Little Man, What Now? [Paperback]

Hans Fallada (Author), Susan Bennett (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009

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 Jews, leading Hitler to ban Fallada’s work from being translated.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fallada's 1933 novel follows the financial woes of a young married couple living in Depression-era Germany on the cusp of the rise of the Third Reich.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“ Fallada deserves high praise for having reported so realistically, so truthfully, with such closeness to life.” –Herman Hesse

“ Superb.” –Graham Greene

"In a publishing hat trick, Melville House allows English-language readers to sample Fallada's vertiginous variety accompanying the release of Michael Hoffman's splendid translation of Every Man Dies Alone with the simultaneous publication of excellent English versions of Fallada's two best-known novels, Little Man, What Now? (translated by Susan Bennett) and The Drinker (translated by Charlotte and A.L. Lloyd). In his probing afterword to Little Man, What Now?, Philip Brady ponders the question of why the book isn't better-known today: "Enduring success is one thing, immediate impact is something different, and clearly the immediate impact of Fallada's novel was undeniable." Given our current economic circumstances, the book may have a second chance at impact and endurance."
- New York Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 345 pages
• Publisher: Melville House (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933633646
• ISBN-13: 978-1933633640
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > German

More About the Author

Before WWII, German writer Hans Fallada's novels were international bestsellers, on a par with those of his countrymen Thoman Mann and Herman Hesse. In America, Hollywood even turned his first big novel, Little Man, What Now? into a major motion picture

Learning the movie was made by a Jewish producer, however, the Nazis blocked Fallada's work from foreign rights sales, and began to pay him closer attention. When he refused to join the Nazi party he was arrested by the Gestapo--who eventually released him, but thereafter regularly summoned him for "discussions" of his work.

However, unlike Mann, Hesse, and others, Fallada refused to flee to safety, even when his British publisher, George Putnam, sent a private boat to rescue him. The pressure took its toll on Fallada, and he resorted increasingly to drugs and alcohol for relief. Not long after Goebbels ordered him to write an anti-Semitic novel he snapped and found himself imprisoned in an asylum for the "criminally insane"--considered a death sentence under Nazi rule. To forestall the inevitable, he pretended to write the assignment for Goebbels, while actually composing three encrypted books--including his tour de force novel The Drinker--in such dense code that they were not deciphered until long after his death.

Fallada outlasted the Reich and was freed at war's end. But he was a shattered man. To help him recover by putting him to work, Fallada's publisher gave him the Gestapo file of a simple, working-class couple who had resisted the Nazis. Inspired, Fallada completed Every Man Dies Alone in just twenty-four days.

He died in February 1947, just weeks before the book's publication.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Little Man What Now life in Germany after WW1, January 3, 2007

By 

Clarke Lloyd "Clarke Lloyd" (Chicago IL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an excellent book. I read it in 1934 when it was selected as a Book of the Month Club selection. It has contiued to haunt my mind as I watched the rise of the NationalSocialist party rise to power in Germany. It explained the plight of the German psyche after the Treaty of Versailles and the human cost of the repatriation demands creating the human bondage. It was a great lesson learned by the United States and other allies in creating the Marshall plan for the allies former enemies. I was incredulous on learing that Amazon.com was able to provide this most out of date novel. Thankyou.

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hardship and love a time of despair, March 25, 2000

By 

"coldstarr" - See all my reviews

The story of the life of the little man Johannes Pinneberg and his love in the Weimar Republic (Germany before Hitler). It accurately presents the hardship of people in the worldwide economic crisis in the 30ies. Pinneberg is a salesman who believes himself above the proletarians. He strives for a bourgeois kind of lifestyle. But after marrying his struggle for survival begins with his social decline. Pinneberg learns: you have to work like an animal or you won't work at all. The book is a story about money, hardship and the constant threat of failure. But one thing prevails: love.

The book is one of my all-time favorites. If you don't mind reading books that are literature at the same time I highly recommend it.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite good, May 20, 2002

By 

Ms Diva "cycworker" (Nanaimo, B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews

This novel provides an interesting look at Germany in the years between World War I and II. As I read it and saw got an understanding of the depths of economic depression the country was in, I began to have a better grasp of how Hitler was able to mesmerize the nation and take power -- he spoke in a way that made people think he'd restore their pride and prosperity.

The story itself is fairly basic. I liked how Fallada wrapped the lessons about history and the economic/political situation around the simple tale of a young couple trying to raise a family and survive in the Depression. The characters were a little stereotypical and could have had more depth, but in general they were quite interesting. The pace of the novel was good. The book was a bit long, but Fallada is a good enough writer that it didn't bother me too much. This book is a good read that any history buff will certainly enjoy.