[VFC]∎ [PDF] Gratis Group Portrait With Lady Penguin TwentiethCentury Classics Heinrich Boll Leila Vennewitz Books

Group Portrait With Lady Penguin TwentiethCentury Classics Heinrich Boll Leila Vennewitz Books

Download As PDF : Group Portrait With Lady Penguin TwentiethCentury Classics Heinrich Boll Leila Vennewitz Books

Group Portrait With Lady Penguin TwentiethCentury Classics Heinrich Boll Leila Vennewitz Books

This book looks at life in what may be the most terrible period of human history -- Germany in the 1930's and 1940's -- and finds that, pretty much, life went on. Life under increasingly restricted, surreal, and irrational circumstances, life in the midst of death (our central characters actually end up living beneath a cemetery) and life that seems to go on only because of an animal will to live, but still -- life. Boll's 1971 novel centers on an unnamed author's effort to find out about one Leni Pfieffer, a war widow at the center of an oddly assorted (and often very odd) group of people -- parents, employers, lovers, friends, and so on. . The author may be nameless, but he is definitely identified (as Au) and his personality and interest interweave with the rest of the story. He traces Leni's story from her bourgeoise childhood and youth, through her adventures and misadventures at school (including a close relationship with a Jewish nun who is concealed -- and starved -- in her convent), through her early doomed love for a young man who is shot, up to her apotheosis as the lover of a Russian prisoner of war. He dies, but she survives, as does her son, very much reduced in circumstances by the machinations of those who should have treated her better. There is, however -- oh, I won't spoil it by discussing the ending.
What I found so fascinating about this book was the way the characters simply try to go about their lives, Nazis or no Nazis, bombs or no bombs. It gets more and more difficult, until the last days of the war when chaos reigns -- they don't know whether or not the war is over nor do they much care, they just don't want to get shot. Boll's style is not linear, which can be irksome in the earlier parts of the book, but which is entirely appropriate as the novel unfolds. This is a terrific book.


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Group Portrait With Lady Penguin TwentiethCentury Classics Heinrich Boll Leila Vennewitz Books Reviews

It is often the mark of a truly great book that style is at least as important as other aspects such a story line or character definition. I have found this literary quality to be true in masterpieces by James Joyce, Proust, Faulkner, Gaddis, Gass, Virginia Woolf and many other genius literary novelists. In fact, telling a tale in a new literary style distinguishes a good writer from a great one in my book. So much so that I tend to discount straight-ahead narrative styles as mundane and seek out novelists engaged in stylistic innovation. Heinrich Boll is a novelist who wants to narrate in a new way. He is focused upon German society during and after World War II when that nation was obliterated by Russian, American, British and French allies. Boll's story is presented as a portrait of a lady, Leni Pfeiffer, against the backdrop of a group her friends, family, colleagues, religious advisers and lovers. The Author (Au.) presents this portrait in such a way that we see the protagonist with incredibly precise brush strokes from the point-of-view of the Author making a bureaucratic inquiry of Leni and through his research we come to know her by way of what others tell him about her. In this sense we also come to know the Group based upon their perspectives in their narrations about the lady. Leni may well be one of the finest character studies of the 20th century because of the narrative style driving the story line. The story itself primarily has to do with members of German society, high and low, as they cope with the advance of American and Russian troops toward the close of World War II inside Germany. This time period was so intense that its impact became telling in the way it defined the characters by their wit, intelligence,resourcefulness and integrity under pressure. Boll introduces a cast at the outset as if the novel were a dramatic production. To gain the most from your reading I would advise you to spend a few minutes understanding the players at the start and then refer back to them a few times as you move forward. There are two Heinrich's, for example, in the cast and the Au. likes to abbreviate the players so that they sometimes may seem unclear as references in the narration. The author seems determined that you'll know his characters so well that you'll follow them even when he refers only to their initials. William Gaddis took a similar approach when in "JR" he declined to define any of the speakers in his National Book Award Winning Novel. Boll manages to create a 3D person from the 2D pages of his book in his narrative technique and is able to drive a story line through his use of actual events in WWII in Germany. The view from inside Germany during its capitulation is intriguing as told by Boll. At first I was a bit taken aback by the literary style and translation but with a modicum of patience it drove me into interiors of consciousness of the group and the lady in an uncommonly penetrating narrative. Of course, Boll became a Nobel Prize Winner and leading light an PEN International in large part because of the densely rich and enlightening narrative style of this novel. If you like literary novels, then odds are you will love this one I would consider it a masterpiece by virtue of its invention in literary style.
I enjoyed very much the IDEA of this book, and it provides an insight into ordinary German life during World War 2, but all the characters blended together. Perhaps the translation does not allow for enough differences in dialect, but they all sound the same. It won't be on my "must re-read" list, but I'm glad to have read it once.
I really liked this book but found it difficult to follow, in part because of the extensive list of characters and the use of many non-standard abbreviations, eg, T & L. The author's parenthetical comments were entertaining and his skillful writing was evident even in the translated version (and what a job the translator did!). I have also read the author's Billiards at Half Past Nine and found Portrait to be more refined and developed in its characters and storyline. I recommend this to people who like well written books with flowing sentences (this is not Hemingway) and who want to challenge themselves intellectually and discover a talented author not much read in th US.
This book looks at life in what may be the most terrible period of human history -- Germany in the 1930's and 1940's -- and finds that, pretty much, life went on. Life under increasingly restricted, surreal, and irrational circumstances, life in the midst of death (our central characters actually end up living beneath a cemetery) and life that seems to go on only because of an animal will to live, but still -- life. Boll's 1971 novel centers on an unnamed author's effort to find out about one Leni Pfieffer, a war widow at the center of an oddly assorted (and often very odd) group of people -- parents, employers, lovers, friends, and so on. . The author may be nameless, but he is definitely identified (as Au) and his personality and interest interweave with the rest of the story. He traces Leni's story from her bourgeoise childhood and youth, through her adventures and misadventures at school (including a close relationship with a Jewish nun who is concealed -- and starved -- in her convent), through her early doomed love for a young man who is shot, up to her apotheosis as the lover of a Russian prisoner of war. He dies, but she survives, as does her son, very much reduced in circumstances by the machinations of those who should have treated her better. There is, however -- oh, I won't spoil it by discussing the ending.
What I found so fascinating about this book was the way the characters simply try to go about their lives, Nazis or no Nazis, bombs or no bombs. It gets more and more difficult, until the last days of the war when chaos reigns -- they don't know whether or not the war is over nor do they much care, they just don't want to get shot. Boll's style is not linear, which can be irksome in the earlier parts of the book, but which is entirely appropriate as the novel unfolds. This is a terrific book.