Customer Reviews (3)

Boll's Sly Sense of Humor Perfectly Displayed
This droll tale of a father and son and their small German village is probably too slow for many readers. However; if you enjoy wandering the side streets of Venice instead of hanging out in St. Mark's Square chances are good you will appreciate and enjoy what Boll is up to in this short novel.
Amazon does its corporate best to hide this book, listing it far down many editions, a few ridiculously expensive. (Isn't it wonderful that the book dealers who pay a nickle on the dollar for products they turn around and sell for exhorbitant prices have had their abusive monopoly over hard to find books busted by the Internet?) Anyway, climbing down from the soapbox, Amazon's treatment of this excellent edition is a very disturbing issue - considering this is a novel by Boll, and not one of Amazon's numberless legions of hack writers. Maybe the story is a little more subversive than I realized.
In sum: A quiet underground tale on post war Germany (1965 to be exact) with a telling presentation of small town life. And in addition, Boll's flair for characters is on full display. Lurking around the edges is just a hint of Erich Kastner's sense of fun. Boll brings a little more to the table than the delightful humorist. In the case of End of the Mission the story's charm is undeniable, even as it serves, as so many of Boll's books do, as a sort of litmus test of the reader. Many books, overtly more serious, fall short of the subtle miracle Boll works here.

Hilarious Satire
An extremely funny book, it has a quiet, wry sense of humor. But, like all good satires, there is an underlying seriousness. In this book, the underlying themes deal with the relationship between the state and theindividual.

As always, Boll's characters are powerfully human and fullyrealized, and the events are told with a touch that remains light withouttrivializing.

The story of two men who burn an Army jeep as art...
This is not Heinrich Boll's best book, but it is certainly well worth reading. The story centers around a court case, in which a man and his father are being tried for burning an army jeep. The case is kept verylow-profile, and the accuseds are not concerned at all by the charges,which seem suspiciously minor. Boll's finely drawn characters and dialoguemake the story eminently palatable, as he asks the reader subtle questionsabout art and its place in the state. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Understanding...
This book helps you understand and learn more about Heinrich Boll and his many pieces of work.I found this book very helpful when I had to do a research project on him.The way it breaks down his work makes it easier to understand to a younger reader like me.(I am 15 years old.)If you love Boll's work, or are doing a project on him, I would recomend this book!It helps a lot! ... Read more

Product Description
Heinrich Bll wird mit Recht als Moralist bezeichnet. Das Thema von Verbrechen und Gewalt, das eine zentrale Funktion in seinen Prosawerken einnimmt, wurde aber bis jetzt nicht gebhrend analysiert. Diese Untersuchung zeigt wichtige Zusammenhnge zwischen den essayistischen und den fiktiven Schriften in bezug auf Verbrechen und Gewalt. Bll stellt Verbrechen und Gewalt hauptschlich in der Form eindrucksvoller Erinnerungen dar, in denen die wahre, moralisch berlegene Natur seiner Menschen ans Licht kommt. Diese primre Funktion widerspricht nicht seiner positiven Darstellung gewisser krimineller Taten, die vom Staat als kriminell bezeichnet werden, aber fr Bll legitime Formen des Widerstands und des Protests sind. Dieses Buch dient dem Verstndnis der Charakterisierung Blls als Moralisten und trgt zu einer Klrung seines ambivalenten literarischen Vermchtnisses bei. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Heinrich Boll
Although Heinrich Boll was the most widely read author in the post war Germany, he was barely known in the United States.Boll is a natural story teller and there are not many authors in literary history could convery poignancy within a handful of page as Boll did. This work by Prof. Conrad delivers brief biography, leitmotive of his work, criticism and reception of his work in the post WW II Germany.

As the author succeeds to show Boll was highly critical and even strongly comdemnatory for war, fascism and the post ww II economic miracle ,namely ignited by the currency reform in 1948 that , according to Boll, directly or inadvertently made Western Germany as historically amnestic.

If you read one of the compilations of his short stories published by North Western University press , you may prematurely conclude that Boll was preoccupied with the WW II and its immediate aftermath. Yet, as the author of this work shows , Boll showed remarkable versatility in light of target of his social criticism. the author successfuly and cogently captures the vissicitude of Boll stance toward Catholic church and christianity from a Christian existentialist to a Christian socialist.

It is a relatively short introduction of Boll's work and because of it is rather superannuated , it did not show posthumously published Boll's works such as the silent angel and his juvenelia Youth on fire . That's probably reason that I give 4 stars . otherwise , it is a very good introduction of the Germany's greatest postwar writer. ... Read more