Willenbrock: A Novel [Hardcover]

Christoph Hein (Author), Philip Boehm (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2003

An edgy portrait of a successful wheeler-dealer on a downward slide, and a peek beneath the smug surface of life in modern-day Berlin

In the new unified Germany, Bernd Willenbrock is the perfect man for the season. A latecomer to the free-market feast, this former East German engineer has shown a downright Darwinian ability to adapt to the new environment. Proud owner of a thriving used-car dealership and an attractive second home, he is a generous husband, pleased by his role of provider. The business practically runs itself, leaving Willenbrock free to spice up his days with extramarital adventures. Prosperity seems guaranteed by a steady stream of cash-only clients from Eastern Europe, and plans for a glitzy new showroom are firmly under way.

Willenbrock's self-satisfaction appears impregnable. Yet little by little, a series of ever-more menacing incidents-an attempted break-in, the theft of several cars, a vicious beating-erode his innermost certainties. No amount of locks and latches, it seems, can contain his growing obsession with external safety, relieve his suspicion of those closest to him, or stop the coming violence.

In cool, detached prose, abundant with subtle ironies, Christoph Hein's portrait of a newly minted man of the West reveals a disturbing and all-too-familiar world where affluence comes at the price of lurking aggression, freedom is pervaded by insecurity, and contentment is undermined by mistrust.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An enterprising used-car salesman in post-Iron Curtain Berlin navigates the capitalist world of shady deals and armed robbery in this sharp, darkly humorous novel by East German novelist/playwright Hein (The Tango Player). Though German reunification brought an end to Bernd Willenbrock's 20-year engineering career in East Germany, he now presides, alongside his Polish assistant, Jurek, over an exceptionally profitable used-car business that's frequented mostly by Russians and Poles. Willenbrock provides well for his lovely boutique-owner wife, Susanne, yet he's still a ladies' man and has several ongoing dalliances with women who wander onto his lot and end up with much more than a good deal on a clunker. In the unsettled climate, a rash of thefts troubles Willenbrock, prompting him to hire a night watchman to guard the lot. A particularly traumatic robbery at the Willenbrock country home further erodes his sense of security, and paranoia sets in. While his plans to build a new showroom move ahead, the thieves from the break-in are apprehended, but then merely deported without punishment. This injustice pushes Willenbrock to take his Russian friend Krylov up on an offer to settle the matter privately as a "friendly favor," but in the end he thinks better of it and accepts a handgun instead. The tense climax tests his mettle and forces him to finally confront a long-held aversion to weapons and violence. Hein's expertly translated novel is brisk, clever and engrossing, and Willenbrock makes a compelling protagonist an uncomplicated man faced with all the opportunities and pitfalls of post-Wall Germany.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Bernd Willenbrock appears to be leading the good life in Berlin. Agile enough to switch careers after the fall of the Berlin wall (he was in the eastern sector), he made the successful transition from engineer to used-car dealer. But just when he seems to be on top of things, his life crumbles. Is his wife having an affair or not? Will the Russian criminals who staged a home invasion of his country house return? Slowly, Willenbrock descends to a level of paranoia that even he considers obsessive but which he is both powerless and disinclined to fight. The final push toward the edge comes courtesy of a shady Russian customer who supplies Willenbrock with a gun. Despite a few subplots and allusions that lead the reader down dead-end paths, Hein, author of The Tango Player (1992), presents a riveting character study of a man whose attitude toward life deteriorates to the point where he is again living in his own private East Germany. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Books; First Edition edition (September 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805067310
• ISBN-13: 978-0805067316
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,924,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best, but not the worst, January 1, 2006

By 

Holly Wood (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Willenbrock: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read Willenbrock for a course in German literature. I felt the book offered a time capsule to non-Germans of what life was in the decade following the fall of the Berlin wall. While the prose nor the plot carry much potential for the novel to be called great literature (perhaps partially due to translation issues), it is literature, nonetheless, and by that I mean it carries a certain "snapshot" of human emotion in that particular period of time. Willenbrock is *not* a likable character, but he is a familiar character, one people will relate to immediately. Hein does a service by offering him upon a silver platter to be analyzed and scrutinized by even the most casual reader. For someone who appreciates the characters of a story above all else, I found Willenbrock to be an interesting read.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too bland and predictable, November 20, 2004

By 

John - See all my reviews

This review is from: Willenbrock: A Novel (Hardcover)

I'm an American and I read the English translation of this novel. I'm sure you have to be a German to get a true feel for the context (Berlin and East Germany). It was obviously written for a German audience, so Hein leaves out details that could flesh things out for those of us who are unfamiliar with what it's like there.

That becomes a problem when you consider that the book is intended to be satirical -- you have to be familiar with what the author is satirizing in order to get it. If you don't know what post-reunification Berlin and its middle class are like, "Willenbrock" will only give you the sketchiest hints.

If you're a German or are very familiar with Germany, maybe you'll love it. If you're not, I can't recommend this book, as it reads rather bland and doesn't have enough to offer an international audience.