A review by melindamoor
Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Böll
5.0
Heinrich Böll is my HERO! His books have their own bookshelf in my home and hold a special place in my heart.
Billiards at Half-Past Nine was the first book I read by him during my university years and its effect was instant and enormous. Afterwards I read his books in a row one after the other.
Böll's strong sense of justice, his representation of Truth is shining through his works like the desert SUN. It is blinding, burning and merciless, there are no shadows to hide in. The TRUTH is there, very much in your face: you cannot conveniently close your eyes and ignore it.
I guess Böll's literary work -facing the truth, no matter how hard it gets- was essential and instrumental for a German society recovering after the devastating WW II. He was a widely read and acknowledged author, but also widely spurned for the same reasons, at the same time.
His literary technique is very "typical", easily recognizable. Reading his books is like putting together a puzzle. Pieces get offered from different people's perspectives, the story is getting deeper and more complex as flashbacks and memories of several characters are written in the first person, yet they all get filtered by an omniscient narrator.
Gradually, we get full access to characters and their stories by their own memories as well as through the perspectives of others, we can see them from all sides and it is intriguing as well as emotionally involving.
A highly recommended read.
Billiards at Half-Past Nine was the first book I read by him during my university years and its effect was instant and enormous. Afterwards I read his books in a row one after the other.
Böll's strong sense of justice, his representation of Truth is shining through his works like the desert SUN. It is blinding, burning and merciless, there are no shadows to hide in. The TRUTH is there, very much in your face: you cannot conveniently close your eyes and ignore it.
I guess Böll's literary work -facing the truth, no matter how hard it gets- was essential and instrumental for a German society recovering after the devastating WW II. He was a widely read and acknowledged author, but also widely spurned for the same reasons, at the same time.
His literary technique is very "typical", easily recognizable. Reading his books is like putting together a puzzle. Pieces get offered from different people's perspectives, the story is getting deeper and more complex as flashbacks and memories of several characters are written in the first person, yet they all get filtered by an omniscient narrator.
Gradually, we get full access to characters and their stories by their own memories as well as through the perspectives of others, we can see them from all sides and it is intriguing as well as emotionally involving.
A highly recommended read.