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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Military absurdity knows no boundaries.,
By Jim Beaver (Hollywood CA USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Revolt of Gunner Asch (Mass Market Paperback)
Original reviews calling this "the German Catch-22" do a bit of a disservice to the book, as they mislead readers into thinking this is a surreal comic extravaganza like Joseph Heller's monumental work. This book deals indeed with the absurdity ever present in military life, but it does so in a much more realistic and less antic way. Like Heller's Yossarian, Gunner Asch of the German army is acutely aware of the paralyzing stupidity inherent in military bureacracy and sets out to do something individual and self-affirming in opposition. But the adventures of the hero of Hans Hellmut Kirst's novel are mellow and low key by comparison. There is little that is laugh-out-loud funny in this book. Rather it is a gently amusing story, with a compelling, quiet drive that ends in a subtle but very satisfying punchline. I look forward to reading the follow-up books about Asch's further adventures.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A reluctant soldier who is almost TOO smart for the german army,
By James D. Crabtree "Doc Crabtree" (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Revolt of Gunner Asch (Paperback)
This story takes place in a German Army garrison town just prior to the beginning of World War II. Asch, an artilleryman, is trying to get through his mandetory term of service without any trouble but trouble seems to be anywhere as he clashes with many of the personalities assigned to his regiment. he also has his own personal life, a girlfriend whom he did not meet under the best of circumstances, a sister who is becoming a doctrinaire Nazi and a father who doesn't care who runs things so long as he's in a position to make some money off of it. Asch uses his wits and twists the regimented, regulated life of the German Army to his advantage. An excellent novel!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heller Meets Kirst,
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This review is from: The Revolt of Gunner Asch (Mass Market Paperback)
Did Heller read Kirst? Was Yousarrian patterned from Asch? I don't know, but I rather doubt it. I suspect the emergence of such similar characters in such similar circumstances was rather more like the emergence of two competing versions of the rubick's cube in the same time period (See Erno Rubik and Terutoshi Ishigi for details). Good armies have similar characteristics as do the members of those armies. It is inevitable that a war the size of WWII would produce men with similar viewpoints of their army life regardless of their worldview on other subjects. Thus revolts Gunner Asch.
If you have ever been in the military, you immediately recognize Gunner Asch and the cast of characters around him. If you have ever been in the corporate world you recognize most of them. Gunner Asch's story, continued through "Forward, Gunner Asch" and "The Return of Gunner Asch" is recognisable, too; the quest for the rules to not only be legal but for them to be right, for the rules to apply equally, for those who enforce the rules to be bound to their meaning as well as their letter. It almost sounds like an all-American story but, really, it's more an all-soldier's story. Kirst tells one soldiers story very, very well and, in the process, tells the story of millions or hundreds of millions of soldiers through-out time.
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