Böll, Heinrich | Gabriele Annan (essay date 1977)
Gabriele Annan (essay date 1977)
SOURCE: A review of The Bread of Those Early Years, in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 3911, February 25, 1977, p. 201.
[In the following negative review, Annan finds The Bread of Those Early Years typical of Böll's work. ]
Walter Fendrich, a washing-machine maintenance man, is the first-person hero of this novella [The Bread of Those Early Years;] twenty-three, Catholic, a virgin, and engaged to his employer's daughter, Ulla Wickweber. The story takes place in Cologne on a Monday in March during the early 1950s. Walter's father, a schoolteacher in a small town, has asked him to find a room for the daughter of a colleague who is coming to the city to train as a teacher. The moment Walter sees Hedwig he falls in love with her, both sexually and ontologically. In a semi-mystical flash he realizes that she represents an alternative way of life—less tough and less materialist than...
[The entire page is 1027 words long]
Navigate
