
Mulisch also has his fun with the irony that Anton, notionally the innocent victim, in practice suffers far less from the effects of the incident than any of the other people involved, who all for different reasons have feelings of guilt towards him.
Anton is a bit of an uncomfortable protagonist -- he has something of Camus's Meursault about him, and it surely isn't accidental that Mulisch makes him an anaesthetist, a man who earns his living by suppressing other people's pain.
Mulisch looks at the repercussions of the
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attack through a series of "episodes" from the next 36 years of Anton's life. He explores how extreme situations challenge our ideas of guilt and responsibility, and how we make ethical choices under pressure. When can we accept the responsibility of causing harm to someone if we know it will prevent a worse harm elsewhere?Mulisch also has his fun with the irony that Anton, notionally the innocent victim, in practice suffers far less from the effects of the incident than any of the other people involved, who all for different reasons have feelings of guilt towards him.
Anton is a bit of an uncomfortable protagonist -- he has something of Camus's Meursault about him, and it surely isn't accidental that Mulisch makes him an anaesthetist, a man who earns his living by suppressing other people's pain.
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LibraryThing member Othemts
On a quiet street in Haarlem a Dutch Nazi collaborator is assassination by the Resistance. The Germans retaliate by destroying the house in front of which the body was found and executing all of the inhabitants. The sole survivor is 12-year old Anton. Anton manages to lead a seemingly normal life
Favorite Passages:
Only later did Anton realize that almost nobody voted rationally, but simply out of self-interest, or because he felt an affinity for the members of a certain party, or because the leading candidate inspired confidence. It was phsycobiological, in a way. In a subsequent election he voted somewhat more conservatively, for a newly founded party that claimed that the difference between right and left was obsolete. Still, national politics meant little to him: about as much as paper airplanes would mean to the survivor of a plane crash.
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albeit one directed by apathy. The novel follows Anton's life through various episodes in which he forced to recall that night and learn scraps of the truth behind why his family was killed. Mulisch writes a thought-provoking novel about the moral gray areas in wartime but not without some hope and humor.Favorite Passages:
Only later did Anton realize that almost nobody voted rationally, but simply out of self-interest, or because he felt an affinity for the members of a certain party, or because the leading candidate inspired confidence. It was phsycobiological, in a way. In a subsequent election he voted somewhat more conservatively, for a newly founded party that claimed that the difference between right and left was obsolete. Still, national politics meant little to him: about as much as paper airplanes would mean to the survivor of a plane crash.
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LibraryThing member hayduke
This is the story of a Dutch family, who are targeted and destroyed when a Nazi collaborator is killed in the street near their dwelling. Only their youngest son Anton survives. The author checks in with Anton throughout his life, illustrating the lasting effects of war on the human spirit.
LibraryThing member seth_g
"He...stood with his back to the future and his face toward the past. Whenever he thought about time, which he did once in a while, he did not conceive of events as coming out of the future to move through the present into the past. Instead, they developed out of the past in the present on their
This is a book about memory and how a memory -- in this case the massacre of the Dutch protagonist's family by the Germans in the closing days of World War II -- shapes a life. Young people are often puzzled by The Assault; the young do not face toward the past. "But nothing exists in the future; it is empty; one might die at any minute."
Anton is 12 when the act takes place. By the end of the book, he is older than his father lived to be. The reader is present for brief episodes through Anton's life, each of which reveals to him a little more about the circumstances of the atrocity, the expanding ripples of cause and effect, and the convoluted nature of guilt and innocence.
In the final pages, Anton stands with his beloved son, named after his murdered brother, in the midst of a peace demonstration in a Cold War Europe, his questions answered at last. At the edge of the demonstration, "a group of boys about sixteen years old came out of a side street. All had shaved heads, black leather jackets, black pants, and black boots with metal heels."
"But what does it matter? Everything is forgotten in the end. The shouting dies down, the waves subside, and all is silent once more."
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way to an unknown future."This is a book about memory and how a memory -- in this case the massacre of the Dutch protagonist's family by the Germans in the closing days of World War II -- shapes a life. Young people are often puzzled by The Assault; the young do not face toward the past. "But nothing exists in the future; it is empty; one might die at any minute."
Anton is 12 when the act takes place. By the end of the book, he is older than his father lived to be. The reader is present for brief episodes through Anton's life, each of which reveals to him a little more about the circumstances of the atrocity, the expanding ripples of cause and effect, and the convoluted nature of guilt and innocence.
In the final pages, Anton stands with his beloved son, named after his murdered brother, in the midst of a peace demonstration in a Cold War Europe, his questions answered at last. At the edge of the demonstration, "a group of boys about sixteen years old came out of a side street. All had shaved heads, black leather jackets, black pants, and black boots with metal heels."
"But what does it matter? Everything is forgotten in the end. The shouting dies down, the waves subside, and all is silent once more."
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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
Right away, I am struck by the imagery of The Assault. The detail with which Mulisch describes people and places is extraordinary. The year is 1945 in occupied Holland. Twelve year old Anton Steenwijk's whole world changes the night a Nazi collaborator is murdered and the body moved to the
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Steenwijk's front yard. Despite the war being nearly over, just months away really, Holland is still very much under the thumb of the Germans. Retaliation is inevitable and Anton's life is forever changed. The Assault follows Anton through adulthood and the cold reality that no matter how he lives his life he can never escape his past. The Why haunts him. Each chapter is an episode, relating back to the assault. In the second episode, as a 19 year old medical student he attends a party in his hometown. He hasn't been back since that fateful night. In episode three the year is 1956 and Anton is 23 years old and married. He runs into a man from his past with tragic stories to tell of his own. By the fourth episode he has passed his final exams to become an anesthesiologist. He attends a funeral and meets yet another man from his past. Each year he becomes more successful and grounded in his present life, but the past continues to circle him until the final episode. By 1981 Anton is 48 years old and has remarried. His second wife gives him a son. The Why of his past becomes an ever widening circle of reason. Explanations expose the answers to all his questions but do they soothe his agonized memory? Show Less
LibraryThing member Ameise1
This is a very exciting and interesting story. Anton, as a boy, experiences an assassination at his doorstep, which changes and shapes his whole life. It is in the winter of 1945, shortly before the end of the war, when Anton, with this incident, becomes an orphan. He tells his story in different
Muslisch has done a masterpiece with this fiction. His writing style is great. He can let the reader dive into the story from the very first moment. All protagonists have something special. I never had the feeling for someone to take special party.
This is a book that I highly recommend.
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episodes of his life, while he is constantly confronted with this incident, either because he meets people from then or he gradually understands what really happened.Muslisch has done a masterpiece with this fiction. His writing style is great. He can let the reader dive into the story from the very first moment. All protagonists have something special. I never had the feeling for someone to take special party.
This is a book that I highly recommend.
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LibraryThing member William345
This is quite good.
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original language
Dutch
Original publication date
1982-09-??
Physical description
192 p.; 5.15 inches
ISBN
0394744209 / 9780394744209
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DDC/MDS
| 839.31364 |