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Katharina Blum is pretty, bright, hard-working. After falling in love with a young radical on the run from the police, she is portrayed by the city's leading newspaper as a whore, a communist and an athiest, and becomes the target of anonymous phone calls. Her life ruined by the distortions of a corrupt press, she shoots the offending journalist. . .
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Katharina Blum is a quiet, reserved divorcee who lives alone. She values her privacy. One night she goes to a party and falls in love. Nothing wrong with that you might think - but Katharina is in Cologne in 1974, and is about to understand fully what that Kafka bloke was on about.
Henrich Boll's novella is an icy, brilliant satire without any humour whatsoever. Every single word - even in translation - is sharp as a scalpel; every page will chill you to the bone. Boll simply reports what actually went on in 1970s Germany: the midnight arrests, the McCarthyite persecution of "terrorists" and their "sympathisers", the callous bureaucracy that continues for its own sake and - finally - the truly satanic alliance between the police and the tabloid Press who, even more than their British cousins - care nothing about the truth.
What's even scarier than the story, however, is the fact that this isn't one. There were thousands of Katharinas in 1970s Germany; many thousands of innocent people destroyed by lies and innuendo. You will never forget this book and you'll never ever cease asking yourself the following question: How on earth could this happen in a country that is, ostensibly, a democracy?
And with the way things are going, Americans may find themselves asking that question before very long.
Henrich Boll's novella is an icy, brilliant satire without any humour whatsoever. Every single word - even in translation - is sharp as a scalpel; every page will chill you to the bone. Boll simply reports what actually went on in 1970s Germany: the midnight arrests, the McCarthyite persecution of "terrorists" and their "sympathisers", the callous bureaucracy that continues for its own sake and - finally - the truly satanic alliance between the police and the tabloid Press who, even more than their British cousins - care nothing about the truth.
What's even scarier than the story, however, is the fact that this isn't one. There were thousands of Katharinas in 1970s Germany; many thousands of innocent people destroyed by lies and innuendo. You will never forget this book and you'll never ever cease asking yourself the following question: How on earth could this happen in a country that is, ostensibly, a democracy?
And with the way things are going, Americans may find themselves asking that question before very long.
Tony Mullen,
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I presume that the translation accurately reflects the author's intent of relating this tale of modern press behaviour with a false naivety and also a sort of insouciant and mockingly ironic tone, but it is also clearly stilted in its phrasing.This however,intentional or not,adds to the dispassionate air surrounding the central character.
I found this novella held my attention partly through the tragic path of the heroine,but also because of the slight disconnection caused by its transcription into English.
I found this novella held my attention partly through the tragic path of the heroine,but also because of the slight disconnection caused by its transcription into English.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is deeply rooted in the reality of 1970s West Germany.The rise of the Baader-Meinhof group and their copycats(2nd June Movement,for example)in the early 1970s led to an atmosphere of panic fed by media excesses.
Boll detested the German equivalent of the tabloid press,especially "Bild Zeitung",thinly diguised in the novel as "The News".Here he satirises and condemns the press coverage of a woman who,innocently,had contact with a terrorist suspect.The familiar rigmarole of leaks to the press by policemen with an axe to grind,distortions and flat-out lies by journalists,and the destruction of Katharina Blum's life are well depicted."Blum" means "flower" in English-the symbolism is more obvious in German than in English.
The end comes as no suprise after we see how irresponsible journalists and policemen ruin Ms.Blum's life.The book is even more relevant today than in the 1970s,after Bush The Second's declaration of the war on terror in 2001.Boll points out that institutions that are supposed to protect individuals from the state(an independent media and an apolitical police force,for example)can sometimes be the worst enemy of the citizenry.
Great book,and don't forget to check out the Volker Schlondorff film of the same name,now available on DVD.
Boll detested the German equivalent of the tabloid press,especially "Bild Zeitung",thinly diguised in the novel as "The News".Here he satirises and condemns the press coverage of a woman who,innocently,had contact with a terrorist suspect.The familiar rigmarole of leaks to the press by policemen with an axe to grind,distortions and flat-out lies by journalists,and the destruction of Katharina Blum's life are well depicted."Blum" means "flower" in English-the symbolism is more obvious in German than in English.
The end comes as no suprise after we see how irresponsible journalists and policemen ruin Ms.Blum's life.The book is even more relevant today than in the 1970s,after Bush The Second's declaration of the war on terror in 2001.Boll points out that institutions that are supposed to protect individuals from the state(an independent media and an apolitical police force,for example)can sometimes be the worst enemy of the citizenry.
Great book,and don't forget to check out the Volker Schlondorff film of the same name,now available on DVD.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
succinct and pertinent
Reading this in 2011 it is still very relevant. The edition I read was published in 1975, which accounts for the lack of a good foreward, which would have been very useful to put... Read more
Published 10 months ago by jd
An early attack on the power of tabloid journalism.
Katharina Blum's murder of a newspaper reporter, to which she has confessed on the opening page, is not the point of attack for a mystery story, despite that implication in many... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2006 by Mary Whipple
Timeless novel about the abuses of the power of the Press.
Authoritative and well written novel, which describes the relentless pursuit of an innocent woman because of the association with her lover, a radical political activist, by a... Read more
Published on 23 Jan 2002
wierd
It was a very heavy going book - not because it was difficult to read - perhaps it was because it was the way in which it had been phrased in the translation. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2000 by lucy@trickers.ltd.uk
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