AmosL
09-15-2006, 06:45 PM
LOVE NOT WAR
Greene, Harlan. “The German Officer’s Boy”. University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
If you are a regular reader then the name Harlan Greene should mean something to you. He made his mark with two classic novels, “Why We Never Danced the Charleston” and “What the Dead Remember”. He is a southern writer from Charleston and hopefully he will be joining us for the Arkansas Literary Festival. He has also authored several works of non fiction but this new book, “The German Officer’s Boy” is quite a change of pace. Greene himself is the son of Holocaust survivors so he has some insight as to what went on during the most infamous part of the history of the world.
November of 1938 is likely to remain a mystery in the history of what happened under the Nazi regime. Almost immediately after whatever happened that day actually occurred a night that went down in the annals of history took place. “Kristallnacht” or “The Night of Broken Glass” changed the course of what was the Third Reich and altered the lives of many. What happened after that night is what Greene has written about. It seems that Herschel Grynszpan a teenager who probably was not thinking lucidly murdered Ernst Vom Rath was the justification of the horrors that ensued. Greene has undertaken a unique job in this book in that he has chosen to both research and write about the Young Polish boy, Herschel and buck the historians who refused to accept to idea that the young man had been involved in a love relationship with the Nazi. As Greene looks at their lives and the situations in which they lived and tries to piece together not only the backgrounds of the men themselves but the entire backdrop that allowed something like this to happen. Greene attempts to bring logic to a period of history that seems to be totally senseless.
The book is a novelization based upon fact. Greene goes back to when the German officer first met the boy and how that attraction so consumes him that he s hardly able to function. The enigmatic Grynszpan led a tragic life and Greene returns his life to us in an erotic and haunting manner. What it leads us to think about is the question as to whether a failed homosexual love affair was the catalyst of that dreadful night. It is somewhat frightening to read but the seeds are there to propose that such a thing actually did happen. Compassionate and original, this novel poses many questions and Harlan Greene has recreated a period in history by using one singular incident—one that has been pushed aside by historians. Is it indeed possible that World War II was caused by something like this? As one other reviewer stated “Tender and terrifying” best describes this book.
Greene deserves kudos for even attempting it and praise for having made it such a wonderfully readable book.
Greene, Harlan. “The German Officer’s Boy”. University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
If you are a regular reader then the name Harlan Greene should mean something to you. He made his mark with two classic novels, “Why We Never Danced the Charleston” and “What the Dead Remember”. He is a southern writer from Charleston and hopefully he will be joining us for the Arkansas Literary Festival. He has also authored several works of non fiction but this new book, “The German Officer’s Boy” is quite a change of pace. Greene himself is the son of Holocaust survivors so he has some insight as to what went on during the most infamous part of the history of the world.
November of 1938 is likely to remain a mystery in the history of what happened under the Nazi regime. Almost immediately after whatever happened that day actually occurred a night that went down in the annals of history took place. “Kristallnacht” or “The Night of Broken Glass” changed the course of what was the Third Reich and altered the lives of many. What happened after that night is what Greene has written about. It seems that Herschel Grynszpan a teenager who probably was not thinking lucidly murdered Ernst Vom Rath was the justification of the horrors that ensued. Greene has undertaken a unique job in this book in that he has chosen to both research and write about the Young Polish boy, Herschel and buck the historians who refused to accept to idea that the young man had been involved in a love relationship with the Nazi. As Greene looks at their lives and the situations in which they lived and tries to piece together not only the backgrounds of the men themselves but the entire backdrop that allowed something like this to happen. Greene attempts to bring logic to a period of history that seems to be totally senseless.
The book is a novelization based upon fact. Greene goes back to when the German officer first met the boy and how that attraction so consumes him that he s hardly able to function. The enigmatic Grynszpan led a tragic life and Greene returns his life to us in an erotic and haunting manner. What it leads us to think about is the question as to whether a failed homosexual love affair was the catalyst of that dreadful night. It is somewhat frightening to read but the seeds are there to propose that such a thing actually did happen. Compassionate and original, this novel poses many questions and Harlan Greene has recreated a period in history by using one singular incident—one that has been pushed aside by historians. Is it indeed possible that World War II was caused by something like this? As one other reviewer stated “Tender and terrifying” best describes this book.
Greene deserves kudos for even attempting it and praise for having made it such a wonderfully readable book.