Customer Reviews

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Penguin Books for English: Composition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A minor incident in Katrina Blum's life, turned into news by needy papers, sets in motion a series of destructive events which make the incident a horribly defining one. Boll leads the reader into an evaluation of the so-called "disintrested" and "unbiased" media, who make their living from revealing the darker side of human nature. A good book to read in the aftermath of any media "discovery" or "controversy".

I have to admit, I saw the film before reading the book, and I recommend them both. In today's climate in America, - when the police profession is considered one of the noblest by liberals and conservatives alike, and the so-called "liberal" press, which crossed the line into tabloid journalism awhile ago, and which still hides behind the myth/lie of "objectivity," - this book is as timely and relevant today as it ever was, and should be mandatory viewing/reading.

This novel characterizes Boll's disdain for the development of an unscrupulous, powerful press who let nothing stand in the way of their 'scoop', people, truth ...... and who are accountable to no one. It also identifies some of the key issues of the time with which many people were preoccupied, for example, anti-communist feelings amongst West Germans as a result of the cold war. It is entertaining if not a little heavy to read.

It is true that this book has something to say about irresponsible journalism, and that the book's observations have become much more obvious with time but, like any good novel, it also has a timeless quality. Fundamentally it is about real people and the absurd things they do and the absurd situations they get themselves into. There were many moments of laughter. The contrast between the real people and their carnival-mirror depictions in the press keeps the book lively. What I especially enjoyed was the voice Boll used in writing - the material is presented in the format of a formal report but there is so much humanity and humor in Boll's writing that the voice becomes something quite new and refreshing. This is my second Boll, after The Clown, and he certainly is a great 20th century writer.

Information manipulation, secrets and lies and cover-ups all in the name of providing a service of keeping the public in the "loop" of day-to-day current events are the backdrops of Heinrich Boll's terse and relevant novel, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum: Or How Violence Developes and Where It Can Lead. What happens when a person is pushed to the brink of insanity? Do they become a submissive doormat and allow themselves to be completely consumed or do they push back by whatever means necessary in order to obtain the caliber of liberty they once posessed? In this novel-the protagonist-Katharina Blum is placed in just such a scenario where a battle ensues between her and her nemesis, Totges, a hungry reporter who works for a tabloid news outfit appropriately called the "News," an unyielding and unflinching information organization that will stop at nothing-even slander and character assassination-to promote itself as being the ultimate "truth-seeker" despite their limited knowledge and understaning of that which they are seeking. Getting the story and fabricating it in order to remain first is the end-all and be-all, and truth and innocence takes a back seat. In the novel, Katharina is associated with Gotten, a "criminal". And because of that innocent connection, she is placed on par with him as a mastermind of evil, deviancy and debauchery; her life is firmly hybridized with his, and no matter how innocent her actions, she cannot escape the glued-on innuendo solidly attached to her reputation, and as the multi-layered cool and collected Katharina gradually gets stripped away to the bone, she lashes out and evolves into a real criminal, whereby before she was only a fabricated one, fodder for the news media in order to reach to the pinnacles of journalistic success. An example of print media manipulation is best shown on page 105 when Kathharina's mother-Mrs. Blum-is interviewed regarding the goings-on of her daughter: "Why did it have to end like this, why did it have to come to this?" out of which the News made: "It was bound to come to this, it was bound to end like this." Totges accounted for the slight change in Mrs. Blum's statement by saying that as a reporter he was used to "helping simple people to express themselves more clearly." The duality of truth and lies play a game with each other, and in this case, truth finished last. A powerful book that speaks volumes.

Katharina Blum's murder of a newspaper reporter, to which she has confessed on the opening page, is not the point of attack for a mystery story, despite that implication on the book jacket. There is too little suspense and character development to make you care much about her. Instead, Boll uses the murder and its aftermath to offer a cautionary tale about overzealous police investigators and the unfettered tabloid press--showing how the press descends on Katharina and everyone who has ever come into contact with her, twisting words, creating false impressions based upon police department leaks, casting aspersions, ruining lives, and inciting Katharina to eventual murder.

Sound familiar? The novel may have been startling, and even controversial, when it was published in 1974, but no contemporary reader familiar with the tabloids at the supermarket checkout or with sensational talk shows conducting outrageously one-sided investigations will find this depiction of the press even slightly shocking. In fact, the methods of the press in this novel seem unrealistic, not because they are so extreme, but because they are so obvious, crude, and lacking in subtlety. Boll may have been prophetic with this novel in 1974, but it is a product of its own time. While it may confirm that the conflict between responsible journalism and irresponsible sensationalism has a long history, it offers few useful insights for the present day.

Heinrich Boll (d. 1985) was one of the three greatest German novelists (along with Gunter Grass and W.G. Sebald) of the latter half of the 20th Century. This novella was initially published in serialized form in "Der Spiegel" in 1974. Boll wrote it midst public controversy in Germany over the reporting of political violence by a large-circulation newspaper, which Boll felt unduly transgressed the rights of individuals in a liberal democracy.

Katharina Blum is an attractive young woman with a strong sense of honor trying to make a living, independently, in the restaurant/catering field and taking care of the homes of affluent professionals. She is the epitome of the capitalistic ethic, a young woman from a working-class background attempting to secure for herself a comfortable petty bourgeois existence. By happenstance, she ends up entertaining, as a romantic interest, a fugitive who, unbeknownst to her, is suspected (wrongly) of terroristic activities. She is ensnared in the investigation, and then spotlighted and hounded by the large-circulation newspaper (the "News"). The newspaper cloaks itself in the familiar homilies of a free press, but in actuality it wallows in the gutter of yellow journalism, and by the end of the novella it has sullied Katharina Blum, indirectly killed her aged and ill mother, damaged the lives of several unassuming friends of hers, and precipitated other unforeseen violence.

In addition to its critique of sensationalistic, irresponsible journalism, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM also attacks the media's intrusion on individual privacy. Other themes or issues are wire-tapping, sexual harassment of attractive and socially vulnerable young women, the undue influence of the wealthy and connected, the hair-trigger readiness to accuse or tar someone as a communist, and Germany's repression of anything relating to Nazism.

Boll writes the novella as an after-the-fact account or report (although it is not presented in chronological order). The style is rather dry and almost dead-pan at times, and Boll takes pains to carefully parse words and meanings and to be meticulous in word choice, in marked contrast to the reporting of the "News." The account is compelling; despite some stylistic quirks, the book quickly draws in the reader and is difficult to drop until finished. THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM is not great literature, but it is literature with a social conscience, it transcends the particular circumstances that prompted its initial publication, and its heroine is an especially memorable one.

If the sun goes from east to west as I sit while reading this book, perhaps I should conclude the sun "crosses" the sky; such is the result of logical conclusions from grossly inadequate facts.

Such is the premise argued by Boll. But if all I know about the sun is that it seems to "move" from east to west, should I thus reject what I see with my own eyes and instead assume current cosmological depiction of the universe rather than my own limited observations? Unfortunately, Boll botches this deserved question about reaching wrong conclusions based on limited but unknowingly erroneous data.

Basically, this story is about the worst excesses of the tabloid press; the sensationalist seeking demand for excitement, scandal and sin to amuse readers. It's as common as 'News of the World,' though Boll doesn't suggest similar depths of crime to obtain scoops. Tabloids? Boll even apologizes at the start of the book that if there is " ... a resemblance to the practices of the 'Bild-Zeitung", such resemblance is neither intentional nor fortuitous, but unavoidable."

However, he doesn't assert the tabloid reporter deliberately or maliciously contrived a sensational story; he merely asserts the articles he wrote that savaged Blum's honour was grossly expanded from what his sources thought were facts. Well, gross expansion of facts is not a virtue; but, neither is the revdenge of Blum when she goes to the reporter's home and kills him.

Does one stupid error condone another instance of injustice?

Blum's response to the tabloid trashing of her life is understandable in a quid pro quo society; but surely a rational society has just means of dealing with injustice. Or does it? Such is the question Boll leaves unanswered; perhaps in a society intensely committed to justice there is no just answer.

His tabloid sensionalist answer is immensely satisfying, and readers will agree, "The jackass deserved it!" It makes this an enjoyable but not a particularly wise or thoughtful book.

This is a fantastic book written by one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. Heinrich Böll was the first German author to win the Nobel Prize for literature since Thomas Mann in 1929. This short story follows the tale of Katharina Blum, and unlike most books, starts at the end, and works its way back. A great read that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I highly recommend this book.

An interesting fast read, but the translation from German left a choppy incomplete picture of some of the main antagonists in the story. It made a good selection for a book club, but the two movies made from it helped define the characters. I doubt if I will read any of his books again. MP