Billiards at Half-Past Nine (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

Rating:
Summary: The precise symbolisim of breakfast.
Review: Heinrich Boll describes Robert Faehmel as a man who is percieved by his peers as armour-like and unflinching. Slowly, you get to watch the man disintigrate and further on -- rebuild. At half past nine everday, mid-morning, our hero "locks" himself into a room and begins the endless tirade of billiards with the bell-boy of a local hotel. Does he describe the game at all that he has? Only the conversation. Does the character brag about his skill on the felt? Only to tell you that he does it everyday at Half-past Nine. I truly felt that I was reading the journal of someone who was coming to copes with a serious case of P.T.S.D. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and you can't but help but be unnerved sometimes by the descriptions, illucidating how badly Boll was running when he wrote this. It's a very un-german approach to writing and it's most likely the reason why he was given the Nobel Prize.

Some of this work makes me feel like it's the unknown life of the ficticous Kaiser Souze. Some of this work seems a little bit on the cusp of 'needs editing'. It's a dark read, but one worth pondering.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Boll's best efforts, but still worth reading.
Review: Heinrich Boll, Billiards at Half Past Nine (Signet, 1962)

Heinrich Boll was a brilliant mystery writer. Moreover, he was capable of writing mysteries unlike anything seen before, mysteries that turned the genre on its head. He was also capable of expanding the mystery genre so that it not only bordered on, but crossed over into, literary fiction. Unfortunately, at one point Boll allowed the mystery to slide into the background and started to concentrate on the literary side of things. This leads to the inevitable question for the reader: what does a mystery novel look like when the mystery is absent, or at least so far in the background as to be unnoticeable for most of the
novel?

Billiards at Half Past Nine is your answer. While there are elements of mystery within the novel, the focus is less on what's going on around the characters than the characters themselves. This is not, in itself, a bad thing; the characters upon whom the focus rests, all of whom are members of the Faehmel dynasty of architects, are interesting enough, and it would take conscious effort to make the first half of twentieth-century German history boring in any way. We are shown that period of time through the eyes of various members of the Faehmel family in a series of recollections leading up to Heinrich Faehmel's eightieth birthday party in 1958. And were that the basis of the novel, it would have been a good, solid piece of literature; ultimately forgettable, but good.

Boll felt the need to add something else to it, and it is there that the mystery comes into play. In the opening scenes, Heinrich's son Robert, the present scion of the Faehmel dynasty, tells his maid that, while he is playing Billiards at a local hotel, he is only to be disturbed by certain people. Most of them are family, or other members of his business; there is one name, though, that stands out, because no one knows who this Schrella character is, or why Robert Faehmel considers him on a plane of import with the others. This part of the book is where it is lacking; one gets the feeling that Boll felt it necessary to impart complications into a novel that doesn't require them.

While it's a worthwhile read within the context of Boll's complete works, it's not a place for a novice to begn an exploration of one of Germany's finest novelists. The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum and The Train Was on Time are much better jumping-off points. ** 1/2

Rating:
Summary: Gripping panorama of German life
Review: 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.