On Bended Knees - May 2022 Book Group discussion thread

11 watchers

McGoohan May 2022 9:16pm, 19 May 2022 51,387 posts	0 McGoohan Another thing I didn't like about it was that I read it straight after Among Others which is also semi-autobiographical, deals (in part) with Jewish-German heritage and in which sod all happens. They were really very similar books, sort of wanting to tell an autobiographical tale but on realising that wasn't all that interesting throwing in a few larger than life characters to make it a bit more of a book.
Hanneke May 2022 9:36pm, 19 May 2022 89,074 posts	0 Hanneke Well, I found it, in the footwel of the car... And started reading it... I shot through 1/3 of it in one hour and it bores me to tears. As it is such an easy read, I will finish it but so far also disappointed...
LindsD May 2022 10:50pm, 19 May 2022 54,708 posts	0 LindsD yes. That. I was the 4
westmoors May 2022 6:15pm, 20 May 2022 6,181 posts	0 westmoors Can't say I liked this. The two halves (ignoring the interlude) felt like two short stories. Couldn't see the relevance between the two (other than they had the same protaganist). Hated the second half; mainly due to the despicable Herr Poppel. Will read the rest of the thread now.
Chrisull Jun 2022 10:40pm, 8 Jun 2022 19,278 posts	0 Chrisull I've finished it, I gave it the top marks so far of 6, mainly just to confound McG saying no one had given it 6. I need to talk to about it, it is very keenly observed and the observations it makes as relevant now as when it was written, it brought back a load of memories, being a child/teenager who got to straddle these two worlds English/German - I shall probably write a blog concerning it. I think some of the lampooning of the English is particularly sharp as observed from a Germanic standpoint, but also the inability of some of the surviving Germans to see they had done anything wrong, and the postwar generation they gave birth to, to exist in this uneasy state of amnesia. But yeah there isn't any story, and most of the threads are just left irritatingly hanging. I also didn't like the first half of the book, until the arguments between the narrator's mother and her parents in law, which again felt uncomfortably close to home. (My uncle hated my father while demonstrating no empathy of what he might have gone through). I liked it's screw you attitude, and giving voice to sentiments you don't often hear, and that the English rarely consider. But yes ultimately unsatisfactory.
Hanneke Jun 2022 12:37am, 9 Jun 2022 89,940 posts	0 Hanneke Ultimately unsatisfactory indeed. I was deeply bored with it until he went to Germany. It got more interesting then but I could not shrug off my annoyance with a lack of story line. Disjointed observations, no matter how well worded, do not make a very good read... It did pick up sufficiently for me to give it a 5.5 though 😎
Columba Jun 2022 9:05pm, 16 Jun 2022 21,798 posts	0 Columba Finally finished this book for the second time, having done my usual trick of going straight back to the beginning to re-read. "On bended knees" - an emotional sort of title, beseeching, imploring; but emotion, especially the protagonist's, is rarely referred to but left to be inferred. Which I rather like. There's not much of a plot. Things happen, but there isn't really a story-line. Quite happy with that, too. At first I was wondering why the adults (in the early part, where Tomas is aged 7+) all seemed to be so eccentric. Then I realised they are all war-damaged. If I had been to Berlin (especially before the wall came down) I would probably have appreciated the book still more than I did. I shall offer it to OH, who was aged 4 when the war broke out, and 9 when it finished, and who is sure to know Berlin, and probably Potsdam and Dresden as well, having travelled a lot in europe.
Columba Jun 2022 9:29pm, 16 Jun 2022 21,799 posts	0 Columba (Having read back) LindsD said: There are so many interesting and thought-provoking stories to be told about divided Berlin and dealing with Germany's past, but this is not one of them. No, it's not, but I don't think it tries to be. It's not so much about Berlin and dealing with Germany's past, as about the warping effect that the war had on people who went through it. The younger ones, - Tomas, Katharina, Petra, - are all more-or-less flourishing, but not so Otto (interned by the Russians), Frau Poppel (who got him back, but so emaciated she could pick him up and carry him, tall though he was), Petra's aunt (who wasn't an aunt) whose life has effectively ended with the death of her only son.
Hanneke Jun 2022 9:36pm, 16 Jun 2022 90,216 posts	0 Hanneke I went to East Berlin before the wall came down, and west... It certainly helped in my appreciation of the Berlin part.
LindsD Jun 2022 10:24pm, 16 Jun 2022 55,165 posts	0 LindsD Thank you Columba I also went both pre and post Wall but for me , perhaps it contributed to my disappointment with the book. I would have enjoyed it had I had fewer expectations, I think.