A German bestseller when it was first published, Kempowski’s novel is smart, troubling, and witty—but ultimately imperfect.
A German boy comes of age in the midst of World War II.
That Kempowski’s latest novel to appear in English is based on his own boyhood does not come as a huge surprise—for one thing, his hero shares a name with his author. Walter is 9 when the book begins and 15 when the novel—and the war—come to an end. Through Walter’s often oblivious gaze, the reader experiences things from a middle-class German perspective—an often uncomfortable vantage point. Though Walter’s father, who eventually serves as an officer in the army, insists that “I’m conservative to my bones, but that doesn’t make me a Nazi,” he’s loyal to the government, and statements like, “Old Hitler has a good head on his shoulders” are not unusual for him. These ironies are presented without comment or explanation. Kempowski favors short, swift vignettes that proceed rapidly, without much background information to clutter the scenes. Family members appear without introduction, for example. That method gives the book a sense of immediacy and modernity that makes it seem as if the events are still taking place. It also lends a sharp irony to many of the darker moments. When a Danish friend, for example, is released from Gestapo prison—a trumped-up charge to begin with—he comes over to tell the Kempowskis about his experience. “I wouldn’t be able to stand more than three hours in prison…It’s beyond me,” Walter’s mother says. The Danish friend, Sörensen, responds, “What do you think a human being can withstand, Frau Kempowski?” The scene ends there. Still, over the long term—the book approaches 400 pages—these vignettes, which are packed full of parentheticals containing song lyrics, party slogans, and the like, grow somewhat tiresome. One yearns for an honest, straightforward reckoning with the war. And though the book provides a great deal of wisdom and even emotional depth, it doesn’t provide that.
A German bestseller when it was first published, Kempowski’s novel is smart, troubling, and witty—but ultimately imperfect.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781681377209
Page Count: 396
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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