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| Plot Summary of The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum |
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"
This powerfully affecting short novel was written in 1974
and is a searching but bitter analysis of urban German
society. Katharina is young, sensitive, competent and
hard-working. She is scrupulously honest, she keeps herself
to herself, she is well respected. There is a chance
meeting with an exciting young man, dancing, a night
together. Then her world is shattered. She turns herself in
- confesses to the murder of a journalist. She is
convicted.
This is her story, told in the form of an arid set of
police reports, supplemented by the lawyer's case notes and
a debatable but not quite injudicious element of hearsay.
This is a very American-style novel, the film influences
are fairly obvious. Heinrich Boll, 1972 winner of the Nobel
prize for literature, is credited in this work with being
one of the forerunners of this style in German literature.
The disjointed and even choppy presentation, starting in
the middle of the story, flashback and forth, the mixed
interpolation of choice details and trivia en passant make
the reading hard work initially. Many of the characters are
bit parts, uninteresting, and somewhat unpleasant. The
veneer of polite society is stripped away by the stress of
the situation. However, about halfway through the book many
of the treads come together - but only in the mind - they
merely coalesce, in keeping with the style there is no
great effort to summarise or synthesise. The reader must
supply this effort.
She is a victim par excellence. She is unobtrusive but
highly valued by her employers. She is a model of model
citizens, a manifold pillar of society. Then the small but
understandable slip, associating with a suspicious
character. Even the help she renders him is innocent,
almost reasonable. The tabloid press destroy her for a
headline - systematic, ruthless. Some of the recurring
metaphor is good but the execution is clumsy and
irritating: for instance, the apology by the writer that
the report is 'fluid', and the image of linking up puddles
of dirty water during the course of the investigation. But,
if read with the necessary concentration and forbearance,
this adds to the authenticity of the style. The flashes of
hard humour and ironic observation add to the atmosphere.
The ending is predictable but somehow you don't predict it.
You are too wrapped up with the lost honour of Katharina Blum.
"
Michael JR Jose, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of story
- 1960's-1970's
Crime & Police story
Yes
Story of
- sympathetic "criminals" on the run
- criminal falls in love with victim
- victim falls in love with criminal
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- homemaker
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- German
How sensitive is this character?
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an organization
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- journalist
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 5 ()
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Germany
City?
Yes
City:
- wealthy
- rude people
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Unusual Style:
- a lot of flashback and forwards
- written like a journal/diary/letters
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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Click here for more information about this book
Heinrich Boll Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Dave
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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