- Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Reprint edition (29 Sep 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140187243
- ISBN-13: 978-0140187243
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,777,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'...his work reaches the highest level of creative originality and stylistic perfection.' --The Daily Telegraph
The claim that Böll is a true successor to Thomas Mann, can be defended by his novel Billiards at Half Past Nine. --The Scotsman
In addition to recounting a tale of lives torn apart by war, this novel stands as a masterpiece of character. I read it years ago but still recall how each of the characters comes to life. The story, set in post-WWII Germany is both understated and wrenching - a true accomplishment.' --Jeffrey Deaver , The Week --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
The claim that Böll is a true successor to Thomas Mann, can be defended by his novel Billiards at Half Past Nine. --The Scotsman
In addition to recounting a tale of lives torn apart by war, this novel stands as a masterpiece of character. I read it years ago but still recall how each of the characters comes to life. The story, set in post-WWII Germany is both understated and wrenching - a true accomplishment.' --Jeffrey Deaver , The Week --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
Boll's well-known, vehement opposition to fascism and war informs this moving story of Robert Faehmel. After being drawn into the Second World War to command retreating German forces despite his anti-Nazi feelings, Faehmel struggles to re-establish a normal life at war's end. He adheres to a rigorous schedule, including a daily game of billiards. When his routine is breached by an old friend, now a power in German reconstruction, Faehmel is forced to confront both public and private memories.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This story of post war Germany is not for the casual reader. Taking on the well covered theme of German national socialism and the effects of such organistations as the Hitler youth, Billiards at Half Past Nine spans three generations of the Faehmel family whose lives are inexorably caught up with the events of this turbulent period of Germany's history. Like many of his contemporaries, especially Guenther Grass, Boell handles the issue of Germany's attempts to come to terms with its recent history in scathing style, but nonetheless remains objective.
What really disinguishes this story is Boell's mastery of language, and innovation in uses of what at the time were revolutionary stylistic devices. His characters are convincingly drawn, and the coherent thread which runs throughout the lives of the three men of the family is beautifully spun. At once a searing indictment of German Nazism, and a wonderful story of humanity and human relationships, Billiards at Half Past Nine is a truly epic work of genius, and definitely ranks alongside Grass's The Tin Drum as the best German works of fiction to have emerged from post-war Germany.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Gripping panorama of German life
13 Jun 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This work, in my opinion Boll's greatest, takes place duirng a single day in the life of Robert Faemel. He is an architect and ex-soldier who since WWII has turned inward, relying on routine to get him through the days. As the story unfolds, the reaader learns of the difficult and tragic events in his life that have led Robert to seek escape from the world, and ultimately gives hope that even these darknesses can be overcome.
Through his memories and those of his family, the book paints a remarkable panoramic picture of German life from ~1920 through 1960. The book really presents 3 generations of a German family and their experiences through this harrowing period. It shows both the dark side of postwar Germany, where many ex-Nazis had risen to positions of power and influence, as well as the lonely lights of human goodness and decency that remained throughout the dark period of the Nazis rise to power and the second world war.
As always, Boll's character's are expertly drawn and powerfully human. The storytelling can be difficult, requiring attention to keep up with the flashbacks and change in narrators. But it is absolutely worth the effort, as reading it will be a powerful experience that will stay with you.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
A chilling post-war masterpiece
7 Dec 1998
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Through Robert Faehmel,the subject of Boell's stark description of life in post-war Germany, the modern reader can truly feel the same sense of unsettlement and social insight. Boell depicts a society where former Nazis, barely unfit to be tried at Nurenberg, now rule over Germany's biggest cities as mayors and serve in the modern beaureacracy. Faehmel is a man who can not survive here without his own rigid regime and almost stereotypic German precision in order to escape his fate in the present and his decisions and losses in the past. In "Billiards at Half-Past Nine," brought to the Engish reader by Pulitzer Prize winning translator, Leila Vennewitz, Heinrich Boell, Germany's conscience and master story teller, presents perhaps his greatest work.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Pervasively amazing
11 Nov 2005
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Billiards at Half-Past Nine is an encompassing view of post-war Germany, both in the First World War and the Second. It chronicles the lives of the Faehmel family, and is quite challenging with its multitude of internal monologues. It only occurs in the span of one day, but this single day is enough.
We start with Robert Faehmel, a prosperous second-generation architect. We can already see in the beginning that he is not unlike a machine: his life is set like a clock. Every single day he works for only an hour, but there is little disparity, little uniqueness in his schedule. One could easily dismiss him as one who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but later on, one sees that this is only Robert's facade: he is trying to forgo of his guilt-laden and tragic past by offering himself no time to think about it.
This guilt-laden and tragic past comes from Nazism and Nazi Germany. Euphemized by Boll as 'the host of the Beast,' this is what mars the lives of the Faehmel family. The young ones who do not take this are battered and tortured, while those who do take it become strangers to even their own family. Robert did not take it, and he was whipped in the back with barbed wire, bloodied, and was to be executed if not for the help of friends. His brother took it, and such was the powerful psychological re-education of the Nazis that his brother was the one who told on his family - his brother was the one who wanted their family imprisoned. He became 'the husk of a child,' from the words of Robert's father, Heinrich.
The different lives of the Faehmel family are delved into with this book, and each one of them carries emotional and psychological scars from the past war. Some scars belong to Robert, who could never accept his country turning his back on him, some on his relatives, some on his friends, and in the end Boll reveals that no one got out of the wars unscathed. Not Germany. Especially not Germany.
We start with Robert Faehmel, a prosperous second-generation architect. We can already see in the beginning that he is not unlike a machine: his life is set like a clock. Every single day he works for only an hour, but there is little disparity, little uniqueness in his schedule. One could easily dismiss him as one who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but later on, one sees that this is only Robert's facade: he is trying to forgo of his guilt-laden and tragic past by offering himself no time to think about it.
This guilt-laden and tragic past comes from Nazism and Nazi Germany. Euphemized by Boll as 'the host of the Beast,' this is what mars the lives of the Faehmel family. The young ones who do not take this are battered and tortured, while those who do take it become strangers to even their own family. Robert did not take it, and he was whipped in the back with barbed wire, bloodied, and was to be executed if not for the help of friends. His brother took it, and such was the powerful psychological re-education of the Nazis that his brother was the one who told on his family - his brother was the one who wanted their family imprisoned. He became 'the husk of a child,' from the words of Robert's father, Heinrich.
The different lives of the Faehmel family are delved into with this book, and each one of them carries emotional and psychological scars from the past war. Some scars belong to Robert, who could never accept his country turning his back on him, some on his relatives, some on his friends, and in the end Boll reveals that no one got out of the wars unscathed. Not Germany. Especially not Germany.
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