A Soldier's Legacy

by Heinrich Böll

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394536037
• ISBN13: 9780394536033
• Release Date: April 1985
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 131 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The vast bottomless black pit -- an era before quagmires

Since the Korean War and especially since Vietnam, Americans have thought of foreign wars as a quagmire, the German equivalent now portrays the war on the Eastern Front as a vast bottomless black pit. This book presents a good description of military service, with an emphasis on the excruciating boredom of life on the coast of occupied France, waiting for the Allied invasion. It was a dull quiet pettifogging life, with no hint of the so-called French "Resistance" and instead the accounts of various French farmers and tavern keepers who had the single goal of making an easy profit from the German soldiers. The military life was familiar; part of a great campaign, filled with petty little rules and regulations and routines. The waiting was exhausting, not because it was strenuous, but with activities designed to fill time rather than any immediate need. Then comes the transfer to the Eastern Front, the sudden departure and the psychological spiral down into doom. It's a very German book. Every element of military officialdom is condemned; if nothing else, the traditional German sense of automan obedience to military orders has een shattered. The story is told with a post-war resentment of officers who survived; based on a theme that only the decent and intelligent died. The opportunist bullies who pushed everyone into the vast bottomless black pit of the war against Russia are the real villains. After World War I, 'All Quiet on the Western Front' condemned the futility of war, but not the leaders who sent millions to the slaughter. Since World War II, the Germans have resented leaders who sent millions into a hopeless crusade to "save" Europe, Christianity and Western Civilization from the menace of Godless Asiatic Communism. It helps explain why Germany and France didn't support the American crusade to bring democracy, free enterprise and oil exports to Iraq. The Germans have been through it, and they are still haunted by that vast bottomless black pit.

Wunderbar

This book, a required reading in school, had me doubtful at first, but upon reading further, I realized that this is truly one of the best books I have ever read, and one of the best World War II pieces I have read. An epic tale of corruption, human emotion, and the true meaning of friendship; this book is a masterpiece from all aspects.

Soldier Come Home

Boll is the best writer to come out of the ruins of World War 2. In this short story he approaches the human side of war and contrasts it with the ruthless mudering lunancy that invades an SS officer's mind. This is haunting and delicate.