Overview
"Alfred Andersch, whose many admirers included Thomas Mann and Max Frisch, was one of the foremost novelists of post-war Germany. He spent most of the war plotting his desertion from the Wehrmacht. "At a certain moment I chose to act in a way that gave meaning to my life, and from that time on that action became the axle around which the wheel of my existence revolved..."" When the opportunity arose at last, in the idyllic Italian countryside on the day of the Normandy landings in 1944 and until he was safely taken POW by the advancing American army, Andersch found himself in a wilderness, a place of freedom. The cherries he plucked from a tree were the cherries of freedom, and the taste of them was one Andersch had not known for all of the years of the Third Reich: the taste of freedom.Synopsis
"Alfred Andersch, whose many admirers included Thomas Mann and Max Frisch, was one of the foremost novelists of post-war Germany. He spent most of the war plotting his desertion from the Wehrmacht. "At a certain moment I chose to act in a way that gave meaning to my life, and from that time on that action became the axle around which the wheel of my existence revolved..."" When the opportunity arose at last, in the idyllic Italian countryside on the day of the Normandy landings in 1944 and until he was safely taken POW by the advancing American army, Andersch found himself in a wilderness, a place of freedom. The cherries he plucked from a tree were the cherries of freedom, and the taste of them was one Andersch had not known for all of the years of the Third Reich: the taste of freedom.
Library Journal
Best known for his novel Sansibar (an international best seller translated into English as Flight to Afar), German author Andersch (1914-80) was a young man when he was caught in the terrible whirlwind of Hitler's rise to power. Escape seemed like the best option, but since the author wasn't able to break out of his body, he initially exited into philosophy, literature, and art. Using fear, dread, reason, passion, and courage-the forces in which he believed-he consciously chose a life other than the one forced upon him, deserting the army and joining the Communist Party even as World War II was raging. Andersch's rambling coming-of-age story is grim, acutely self-aware, and written entirely in the first person with the barest taste of dialog. Not all American readers will be familiar with the people and political events referenced here, and how all this adds up to such a compelling book is a mystery-but it does. This book will appeal especially to those interested in the birth of a writer in Germany before and during World War II. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield Cty. P.L., VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.