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A review by captain_trips
Das Boot by Lothar-Günther Buchheim
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
4.5/5 Thoroughly exhaustive, claustrophobic, and humanizing anti-war novel.
After watching the movie "Das Boot" first, I learned that it was based on novel and felt compelled to further immerse myself in this tense world. Much like the movie portrayed, being on a U-boat doesn't seem like a good time. At all. You begin to realized that rather than "on" the boat, you're "under" it all. Under the incompetent command of headquarters - under the eye's of the Tommies as they patrol the skies and seas- under a relentless storm - under the depths of the Atlantic - under pressure.
Watching the film first helped me visualize the look and operation of the boat. Of course, the book goes into much, much greater detail on the ins-and-outs. Sometimes a bit too much at the cost of pacing and plot momentum, but I didn't find it too distracting. I could have done with less flashbacks though. The author gives a good sense of just being "in it" all with the main character. It really does feel like an ordeal a lot of the times.
Part of me wishes that I would have gone into the book blind, not knowing the plot points since the film (the 3.5 hour director's cut) follows the book pretty closely. So it was interesting when I came across something in the book that was glossed over or cut from the movie. But certain scenes were done better in the film I felt.
There are some moments of levity amongst the crew and their day to day routine of running a ship, but it is not often.
Definitely not light reading, "Das Boot" is an interesting and sobering story from a particularly hellish circle of the war.
"Once again everything inside me begins to spin. I want to escape, smash out of the encircling jungle of pipes and machinery, flee the valves and apparatus that are no longer of any use. I suddenly feel a bitter cynicism. After all, this is exactly what you wanted. You were up to your neck in easy living. You wanted to try something heroic for a change. 'To stand for once before the ineluctable...' You got drunk on it all. '...where no mother cares for us, no woman crosses our path, where only reality reigns, grim in all its majesty...' Well, this is it, this is reality."
After watching the movie "Das Boot" first, I learned that it was based on novel and felt compelled to further immerse myself in this tense world. Much like the movie portrayed, being on a U-boat doesn't seem like a good time. At all. You begin to realized that rather than "on" the boat, you're "under" it all. Under the incompetent command of headquarters - under the eye's of the Tommies as they patrol the skies and seas- under a relentless storm - under the depths of the Atlantic - under pressure.
Watching the film first helped me visualize the look and operation of the boat. Of course, the book goes into much, much greater detail on the ins-and-outs. Sometimes a bit too much at the cost of pacing and plot momentum, but I didn't find it too distracting. I could have done with less flashbacks though. The author gives a good sense of just being "in it" all with the main character. It really does feel like an ordeal a lot of the times.
Part of me wishes that I would have gone into the book blind, not knowing the plot points since the film (the 3.5 hour director's cut) follows the book pretty closely. So it was interesting when I came across something in the book that was glossed over or cut from the movie. But certain scenes were done better in the film I felt.
There are some moments of levity amongst the crew and their day to day routine of running a ship, but it is not often.
Definitely not light reading, "Das Boot" is an interesting and sobering story from a particularly hellish circle of the war.
"Once again everything inside me begins to spin. I want to escape, smash out of the encircling jungle of pipes and machinery, flee the valves and apparatus that are no longer of any use. I suddenly feel a bitter cynicism. After all, this is exactly what you wanted. You were up to your neck in easy living. You wanted to try something heroic for a change. 'To stand for once before the ineluctable...' You got drunk on it all. '...where no mother cares for us, no woman crosses our path, where only reality reigns, grim in all its majesty...' Well, this is it, this is reality."