Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Avon Bard Books (1975), Edition: 5th printing, Paperback, 256 pages
Description
Böll's well-known opposition to fascism and war informs this moving story of a single day in the life of traumatized soldier Robert Faehmel, scion of a family of successful Cologne architects, as he struggles to return to ordinary life after the Second World War. An encounter with a war-time nemesis, now a power in the reconstruction of Germany, forces him to confront private memories and the wounds of Germany's defeat in the two World Wars.
User reviews
LibraryThing member MeditationesMartini
A gentle, sad-yet-hopeful, and ever-so-principled tale of family tragedy not "against the backdrop of," as they say, but shattered by the heel of historical horror. Heinrich Fähmel is an architect who wanted to design and build himself a life, a wife, and seven times seven grandkids; he is a
This book makes a lot of "the Host of the Beast" and the "lambs" that refuse to take it--not Nazis and pacifists, per se, not the kind and good versus the indifferent and banal/evil, but simply those who refuse to intentionally damage another human life versus those who--under the same pressures--acquiesce (naturally, in some cases, seize it gladly). And it really speaks to the sensitivity of Böll's touch as bookwright that by the end he's placed an artful crack in Heinrich Fähmel, in Robert Fähmel, in Joseph, in Johanna, in Schrella (wabi-sabi, to go Japanese again), but left each of them more or less whole, dancing through the madness, touched by its livid tentacles but not drawn into its maw. At the end they laugh and cut into a cake shaped like the destroyed Abbey referenced above and it's, again, absurd--"who wants dessert?" and roll the credits. But this is absolutely sober realism: there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in, says the bard, and that metaphor is no desperate fancy, no regulating mantra like "billiards at half ten" to keep the psyche bound tight, but a profound human truth.
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genius of living, the kindest and bravest high modern paterfamilias one could hope for. But it is all as nothing in the face of the whirlwind, and as this novel told in a series of meetings and reminiscences fills us in on "the things that happened" from the perspectives of all the surviving family members, all to some degree fractured but whole, we lose our hearts to them bit by bit seeing what each of them did to--not "endure the unendurable," that still-fascist phrase of Hirohito's that I'll borrow from the Pacific War, but cope with the uncopeable. The father's life work is destroyed by the son (by the sons--one dark changeling who sets the rot in motion and one tortured antihero who has to decide what to do about it under conditions that make every choice meaningless and absurd) and then the grandson has to decide what to do about it. That's a mighty arc worthy of a Dreiser or a Dos Passos on its own, but this is Old Europe and so it also takes place from under and within the horror, suffused with its essence.This book makes a lot of "the Host of the Beast" and the "lambs" that refuse to take it--not Nazis and pacifists, per se, not the kind and good versus the indifferent and banal/evil, but simply those who refuse to intentionally damage another human life versus those who--under the same pressures--acquiesce (naturally, in some cases, seize it gladly). And it really speaks to the sensitivity of Böll's touch as bookwright that by the end he's placed an artful crack in Heinrich Fähmel, in Robert Fähmel, in Joseph, in Johanna, in Schrella (wabi-sabi, to go Japanese again), but left each of them more or less whole, dancing through the madness, touched by its livid tentacles but not drawn into its maw. At the end they laugh and cut into a cake shaped like the destroyed Abbey referenced above and it's, again, absurd--"who wants dessert?" and roll the credits. But this is absolutely sober realism: there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in, says the bard, and that metaphor is no desperate fancy, no regulating mantra like "billiards at half ten" to keep the psyche bound tight, but a profound human truth.
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LibraryThing member elenchus
In the passage of a single day and the interactions of three generations, Böll gathers the themes of postwar Germany.
Böll says so much in so little plot. It is a novel of characters and significance, not of events or revelation: what at first seems a secret, parceled out carefully across-- the design & later destruction of St Anthony's Cathedral -- is revealed to have been known to everyone, even if only shortly before the story opens. Though it is true, not everyone was aware of what the others knew, and it would seem that remains true when the story ends.
Böll never names the National Socialists, and though the Holocaust looms large it is never mentioned outright: the nearest he comes is in flatly observing a character in question is not, in fact, Jewish. [41, 269] Böll looks instead inward and outward, outward at German culture broadly, inward to the lives of one German family. The cultural refrain is Hindenberg and Bismarck, Uhlan and Junker before the war; the Host of the Beast, the Host of the Lamb during the war. Characters are all Germans interacting with other Germans. Böll addresses the German Question in miniature, and so his lens dilates to encompass everyone. Fähmel and Nettlinger are remarkably similar in their Democratic principles and passionless approach to modern ideals: such a slender thread divides their thoughts, and so we are left to ponder their actions.
Böll's focus on family suggests he is pointing to a certain way of looking at the legacy of the war, a way which is valid no matter the part one took in it. That in 1958 such an approach is vital to finding a healthy way to deal with the present and the past, and remain a family. But it's not immediately clear to me precisely what it is, at which he points. Perhaps it is that road taken in South Africa after Apartheid, and which the US has yet to take regarding its legacy of racial hate: an honest look at ourselves and one another, a national reckoning. Though "Truth Commission" would seem to doom any such effort to stillbirth.
//
Böll's choice of words is usually simple, but masterfully fitted together. Not merely in the careful plotting, glimpses of a single day's events from a rotating vantage, first through one character, then another, and perhaps a brief meeting of the two a few hours later; but also in the threads that stitch them together, key words (colours, catchphrases, lines of poetry) appearing and disappearing, symbols woven in but never overbearing. Billiards, architecture, the inner workings of hotel and restaurant. So much more compelling than Tonio Kröger's juxtaposition of artist and pragmatist, and with a more arresting focus. Böll doesn't argue for striking a balance, as I read Mann's verdict to have been, rather he insists irony is never enough. Perhaps the root crime he identifies is unforgivable detachment on the part of his characters, unforgivable no matter the intent behind it.
Böll says so much in so little plot. It is a novel of characters and significance, not of events or revelation: what at first seems a secret, parceled out carefully across
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thirteen chapters Böll never names the National Socialists, and though the Holocaust looms large it is never mentioned outright: the nearest he comes is in flatly observing a character in question is not, in fact, Jewish. [41, 269] Böll looks instead inward and outward, outward at German culture broadly, inward to the lives of one German family. The cultural refrain is Hindenberg and Bismarck, Uhlan and Junker before the war; the Host of the Beast, the Host of the Lamb during the war. Characters are all Germans interacting with other Germans. Böll addresses the German Question in miniature, and so his lens dilates to encompass everyone. Fähmel and Nettlinger are remarkably similar in their Democratic principles and passionless approach to modern ideals: such a slender thread divides their thoughts, and so we are left to ponder their actions.
Böll's focus on family suggests he is pointing to a certain way of looking at the legacy of the war, a way which is valid no matter the part one took in it. That in 1958 such an approach is vital to finding a healthy way to deal with the present and the past, and remain a family. But it's not immediately clear to me precisely what it is, at which he points. Perhaps it is that road taken in South Africa after Apartheid, and which the US has yet to take regarding its legacy of racial hate: an honest look at ourselves and one another, a national reckoning. Though "Truth Commission" would seem to doom any such effort to stillbirth.
//
Böll's choice of words is usually simple, but masterfully fitted together. Not merely in the careful plotting, glimpses of a single day's events from a rotating vantage, first through one character, then another, and perhaps a brief meeting of the two a few hours later; but also in the threads that stitch them together, key words (colours, catchphrases, lines of poetry) appearing and disappearing, symbols woven in but never overbearing. Billiards, architecture, the inner workings of hotel and restaurant. So much more compelling than Tonio Kröger's juxtaposition of artist and pragmatist, and with a more arresting focus. Böll doesn't argue for striking a balance, as I read Mann's verdict to have been, rather he insists irony is never enough. Perhaps the root crime he identifies is unforgivable detachment on the part of his characters, unforgivable no matter the intent behind it.
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LibraryThing member sgerbic
Reviewed May 2006
Wonderful book once you understand Boll’s style and chart who is who, the author really draws you into the story. You learn about these people’s very confused and stressful lives. The story focuses n the Faehmel family living in Cologne Germany and the effects of WWII on them.
6-2006
Wonderful book once you understand Boll’s style and chart who is who, the author really draws you into the story. You learn about these people’s very confused and stressful lives. The story focuses n the Faehmel family living in Cologne Germany and the effects of WWII on them.
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Amazing history told very confusingly, Boll does not tell you who is “speaking” most of the time. Also he bolts into the past without any pretext. You have to be very careful, many time you backtrack to keep following the story line. The author we learned in class really reflects the history of the Faehmels. Raised in a Catholic pacifist family in Cologne, Boll was forced into the army as well. The main characters are all architects whereas the author is a writer. One woman in our class mentioned that Boll writes in this narrative style to show that the family is inked, all events affect each other. Another woman pointed out that all events in this almost 300 page book take place in about 12 hours of this families life. Very interesting style and story 6-2006
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LibraryThing member snash
I had to use Wikipedia to figure out the point of view for each chapter but once I did that, everything was clear. It's a look at the effect of Germany's history upon a family; how the violence and hate leaves them without any bearings. Each member finds his own way to cope. It actually only
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becomes effective after this troubled pacifist family begins to reveal their secrets and share the reasons for their actions. I found it interesting and worthwhile. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cat-Lib
A complex story, which I found difficult at first but slowly it grew on me. Left me with a rather depressing view of humanity.
Language
Original language
German
Original publication date
1959
1961 (English translation)
Physical description
256 p.; 6.8 inches
ISBN
0380002809 / 9780380002801