Billiards at Half-Past Nine

1958, and Germany undergoes political, social and economic reformation.Robert Faehmel looks back over the period of two world wars enabling Boll to explore themes of identity and what fashions identity.German culture led to aggressive militiarism-how to replace it or make it translate into something different;the past isn't easy to erase. Also, the people doing the rebuilding are all in some way linked to this past. The story perhaps is a little allegorical for some tastes, and this dates the book as Germany and the world has moved on 50 years. Still, its an expertly crafted novel by a Nobel prize winner.

I first read BILLIARDS AT HALF PAST NINE over thirty years ago while in college. It made a strong impression on me then. Now, it does not strike me as one of the classics of twentieth-century literature, but still it is a remarkable novel which should not be forgotten in the passage of time. In some ways, BILLIARDS AT HALF PAST NINE is a poorer (less rich), shorter, German version of Joyce's ULYSSES. In both, all the contemporary action takes place during one day (in the case of BILLIARDS, Sept. 6, 1958), but in both there are numerous flashbacks, some quite lengthy. In both, the story is told via numerous narrators, from multiple perspectives -- in BILLIARDS there are at least eight different narrative perspectives, providing the characters and events a multi-faceted depth and complexity. Finally, BILLIARDS, like ULYSSES, is rich in allusion and actual or potential symbolism. (BILLIARDS, however, is of ordinary length; it can be read over a weekend.) For all of its narrative complexity, the basic story-line of BILLIARDS is relatively clear and comprehensible, and throughout there is an air of mystery and foreboding which helps propel the reader forward. Overall, the tone is calm and measured. As for my interpretation of the novel, I really don't have that much to offer. It clearly contains a negative, judgmental assessment of Germany's turn in the 1930s to Hindenburg and then to the Nazis. There also is a clear, but by no means strident, endorsement of pacifism and non-violence, as well as a reminder or warning (primarily to the German people of the late 1950s, when the novel was written) that neither complete forgiveness nor forgetfulness would be possible. But beyond that, I don't know what Boll's "message" might be, other than, perhaps, that the political affairs of humankind are inevitably a muddle and that what's important in life are family, especially children. Nonetheless, over the years various commentators and reviewers (some no doubt much more knowledgeable and astute than I) have derived from BILLIARDS a wide array of meanings and messages -- similar, again, to ULYSSES. I really don't mean to imply that BILLIARDS stands on the same plane as ULYSSES, but it is much more readable and, as I said at the start, it deserves continuing readership. I hope to be able to read it again in another thirty years.

Billiards at Half-Past Nine is an encompassing view of post-war Germany, both in the First World War and the Second. It chronicles the lives of the Faehmel family, and is quite challenging with its multitude of internal monologues. It only occurs in the span of one day, but this single day is enough. We start with Robert Faehmel, a prosperous second-generation architect. We can already see in the beginning that he is not unlike a machine: his life is set like a clock. Every single day he works for only an hour, but there is little disparity, little uniqueness in his schedule. One could easily dismiss him as one who has an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but later on, one sees that this is only Robert's facade: he is trying to forgo of his guilt-laden and tragic past by offering himself no time to think about it. This guilt-laden and tragic past comes from Nazism and Nazi Germany. Euphemized by Boll as 'the host of the Beast,' this is what mars the lives of the Faehmel family. The young ones who do not take this are battered and tortured, while those who do take it become strangers to even their own family. Robert did not take it, and he was whipped in the back with barbed wire, bloodied, and was to be executed if not for the help of friends. His brother took it, and such was the powerful psychological re-education of the Nazis that his brother was the one who told on his family - his brother was the one who wanted their family imprisoned. He became 'the husk of a child,' from the words of Robert's father, Heinrich. The different lives of the Faehmel family are delved into with this book, and each one of them carries emotional and psychological scars from the past war. Some scars belong to Robert, who could never accept his country turning his back on him, some on his relatives, some on his friends, and in the end Boll reveals that no one got out of the wars unscathed. Not Germany. Especially not Germany.

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.

Through Robert Faehmel,the subject of Boell's stark description of life in post-war Germany, the modern reader can truly feel the same sense of unsettlement and social insight. Boell depicts a society where former Nazis, barely unfit to be tried at Nurenberg, now rule over Germany's biggest cities as mayors and serve in the modern beaureacracy. Faehmel is a man who can not survive here without his own rigid regime and almost stereotypic German precision in order to escape his fate in the present and his decisions and losses in the past. In "Billiards at Half-Past Nine," brought to the Engish reader by Pulitzer Prize winning translator, Leila Vennewitz, Heinrich Boell, Germany's conscience and master story teller, presents perhaps his greatest work.