Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Germany

  • The Novelist From Berlin

    The Novelist From Berlin

    Told through the eyes of Berlin Woman Marie “Nikki” Rittenhaus, The Novelist of Berlin is a window into a past that was brutal, terrifying and destructive. Now as an older woman living in obscurity, enjoying what she considers relative peace for the first time in her adult life, she reflects on her life.

    Commencing in Berlin in the 1920’s during the period between the First and Second World Wars, based on the story of Irmgard Keun, a female novelist who was forced to flee Germany, leaving behind her husband and daughter The Novelist from Berlin revisits the days when, to be a woman in Germany and have ideas was very dangerous.

    Marie Rittenhaus is like many women in Berlin as the German economy is failing. Young, intelligent and resourceful, she finds work wherever she can, going to the local Bars at night looking for a meal and the company of men.  Her friend Lottie often goes with her.

    She meets Rickhard Langer, a handsome, intelligent man; a movie producer for Belin’s Passport Pictures. A courtship of sorts takes place with Nikki moving in with Rickard, eventually agreeing to marry him and giving birth to their beautiful daughter.

    As the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler is beginning to influence her husband’s work and life, Nikki begins to write. Her first novel The Berlin Woman based on what she considers is or should be the new Berlin woman, is published to great acclaim but sees her come under the watchful eye of the Nazi Party, who eventually ban her book.

    Times are getting harder, the Nazi Party is now a powerful force which seems unstoppable. The conflict of what she believes is right and her husband’s increasing affiliation with Nazi’s forces her to make a decision as to how she wants to lead her life.

    Eventually she has to flee to Holland where she meets Emil, another activist against the Nazi’s, becomes a member of the Dutch Underground and falls deeply, irrevocably in love.

    The Novelist from Belin is an engrossing read as it details a history not often written about; the dark, destructive days of the rise of Nazism, the dread that became an accepted way of life for so many: the fear, hatred and horror of what seemed to be an unstoppable force, growing around the woman in particular, the Jews or anyone who dared to have a differing opinion.

    V. S. Alexander paints a very real picture of the years of the rise and fall of Hitler and his Nazi Party, followed by the uncertain times after Germany’s defeat when the Soviet Union began rebuilding to become a force to be feared; another version of the Nazi Party philosophy. The grim days of the Belin Wall being built and the brave people who refused to accept what was happening are well described.

    Ranging over forty years that changed the world and Europe, with influences still felt today, this well researched historic novel is powerful, captivating and perhaps a reminder that when charismatic, powerful men rise up to want world dominance, the World needs remember the lessons of history and take note.

  • Max

    Max

    In 2012, after writing a dozen novels and a collection of essays and stories, Alex Miller award winning author, felt that the time had come to research his best friend, inspiration and mentor, Max Blatt’s life and write his biography. Max, a German, Polish Jew had described his life to his dear friend Alex, as futile; a failure who had achieve nothing. Alex was to prove otherwise.

    Alex met Max when he was a man in his fifties who shared with him his love of literature, music and silence. The author and his wife, Stephanie travelled to Germany, Poland and Israel to uncover the story of Max; to put together the broken pieces of the story Max had given him. Having little knowledge of Max’s life before he arrived in Australia didn’t deter Alex; what he did glean, came from books and letters written about the Nazi takeover in Germany.

    Assisted by researchers, friends and Max’s remaining family (many had died during the Holocaust) and his niece, Liat, Alex was able to uncover and fill in the blanks. Visiting places of significance in Max’s early life, he walked the streets he probably walked as a boy, saw the No21 tram stop which Max took to the centre and viewed the building where the Gestapo tortured him.

    This beautifully written but haunting book, provides the reader with not only the missing pieces of Max’s remarkable life, but also a clearer understanding of Jewish life in Wroclaw, the place of Max’s early years.

    Max is a wonderful work of non-fiction, which transports the reader to the difficult times of Max’s life, his challenges, his ultimate escape to China and final place of exile, Australia. It sensitively explains Max’s reasons for not choosing death but silence and obscurity; a book not to be missed.

  • 16670

    16670

    ‘There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’, is a well-known quotation from the Bible and the perfect place to begin a review on an album from Matthew Mayer, dedicated to a remarkable man who did indeed lay down his life for a friend in the horror that was Auschwitz in the war years of 1941.

    This man was Rajmund Maximillian Kolbe whose story haunted Mayer to the effect that he eventually travelled, in 2015, to Poland to walk where this man, a Conceptual Franciscan Friar and Polish Catholic Priest, had lived his life.

    16670 was Kolbe’s number, this album is dedicated to his selfless love for mankind. In his notes on the album Mayer says he was drawn to creating the musical version of Kolbe’s story by something bigger than himself, to telling his story through the wonderful medium of music.

    The backstory to the creation of this deeply moving work was unknown until the time came to write the review. On the first, second and third listening, nothing but beauty, elegance and peace coupled with a wonderful sense of comfort, and relaxation was apparent; the perfect end to a busy day. To discover the reason, the meaning behind the compositions is not at all surprising in the light of the words from Mayer, saying he was drawn to create the work by something far bigger than himself.

    Perhaps the parallel can be drawn that in this time of global distress, stories such as Kolbe’s need to be remembered to shine a light of hope for the future into a wold that for many is filled with fear and hopeless confusion. How better to do this than with the healing gift of music.

    16670 is a deep dark piece, simple and yet dramatic, which flows into a more relaxed, and yet somehow more sombre  piece Glasses, as the image of glasses conjures up the famous photograph of a pile of glasses found in the death camps of Germany at the end of the war.

    As the work unfolds the titles capture the journey not just of the music, but of the emotions felt by many, then and in present times, facing the certainty of what was feared most, accepting the final outcome whatever it may be. Kid Rajmund concludes an intimate collection with what could easily be considered as an exquisite requiem.

    16670 tells a poignantly beautiful, emotional story, one into which Mayer has poured his heart and soul; an album of rare delicacy, intimate and graceful to the final note. Not All Hero’s Wear Capes is the final line on the Press Release; we have all been discovering this in our extraordinary year of 2020, to be so very, very true.

     

  • Mystical Places (Inspired Traveller’s Guide)

    Mystical Places (Inspired Traveller’s Guide)

    How many places are there in the world we would all like to go and see one day, places that hold a certain something that makes them magical, devout or mystical such as the Comino Trail, a pilgrimage of reverence for Christians for centuries, Xanadu, a place more than just a name in a popular song; a place of legend, or Takachino in Kyushu, Japan a place deeply embedded in the Shinto faith.

    Sadly with the advent of the Corona virus many of these mystical places are now for many travellers going to remain places they would like to or have love to have gone, but probably never will.

    Simply reading the introduction to  Mystical Places, Inspired Traveller’s Guide, is to step directly into the world of the armchair traveller prepared to travel to exotically magical, folkloric places on this earth, couched in some wonderful stories rich for the telling over, in many cases, hundreds of years.

    The Hexentanzplatz Plateau in Germany’s Harz Mountains has for generations been known as a place of sorcery, a place of Saxon worship, a place where witches danced across the floor, gathering from across Europe to meet on Walpurgisnacht. What a place to visit.

    Shrouded in mystery, especially at sunrise and sunset the Pinnacles are to be found along the west coast of Western Australia, standing proud and tall in a sea of often shifting white sand, always changing, in spite of the often still atmosphere surrounding these enigmatic limestone edifices.

    A side trip to California is called for to visit Mount Shasta a mountain that , while not the largest or highest in the USA is enveloped in a dangerous beauty; one that people have for millennia come to worship at, to request and often be awarded that which they seek!

    As a choice of destination these are just a few from the exotic list compiled by Sarah Baxter and illustrated by Amy Grimes, to tempt you to forget your current surrounding, worries and fears, to settle into your very comfortable, cost effective armchair, with of course your complimentary drink of choice, before setting out to discover places you may already know, or many others that are yet to be discovered and enjoyed for a wonderful, amazing and enjoyable moment in time.

  • The Vanishing Sky

    The Vanishing Sky

    Nazi Germany and the Second World War, for writers of both book and screen, seem to be the gift that just keeps on giving. The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, the Book thief, the amount of stories set during this period is endless. The Vanishing Sky, written by L. Annette Binder, stands as another fictional book set during this tumultuous time.

    The story takes place in the last year of the Second World War in Europe. By this time the Soviets were penetrating Germany’s Eastern border, the Americans and British moving in from the West.  Meanwhile city after city was in the process of being razed by the Allied bomber force. In this setting of complete Armageddon, the readers are introduced to the Huber family, a simple German family living in Heidenfeld.

    Etta Huber, the matriarch of the family, the first of the main characters that are introduced is a woman suffering from increasing anxiety which no surprise is considering the circumstances; she runs a household while simultaneously worrying about her three male family members. There is her husband Josef, a former teacher and ex soldier. Most likely a veteran of the First World War Josef suffers from dementia and has become increasingly nationalistic. Though certainly not a main character, the reader is given a glimpse into his perspective, mainly his desire to assert himself and not to feel like a mockery due to his memory loss. Max is the couple’s eldest son.  A veteran of the Second World War, Max has been discharged due to an emotional collapse which manifests itself into PTSD.

    Georg, the younger Huber son is the secondary main character; a member of the Hitler Youth, Georg doesn’t look like a typical Hitler Youth member. With brown eyes and expanding waistline he has very little of the Aryan warrior caricature in him. He is also a homosexual which under Nazi Germany was a criminal offense. The story finds Georg away from his family at an elite training facility. Not keen to give it all up for Fuhrer, Volk und Fatherland, Georg decides to desert and make his way home. For some reason upon reading his story arc I was reminded of what I read about the young Pope Benedict XVI who was also a member of the Hitler Youth and also deserted.

    The Vanishing Sky presents a decent portrayal of what life must have been like for the everyday people in Nazi Germany during the waning months of the war. It captures the confusion of the war and utter hopelessness of the German people. It is a relatively short book and an easy read.