Reading the 20th Century discussion

A buddy read of....


Little Man, What Now?

by

Hans Fallada

From the bestselling author of Alone in Berlin, his acclaimed novel of a young couple trying to survive life in 1930s Germany

'Nothing so confronts a woman with the deathly futility of her existence as darning socks'

A young couple fall in love, get married and start a family, like countless young couples before them. But Lämmchen and 'Boy' live in Berlin in 1932, and everything is changing. As they desperately try to make ends meet amid bullying bosses, unpaid bills, monstrous mothers-in-law and Nazi streetfighters, will love be enough?

The novel that made Hans Fallada's name as a writer, Little Man, What Now? tells the story of one of European literature's most touching couples and is filled with an extraordinary mixture of comedy and desperation. It was published just before Hitler came to power and remains a haunting portrayal of innocents whose world is about to be swept away forever. This brilliant new translation by Michael Hofmann brings to life an entire era of austerity and turmoil in Weimar Germany.

A bit ahead of time but I am underway with Little Man, What Now? (1932)


Early days but splendid so far

This is the book that led to Hans Fallada's downfall with the Nazis. The story of a young couple struggling to survive the German economic collapse was a worldwide sensation and was made into an acclaimed Hollywood movie produced by a Jewish production company.

Nonetheless, it remains, as The Times Literary Supplement notes, “the novel of a time in which public and private merged even for those who wanted to stay at home and mind their own business."

Fallada was enormously popular in his day. On the back of the success of the original German editions, British publisher Putman & Co translated a run of Fallada books almost annually from Little Man, What Now? in 1933 to Iron Gustav in 1940. The only Fallada-less year for his now avid English readership in this sequence was, significantly, 1939. Putman also brought out the posthumous novel The Drinker in 1952, but by this time Fallada-mania, in the English-speaking world at least, seemed to have settled.

In 1996, a new translation by Susan Bennett of Little Man, What Now? was published but it was not until the reissue in 2009 of Every Man Dies Alone, translated by Michael Hofmann, that Fallada’s resurrection was realised. Released in the UK as Alone in Berlin, it once again had Fallada’s work on the bestseller lists, this time on both sides of the Atlantic. Not bad for a writer 66 years dead. On the back of this success, a new wave of Fallada-in-English publishing began and so here we are....

Finished!


Little Man, What Now? is a powerful evocation of how many ordinary Germans experienced the early 1930s immediately prior to Hitler coming to power.

I can't wait to discuss it with you

Here's my review...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4/5

I can't see your review when I click on the link, Nigeyb.

I am hoping to get to this. I started with the Nabokov and now I am reading Grand Hotel. I have read one novel by Hans Fallada and loved it - loving this theme too, so hoping to read it soon.

Susan wrote:


"I can't see your review when I click on the link, Nigeyb."

Sorry Susan - now fixed....

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am hoping to get to this. I started with the Nabokov and now I am reading Grand Hotel. I have read one novel by Hans Fallada and loved it - loving this theme too, so hoping to read it soon."

Here's hoping

I read this a few years ago. I did not write a review, but this is my GR post on it:

FINISHED THE BOOK - SPOILERS
As Rosemarie actually describes it, this was "a moving book about an ordinary little man." I very much enjoyed it. Some comments:
1) I went in expecting more political commentary on Nazi Germany, but the Nazis are only briefly involved as a cloud looming over things, and right next to the Communist cloud. The brevity of the political aspects probably enhanced my enjoyment of the book;
2) I was a bit surprised at, and very interested in reading about, the extent of the health care and unemployment benefits available in 1932 Germany; the portrait of Berlin at the time was both well-done and interesting to me;
3) While I at first thought the nudist culture that Heilbutt participates in was an odd inclusion, I got over it by thinking of the Berlin society portrayed in Goodbye to Berlin/I Am a Camera/Cabaret. (just learned the new tidbit that Isherwood named Sally Bowles after the author/composer Paul Bowles);
4) As with Zola's The Ladies' Paradise, I was quite interested in the descriptions of the life of sales clerks in the department stores of the depicted era, especially the clerks interactions with customers and other employees.
5) This is a novel well worth reading.

I have just started this - not very far in as yet, but the start is immediately compelling, with the penniless young couple.

SPOILER: After 2 years, the image I have left of the story is their having to climb up and down to get to their apartment - how inconvenient that was.

See that this is currently available in US @ $1.99.

The following are some comments I made concerning Fallada's accommodation with Nazi authorities

"I've been reading In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson, the story of Professor William E. Dodd America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany. Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha., who was also friend or lover to Carl Sandburg and Thornton Wilder.
Martha parties with all and has affairs with both Nazis and Russian Communists but in the section I read today, she has a revelation when visiting Hans Fallada, who stayed in Germany when others like the Mann brothers left. An internet article explains that Martha:

"finally got the message when she and a dissident friend paid a visit to the author Hans Fallada, who had supposedly come to some sort of accommodation with the Nazis. "I saw the stamp of naked fear on a writer's face for the first time," she recalled, "

The Larson book has Fallada explaining that he ran the ending of his then current novel by Nazi authorities first. It was interesting reading about Fallada writing during the Nazi regime and Thomas Mann's statement that novels written in such a manner should be ignored.

This is the exact Thomas Mann quote contained in the book:

"It may be superstitious belief, but in my eyes, any books that could have been printed at all in Germany between 1933 and 1945 are worse than worthless and not objects one wishes to touch. A stench of blood and shame attached to them. They should all be pulped."

But to understand Mann's statement, the book's previous paragraph described Fallada's compromising as follows:

"Fallada made more and more concessions eventually allowing Goebbels to script the ending of his novel Iron Gustav, (Iron Gustav: A Berlin Family Chronicle) which depicted the hardships of life during the past world war. Fallada saw this as a prudent concession. "I do not like grand gestures," he wrote; "being slaughtered before the tyrant's throne, senselessly, to the benefit of no one and to the detriment of my children, that is not my way."

He recognized that his various capitulations took a toll on his writing, He wrote . . . "I cannot act as I want to - if I want to stay alive. And so a fool gives less than he has."

I would note that Fallada wrote Little Man, What Now? before the Nazi's started overseeing book publishing. His other famous book Alone in Berlin aka in USA as Every Man Dies Alone was published in 1947, 2 years after the end of WWII. So no capitulations were made when writing those 2 novels.

Writer capitulations were also made in the Soviet Union, as with Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad, the predecessor to his Life and Fate. Important novels can still be written under these constraints.

Great stuff Brian - I thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments, observations and insights about Fallada during the later Nazi era


Judy, so glad this has started positively for you

Jan, have you snapped up a bargain Kindle copy? Thanks for letting everyone know about the deal.

No, I bought it from a used book site a few weeks ago. Just saw that it was on sale yesterday, checked and it is still on sale today.

The ebook I got from the library is translated by Susan Bennett and was issued in the 1990s - I see there is also a newer translation by Michael Hofmann, and am wondering how different they are. I'll stick with the one I've got unless I have problems with it, anyway!

Michael Hoffman is well-respected for his many German (Austrian) to English translations. Besides reading his translation of this Fallada, I read his translation of Joseph Roth's The Hotel Years with the group. Hoffman admires Fallada and Roth and also has a translation of Roth's The Radetzky March and the NYRB edition of Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz.
What I find most interesting about Hoffman is his passionate disdain for the works of Roth friend Stefan Zweig who Hoffman describes as follows: "Stefan Zweig just tastes fake. He's the Pepsi of Austrian writers."

Hoffman on Zweig: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n...

Ha, that's fascinating as I found Beware of Pity, the only Zweig I've read, turgid melodrama - which surprised me hugely given how much he's loved by people whose tastes I tend to share. Nice to know I'm not alone, after all :)

I loved The World of Yesterday, Zweig's memoir, and would definitely re-read. I have not read much of his fiction, but I understand he was very popular and I wonder whether there was a sense of resentment for his success? I'm not basing that on anything, just musing...

Roman Clodia wrote: "Ha, that's fascinating as I found Beware of Pity, the only Zweig I've read, turgid melodrama - which surprised me hugely given how much he's loved by people whose tastes I tend to shar..."

I haven't really connected with Zweig, although I love the film of 'Letter from an Unknown Woman'. I'm more of a Roth fan.

Brian wrote: "Michael Hoffman is well-respected for his many German (Austrian) to English translations. Besides reading his translation of this Fallada, I read his translation of Joseph Roth's [book:The Hotel Ye..."

Thanks for this Brian, will check it out.

Just found an article about Michael Hofmann which says he specialises in hatchet jobs. According to this piece, as well as dismissing Zweig (I love his writing, though I've almost only read him in translation so can't comment on his style in German, which I wouldn't presume to anyway!), he has also been very critical of Richard Flanagan, Martin Amis and Günter Grass.

Ironically, the author of this piece, Philip Oltermann, seems to be wielding a hatchet himself:
"Like a Soho drunk stumbling into the National Portrait Gallery in search of a good scrap, Hofmann has battered posthumous reputations with the same glee as those of the living.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

There is also some discussion of Hofmann's translations in this article and it sounds as if he sometimes departs from the original in ways that might be controversial.

Anyway, I will look how one or two of his passages compare with Bennett's before reading on, just in case I like his version better.

That's very interesting. Thanks Judy. Please keep us posted with your conclusions. I am not sure which translation I read but will check later.

I had a look at the start of the Hofmann translation (downloaded a Kindle sample from Amazon!) and it seemed very similar to the Susan Bennett version I've got from the library, so I'll stick with that one for now, anyway!

One difference I noticed was that Lämmchen calls her boyfriend/husband "Junge" (boy) - Bennett translates this as "Sonny" and Hofmann as "Boyo". Neither of these seems ideal to me - Boyo makes me think of him as Welsh! But you soon get used to whichever one is used in your version.

I'd be interested to hear which one you read, Nigeyb.

Brian, thank you very much for the link to Hofmann on Zweig. As a fan of Zweig's fiction, in translation, I can't say I agree, and a lot of the comments quoted from other authors sound like literary in-fighting, but it's a fascinating read, anyway.

It strikes me that a lot of the criticisms of Zweig quoted in the article are similar to those of other bestselling writers from Dickens and the Brontës onwards - claims they are too melodramatic, emotional and populist, criticisms of stylistic faults, etc, etc. Perhaps, though, these criticisms also point to their strengths, including their visual imaginations, underlined by the sheer number of times these authors - like Zweig - have been adapted for stage, cinema and TV. Anyway, this is getting away from Fallada so I will now shut up!

I must have read Bennett as it was "sonny" in the translation I read

That's interesting, Nigeyb - did you feel it flowed well? Seems good to me so far.

I've read nearly 40% and am quite enjoying it - so far it's a bit lighter in tone than I'd expected, but I suppose it may darken as the economic situation worsens.

Yes, it is a surprisingly upbeat and fun novel given the context

Judy wrote: "That's interesting, Nigeyb - did you feel it flowed well? Seems good to me so far."


I thought so. Some of it felt a little bit clunky but I concluded that was Susan Bennett trying to stick as closely as possible to Fallada's original words and meaning.

I have just started this. Haven't had much reading time lately, but I hope to have time to get into it at the weekend. I agree with Judy that it feels much lighter than the, admittedly, only other novel that I have ready by the author. I read Alone in Berlin previously.

I hope you enjoy it, Susan. I'm about halfway through now and still feel it is much lighter than Alone in Berlin.

Nigeyb, I agree the translation feels a little bit clunky at times but I also think this is probably to stay as close to the original as possible. I was a bit surprised by the long titles for each mini-chapter detailing what is going to happen next.

I thought the beginning was really interesting. You thought the couple were visiting the clinic because they were pregnant, then discovered they were looking for contraceptive advice, then found they were pregnant after all. I was a bit shocked at Pinneberg's immediate response, which was whether the pregnancy could be terminated. If I'd been Lammchen, I'd have been gone at the point and the novel would have been over!

I've finished this now and enjoyed it a lot overall. There is also an interesting afterword, rather than a preface, to the edition I read, which puts the book in the context of what was happening in Germany at that time, looking at the mass unemployment in particular.

I think an afterword often works better. Too often I have started reading a preface and had the entire book outlined, which can spoil it, unless you are reading as a student.

Agreed - all for afterwords, and this book has a good one

I definitely agree on prefaces re afterwords. With this one, it might have been nice to have a bit of the more general information in advance, but it didn't really matter.

True, there is that. Good point Judy

I was just wondering if this had ever been filmed - I see there was a Hollywood film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Margaret Sullavan, made in 1934, which is on YouTube, though the picture quality looks dreadful so I don't think I can put up with watching it there! It has been issued on an on-demand DVD, but only in the US. Maybe it will turn up on TV.

There have also been three German films of it and looks as if it has been adapted on stage in German as well, suggesting what a classic it is there.

That's fascinating Judy - thanks

Thank you, Nigeyb - I would have put a link to the film on YouTube, but it is like watching a blurry shadow!

This has more of a Weimar Germany theme than the other two books I read, as it mentions inflation and the cost of living much more openly. As such, it is an interesting addition to the books I have already read.

I am at the part where the young couple are departing for Berlin now.

Ah yes. Looking forward to more reactions Susan

So far, I must say, I am finding it hard to get into. It is, though, a very good picture of those times.

Here’s hoping you get sucked in soon

Yes, perhaps I am just not in the mood. That's sometimes the way with group, or NetGalley, books, I find.

Susan wrote: "Yes, perhaps I am just not in the mood. That's sometimes the way with group, or NetGalley, books, I find."

Maybe you're just Weimared out.

That could well be it Brian. I have to say I thought Little Man, What Now? really brought that era for life, and gave lots of insights into what it was like for ordinary Germans during the period. But, as you suggest Brian, recently we have read a lot of books from that time and place so perhaps...?

What do you think Susan?

It's a thought, Brian. Possibly, but I don't think so. I actually think - as Nigeyb says - this has more insights about that time than the other two books, both of which I liked.

Susan wrote: "Yes, perhaps I am just not in the mood. That's sometimes the way with group, or NetGalley, books, I find."

Oh yes, timing can matter hugely. I wouldn't force myself through a book that isn't working but sometimes I might pick it up again later and fly through it.

True, RC. I am enjoying the section in Berlin more than the beginning of the book. This is truly populated with some unusual characters and I love the mother.

Hello I am new to the group and this is my first book of the month read, and I'm late starting. I'm particularly interested in it as

Nigeyb wrote: "....I have to say I thought Little Man, What Now? really brought that era for life, and gave lots of insights into what it was like for ordinary Germans durin..."

I recently learned I had a German father who was born in the 30's and would have been a young teen in Hamburg during the war years. This is one way for me to learn something and gain understanding of the life he and his family might have had.

I've had a quick read through the comments and dodged a few spoilers perhaps and will return when finished, perhaps before the month ends, deadlines can be good.
Cheers.