Reviews for The Beldonald Holbein

The average rating for The Beldonald Holbein based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-27 00:00:00 James Richardson Some of my favourite books are almost impossible to review. Dante's The Divine Comedy, Goethe's Faust, and other classics: what can I possibly add to the long run of sentences they have inspired since their publication? And yet, they mean so much to me, I share the urge to write about my relationship to them. Other favourites, and almost all Günter Grass' novels fall into this category, defy objective evaluation on my part, as they are too closely linked to my own experience of growing up in Western Europe, between different countries and school systems, seeing European history unfold during my childhood, studying it at university later, always divided between different interpretations of historical processes, as I lacked a unique focal point in a defined home country. Günter Grass writes about the ambivalence of European identity in the 20th century, and every word resonates with me. He is not a hero, a perfect citizen, quite the contrary. His storytelling shows different angles and perspectives, and the characters in his novels change over the course of time, even their memories change to fit their shifting world view. "Yes, we have so many resistance fighters that you wonder how Hitler could rise to power (Ja, wir haben bis heute so viele Widerstandskämpfer, daß man sich wundert, wie Hitler an die Macht hat kommen können)", said Günter Grass in an interview, indicating the need for modified memories in order to live with the brutal reality of the crimes of the Second World War. He waited 60 years himself to tell the story of his participation in the war as a teenager, thus demonstrating the deeply rooted shame of a whole generation of people who grew up and formed their values before the war, and had to readjust not only their living conditions, but their way of thinking and remembering after 1945. With "My Century", Günter Grass creates a chorus of voices spanning from 1900 until 1999, each chapter representing an individual's experience of one year. It starts with a young man talking about his perception of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and moves forward through history, but jumping back and forth between chronological framework and later memories, changing narrator and perspective incessantly. Opening the novel at the chapter "1938", for example, we encounter a post Cold War school class and their history teacher, who gets into trouble with parents for teaching the fall of the Berlin Wall and the significance of the 9th November in German history by making connections and explaining the horrors of the Reichskristallnacht in 1938. There are so many layers in that short chapter. The question of how to teach the horrors of history (I have taught both Berlin Wall and Reichskristallnacht myself, and know of the pitfalls), of the pressure teachers experience from parents and administration to teach history "objectively, relying on the facts", as if that were possible. Just choosing the facts to talk about is a bias in itself. Another layer is the reaction that the young students display, being outside that part of German history, but witnessing correlating events in their own time (the chapter is told through their voices), which forces them to make links between different moments in history, ... The last chapter, "1999", is incredibly touching and personal. It is told by the author's mother, who is resurrected by the power of the writer's imagination, to get to know the world at the closing of the century, and to celebrate her 103rd birthday with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She is not impressed with the modern world, and not thrilled to be introduced to the Euro, but she has adopted a resigned position towards her son's fabulations: "So ist er nun mal. Denkt sich die unmöglichsten Sachen aus. Muss immer übertreiben. Mag man gar nicht glauben, wenn man das liest..." But in his polyphonic fabulations, Grass masterfully conducts an orchestra of 20th century voices, and plays a sad, horrifying, occasionally funny, truthful piece of music that goes straight to the heart. The music of his time! Part of it is a solo for a tin drum!

Review # 2 was written on 2019-10-30 00:00:00 Kevin Mcgruder Mein Jahrhundert = My Century, Günter Grass, Michael Henry Heim (Translator) Günter Grass tells us a story for every year of our century. He writes of great events and seemingly trivial occurrences, of technical developments and scientific discoveries, of achievements in culture and sports, of megalomania, of persecution and murder, of war and disasters, and of new beginnings. Although each story has a different narrator, collectively the stories form a complete and linear narrative in which the individual is the focus. As the sequence unfolds, a lively and rich picture emerges, an historical portrait of this millennium in all its grandeur and in all its horror. One hundred stories come full circle to create a novel of our century. تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز سی ام ماه اکتبر سال 2002 میلادی عنوان: ق‍رن‌ م‍ن‌؛ نویسنده: گ‍ون‍ت‍ر گ‍راس‌؛ م‍ت‍رج‍م‌: روش‍ن‍ک‌ داری‍وش‌؛ ‏‫ت‍ه‍ران‌‬‏‫: ن‍ش‍ر دی‍گ‍ر‬‏‫، 1379؛ ‬در 388 ص؛ شابک: 9647188021؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسنگان آلمانی - سده 20 م عنوان: ق‍رن‌ م‍ن‌؛ نویسنده: گ‍ون‍ت‍ر گ‍راس‌؛ ب‍رگ‍ردان‌: ک‍ام‍ران‌ ج‍م‍ال‍ی‌؛ ت‍ه‍ران‌: ک‍اروان‌، 1383؛ در 496 ص؛ شابک: 9647033958؛ چاپ دوم: 1395؛ چاپ سوم: تهران، نیلوفر، 1394؛ 9789644486296؛ گونتر گراس در مجموعه داستانش با عنوان «قرن من» تعداد صد داستان کوتاه نوشته که هر کدام مربوط به یک سال است. این داستان‌های کوتاه به دلیل تعدد موقعیت شخصیت‌ها و مشاغل آنها و رویدادهای گوناگونی که برایشان رخ می‌دهد تنوع دارند. «گراس» از چندصدایی در این مجموعه داستان سود برده‌است. کتاب «قرن من»، با دیگر آثار «گراس» تفاوت اساسی دارد. برخلاف رمانهای پر حجم ایشان که به زبانی شیوا، اما پیچیده نگاشته شده اند و پیگیری آنها شاید کار هر کسی نباشد، این کتاب مجموعه ای از نوشته های کوتاه است. هر قطعه، به رخدادی مهم، در یک سال از سده ی بیستم میلادی نظر دارد و از فراسوی تاریخ سخن نمیگوید، از پایین، و از دید شکست خوردگان به تاریخ مینگرد. «گونتر گراس» در میان این قطعات از زندگی خود، رویدادهای اجتماعی از آن سالها و از علایق خویش میگویند. این کتاب پر از شگردهای گوناگون نویسندگی است، که گاه تنها با تغییر زبان و لحن، و گاه با سبک ترکیب آنها ایجاد میشوند. روایتگر گاه کودکی ست و گاهی پادشاه ویلهلم دوم، گاه کارگران معدن، و گاه یک نویسنده پاسیفیست. ماجرای کتاب نیز به جنگ جهانی نخست، تفکرهای موجود در جامعه آن زمان، و ابعاد جنگ باز میگردد که البته در قالب یک یا چند تک گویی نمیگنجد. اشخاص آنگونه که هستند به گونه ای طبیعی سخن میگویند، دانشمند به زبان دانشمند، سرباز صفر به زبان خود، و کارگر زن به زبانی دیگر. «گراس» گاه گویش محلی را برای بیان شخصیتی به کار میگیرد و گاه زبان محاوره را، و حتی به عمد، در حد سواد گوینده، واژه هایی اشتباه را مینویسد تا مثلا خارجی بودن گوینده را برساند. ا. شربیانی