Scan barcode
A review by roxanamalinachirila
Blindatele mortii by Sven Hassel
2.0
I was just listening to a podcast in which one of the two hosts said that, if you give a woman a Sven Hassel novel, she'll think it's shit, and if you give it to a literary critic, the critic won't understand a thing.
This is when I remembered I read "Wheels of Terror" in its Romanian translation („Blindatele morții”) and I did indeed think it was shit that didn't make sense.
"Wheels of Terror" is a book about a guy named Sven Hassel. Supposedly, this is because it's the author's autobiography, but no. It's fiction. Hassel rewrote a few older war stories to star himself and his friends.
So. Sven Hassel the character is part of one of the shittiest battalions in WWII Germany, the penal battalion. They're basically the scum of the earth - a bunch of drunken, whoring bastards whose single job is to clean up the battlefield after the battle's over. They pick up bodies and incinerate them, and their lives suck so much that they grab any little bit of fun they can have. Unfortunately, their fun is pretty shitty - aside from drinking themselves into a stupor, one time they visit a brothel, trash it and rape the owners, because why the fuck not.
After that, they get to invade Russia, and suddenly become the best of the best. With incredible skill and the sort of luck only gods can bestow, they fight impossible odds, holding out against vastly superior enemies and turning, somehow, into morally upstanding, righteous, brave, wonderful soldiers. Or something like that. It's been a while since I read this, but they were basically different people at the end - not because they developed, but because Sven Hassel the author decided to copy-paste their names onto other people entirely.
Also, kudos to Sven Hassel for managing to suggest that his character of the same name died at the end of his "autobiography".
So... what can I say? Podcast-dude was right. As both a woman and as somebody who writes a lot about literature, I think this book was... well, inconsistent drivel.
This is when I remembered I read "Wheels of Terror" in its Romanian translation („Blindatele morții”) and I did indeed think it was shit that didn't make sense.
"Wheels of Terror" is a book about a guy named Sven Hassel. Supposedly, this is because it's the author's autobiography, but no. It's fiction. Hassel rewrote a few older war stories to star himself and his friends.
So. Sven Hassel the character is part of one of the shittiest battalions in WWII Germany, the penal battalion. They're basically the scum of the earth - a bunch of drunken, whoring bastards whose single job is to clean up the battlefield after the battle's over. They pick up bodies and incinerate them, and their lives suck so much that they grab any little bit of fun they can have. Unfortunately, their fun is pretty shitty - aside from drinking themselves into a stupor, one time they visit a brothel, trash it and rape the owners, because why the fuck not.
After that, they get to invade Russia, and suddenly become the best of the best. With incredible skill and the sort of luck only gods can bestow, they fight impossible odds, holding out against vastly superior enemies and turning, somehow, into morally upstanding, righteous, brave, wonderful soldiers. Or something like that. It's been a while since I read this, but they were basically different people at the end - not because they developed, but because Sven Hassel the author decided to copy-paste their names onto other people entirely.
Also, kudos to Sven Hassel for managing to suggest that his character of the same name died at the end of his "autobiography".
So... what can I say? Podcast-dude was right. As both a woman and as somebody who writes a lot about literature, I think this book was... well, inconsistent drivel.