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A review by richardrbecker
Hinterland by Arno Geiger
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Hinterland by Arno Geiger has a fantastic start before becoming uneven as the story progresses. I immediately took to Veit Kolbe, who was sent home from the front in 1944 after being wounded. The story's authenticity truly struck me, as it mirrored some of the stories my grandmother told me about what it was like surviving in Germany during World War II.
In Kolbe's case, he is suffering from PSTD after five years of combat and has no sympathy for the Nazi party. He doesn't want to return to the war and manages to remain in Mondsee for almost a year. During this time, he falls in love with a married woman named Margot.
Where Geiger loses me in interspersing letters written by secondary characters. While these three varied perspectives are interesting and allow Geiger to share other stories — families lost to bombings, food shortages, schoolboys on anti-aircraft guns, and the escape of one Jewish man with his family — none of them have a same powerful cadence of Kolbe's voice. And while I do appreciate what Geiger attempted to do here, given that the accounts in his book are taken from real documents, it may have been stronger for Geiger to retain his style throughout, allowing the story to unfold a little more evenly. Or, perhaps, he could have introduced these stories differently, fictionalized from Kolbe's point of view.
Still, I'm glad I stumbled into Geiger's work. Even if I cannot read it in original German, his style shines through with the translation. I will undoubtedly give his work another go to remain connected to one thread of my family's heritage. In Hinterland, there is no question he does a great job of capturing the lives of ordinary people during the war, which is precisely what I was looking for in this book. And I would recommend it if you are looking for the same. But as a literary read, I would have enjoyed reading Hinterland as a novella and allowing most of the other stories to stand on their own as a short, as opposed to interruptions that didn't always compel me to pick up the book again (while the other books I was reading did).
In Kolbe's case, he is suffering from PSTD after five years of combat and has no sympathy for the Nazi party. He doesn't want to return to the war and manages to remain in Mondsee for almost a year. During this time, he falls in love with a married woman named Margot.
Where Geiger loses me in interspersing letters written by secondary characters. While these three varied perspectives are interesting and allow Geiger to share other stories — families lost to bombings, food shortages, schoolboys on anti-aircraft guns, and the escape of one Jewish man with his family — none of them have a same powerful cadence of Kolbe's voice. And while I do appreciate what Geiger attempted to do here, given that the accounts in his book are taken from real documents, it may have been stronger for Geiger to retain his style throughout, allowing the story to unfold a little more evenly. Or, perhaps, he could have introduced these stories differently, fictionalized from Kolbe's point of view.
Still, I'm glad I stumbled into Geiger's work. Even if I cannot read it in original German, his style shines through with the translation. I will undoubtedly give his work another go to remain connected to one thread of my family's heritage. In Hinterland, there is no question he does a great job of capturing the lives of ordinary people during the war, which is precisely what I was looking for in this book. And I would recommend it if you are looking for the same. But as a literary read, I would have enjoyed reading Hinterland as a novella and allowing most of the other stories to stand on their own as a short, as opposed to interruptions that didn't always compel me to pick up the book again (while the other books I was reading did).