Movies and Films
This is the forum for Movie and Film discussions. Again, our topic is naval warfare in WWII for the most part.
Re: Die Festung?
Posted by:
Meg Rosenfeld
()
Date: April 25, 2005 03:38PM
Hi Dirk,
I've heard of, but not read, the "rebuttal" book(s). I fully understand why people get so angry with LGB (though I still admire him greatly and treasure the letter I received from him.) It seems to me that by the time he got around to writing Die Festung, he was far more focused on personal matters than he was when he wrote Das Boot; he didn't have such an axe to grind. „Der Alte" was dead by the time the final draft was shaped, and of course Buchheim himself was in his seventies. His presentation of the war is at the human level, with lots of "little people," many of whom are interestingly (to me, anyway)kind-hearted and helpful, despite the usual bone-headed boors. It's more of a Bildungsroman than an anti-war polemic, and as such, attracts a far different audience from that of Das Boot--although I'm an avid member of both audiences.
Der Abschied is really not a very good book, in my opinion, and only someone who's a true-blue Buchheim fan--or Lehmann-Willenbrock fan, for that matter--is going to find it worth ploughing through.
Well, probably it's just a matter of "chacun à son goûte" when you get right down to it.
cheers,
Meg
I've heard of, but not read, the "rebuttal" book(s). I fully understand why people get so angry with LGB (though I still admire him greatly and treasure the letter I received from him.) It seems to me that by the time he got around to writing Die Festung, he was far more focused on personal matters than he was when he wrote Das Boot; he didn't have such an axe to grind. „Der Alte" was dead by the time the final draft was shaped, and of course Buchheim himself was in his seventies. His presentation of the war is at the human level, with lots of "little people," many of whom are interestingly (to me, anyway)kind-hearted and helpful, despite the usual bone-headed boors. It's more of a Bildungsroman than an anti-war polemic, and as such, attracts a far different audience from that of Das Boot--although I'm an avid member of both audiences.
Der Abschied is really not a very good book, in my opinion, and only someone who's a true-blue Buchheim fan--or Lehmann-Willenbrock fan, for that matter--is going to find it worth ploughing through.
Well, probably it's just a matter of "chacun à son goûte" when you get right down to it.
cheers,
Meg
