The Assault [Paperback]

Harry Mulisch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1986

A novel that probes moral devastation in the wake of the slaughter of an innocent family by the Nazis in retaliation for the association with a Dutch collaborator. The Assault has been translated and published to great critical acclaim throughout Europe and in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A beautiful and powerful work…takes its place among the finest European fiction of our time.”
—Elizabeth Hardwick
 
“A political thriller that removes the postwar scar tissue protecting society…a psychological thriller probing the moral devastation between neighbors, fellow students, husbands and wives…It is Mr. Mulisch’s triumph to have revealed all this…with an x-ray cunning.”
—The New York Times Book Review

Language Notes

Text: English, Dutch (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; American ed edition (March 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394744209
• ISBN-13: 978-0394744209
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evil affects innocent people like a cancer., December 11, 2002

By 

Hovig J. Heghinian (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Assault (Paperback)

Chief Inspector Ploeg is shot and killed in the winter of 1945, in Nazi-occupied Holland. He was a cruel collaborator with Holland's Nazi occupation force, and was assassinated by Bolsheviks on a street where four houses stand. His killers will run away in the dark of night, but Nazi troops will assault the home of young Anton Steenwijk, killing his parents and brother. This is because Chief Inspector Ploeg's body was found in front of their house. It had been moved there after the murder.

Anton spends the rest of the story trying to discover the exact events of that night, including why the body was moved before his house. He is reluctant to discover this past, because the memory is painful, and he almost does not want such illogical evil to have a logical explanation. Anton lives the second half of the twentieth century as normally as he can, encountering Ploeg's bullheaded son, and the various people who had also lived on his street, one at a time, with many years passing between each meeting. Near the end of the twentieth century, closer to the modern day, he encounters one of the people who knows the full story of the moved body, and Anton finally understands the mystery.

The book's ending is both poetic and shattering. We immediatly empathize with the innocent people who had lived in those four houses, and we decry the horrible mental torture which encompassed them after WWII. The events of that evening were caused by one hateful group of people murdering the representative of another hateful group, but the ill effects accrued to people who did not deserve it. Mulisch might be telling us that evil is a cancer. The actors in the main event, Ploeg, the Nazis, and the Bolsheviks, were the evil ones, but the four innocent households suffered.

To describe the way evil imprisons the innocent, Mulisch asks us to reflect on a classic moral quandary: He uses the allegory of a person who comes across a dual execution, and is given the choice of killing one person in order to save the other. He seems to be asking us, how can one blame an innocent person for choosing the lesser of two evils? Is it that person's fault, or is it the fault of the encompassing evil? While this is not what happens in the book, it is only a story Mulisch tells, but it is similar in moral depth, and Mulisch portrays and resolves his own dilemma in a fascinating and effective fashion.

This is a well-written book, sharp and concise, with interesting and sympathetic characters. Mulisch tells us a good story about every-day people, with a deep moral message at its core, and resolves it in a way that will have thoughtful readers reflecting on the nature of good, evil, chance and morality.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Dutch Literature..., February 19, 2003

By 

Cornelis Oudenaarden (Indiana, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Assault (Paperback)

In Dutch highschools, this is one of those works which is read by everyone. Especially in the Netherlands this book has been analyzed to death, and I certainly won't add anything significant to the debate. The truth is that this is an incredible peace of art. Harry Mulisch is well known for his ability to write a great novel, but this is by far his best one. The story of the man who slowly discovers the truth about the events that killed his family is deeply touching, as well as telling. This book is not only about a man finding out a lost truth, it is about a country devastated through war, finding its way back on track. This story will tell you more about the spirit that lived within the Netherlands and the events that followed than some history books. I would greatly recommend this book to anyone who has a love for good literature as well as a wish to find out more about the Netherlands as a country during and after the war.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a must-read masterpiece, September 29, 2002

By 

Geert Daelemans (Leuven Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Assault (Paperback)

1945. The Second World War is running to its end. A cold winters evening in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The Steenwijk family is sitting around a small fire. Suddenly six gunshots disturb the silence outside. Then a singular cry of pain. Never will Anton Steenwijk forget the images of that dreadful day when he, at the age of twelve, losses almost everything. Now, years later, he has to suffer those horrors again, when the truth finally starts to unfold.

Although the setting is clearly World War II, this story is not relating the heroics of soldiers or people active in the resistance. It describes the personal search for truth of a man who doesn't realise how much impact things he thought to have banished from memory have on his life. During his search he stumbles onto information that will change him completely.

The way Harry Mulisch has depicted the person of Anton Steenwijk is undoubtedly the most powerful asset of this book. Anton does not want to find the truth, but still the truth wants to be found. And what he unwillingly uncovers does not only startle him, but also leaves the reader with topics to think about. Isn't everybody guilty and not guilty at the same time?

This book reads like a train and engulfs the reader to the extend that he will never be able to forget the history of Anton Steenwijk.