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dancing_moonFinished Heinrich Böll's "Inte ett enda ord" (And never say a word, in english) from 1953, found at my grandmother's and borrowed. I'd read most of it last year already, it's a very thin book, but then I forgot to bring it to Gothenburg. So I had like ten pages left to finish.
Anyway, it's a very interesting book but I don't get it. And yet, I wanted to kept reading and I can't stop thinking of the book. The theme pops up in my mind now and then, worrying me - what is it about, what did he want to say? Or did he just want to show something, a time, a mindset?
It's a story about a marriage in post-war Köln (Cologne). Some quotes from the back of the book,
"Artistic shards among the dust of war [...] critical of the cover of nobility of the higher catholic priests, with hope of revelations in the meeting with a hideous plaster angel."
It's a marriage almost falling apart, but frozen in its destruction. Poverty, alcoholism, love and a thousand failures of humanity all around the central characters.
Extremely different from "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum", which I also like a lot. Especially the language was much more poethic in this early book, but then in Katharina Blum he uses a very special style.
The wiki article on his life was interesting to read and helped me make sense of some things in the book. I also learned a new German word: Trümmerliteratur.
Anyway, it's a very interesting book but I don't get it. And yet, I wanted to kept reading and I can't stop thinking of the book. The theme pops up in my mind now and then, worrying me - what is it about, what did he want to say? Or did he just want to show something, a time, a mindset?
It's a story about a marriage in post-war Köln (Cologne). Some quotes from the back of the book,
"Artistic shards among the dust of war [...] critical of the cover of nobility of the higher catholic priests, with hope of revelations in the meeting with a hideous plaster angel."
It's a marriage almost falling apart, but frozen in its destruction. Poverty, alcoholism, love and a thousand failures of humanity all around the central characters.
Extremely different from "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum", which I also like a lot. Especially the language was much more poethic in this early book, but then in Katharina Blum he uses a very special style.
The wiki article on his life was interesting to read and helped me make sense of some things in the book. I also learned a new German word: Trümmerliteratur.
