HODNOTENIE: ** KNIHA MESIACA AUGUST
"Milá mama, dúfam, že sa všetci máte dobre. Ja som zdravý, hoci vlhký chlad mi dáva zabrať. Ale pomaly nastupuje jar, všeličo kvitne. Sedím v Rózse na pošte a nie je tu ani živej duše. Možno odtiaľto ľudia utiekli, možno majú obedňajšiu prestávku, neviem. Cintoríny hrdinov, kde som hľadal aj otcovo[...]
Autor spomína, že patril do generácie postihnutej povinnou vojenskou službou, narukoval ako vysokoškolák a skonfrontoval sa s hnevom i odporom k militarizmu, pričom v kasárňach mu literatúra ako katarzný proces pomohla spracovať skúsenosť (čítal napríklad Na západe nič nové a Černí baroni).
Recenzuje knihu Ralfa Rothmanna Umrieť na jar, napísanú podobným dezilúznym štýlom ako Remarque, ktorá sleduje osudy sedemnásťročných chlapcov z vidieka vtažených na front a zachytáva naturalistické i psychologické hrôzy vojny.
Text upozorňuje na generačný konflikt medzi konzervatívnou mentalitou idealizujúcou vojnu a jej následkami, pričom vyznieva posolstvo, že vojna nerobí z chlapcov skutočných mužov, ale invalidov na tele aj na duši a že ide o barbarstvo vojny, hoci Rothmannova próza zostáva napriek tomu nádherne poetická.
The lunacy of the final months of World War II, as experienced by a young German soldierDistant, silent, often drunk, Walter Urban is a difficult man to have as a father. But his son—the narrator of this slim, harrowing novel—is curious about Walter’s… ...
The lunacy of the final months of World War II, as experienced by a young German soldier
Distant, silent, often drunk, Walter Urban is a difficult man to have as a father. But his son—the narrator of this slim, harrowing novel—is curious about Walter’s experiences during World War II, and so makes him a present of a blank notebook in which to write down his memories. Walter dies, however, leaving nothing but the barest skeleton of a story on those pages, leading his son to fill in the gaps himself, rightly or wrongly, with what he can piece together of his father’s early life.
This, then, is the story of Walter and his dangerously outspoken friend Friedrich Caroli, seventeen-year-old trainee milkers on a dairy farm in northern Germany who are tricked into volunteering for the army during the spring of 1945: the last, and in many ways the worst, months of the war. The men are driven to the point of madness by what they experience, and when Friedrich finally deserts his post, Walter is forced to do the unthinkable.
