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Billiards at Half-Past Nine

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 970 ratings · 59 reviews

Boll's well-known, vehement opposition to fascism and war informs this moving story of Robert Faehmel. After being drawn into the Second World War to command retreating German forces despite his anti-Nazi feelings, Faehmel struggles to re-establish a normal life at war's end. He adheres to a rigorous schedule, including a daily game of billiards. When his routine is breach...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published September 1st 1994 by Penguin Classics (first published 1959)

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Sep 07, 2010 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-bymr, lapl

Some of the most beautiful writing ever in this book: "Don't encourage the frozen memory to thaw; such frost flowers would only turn into dull dirty water and run down the pane. Evoke nothing, never expect to bring back childhood's austerity of feeling in adult souls grown soft..." Memory can be messy. What a father remembers may look completely different from how a son remembers it. This is especially true with a war thrown into the mix because suddenly the world stands on it's head and spins b...more

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Sep 07, 2008 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I almost missed an ultimately great experience with this book because the first pages did not seem to be repaying the effort. Unnecessarily esoteric, I thought.
But I gave it a rest, then plunged into the middle and, as in other cases, it became easy to like and impossible not to care about. It's a marvelous novel.

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Jul 16, 2012 Yashar Yashmi rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, review

*ستاره (از پنج ستاره): دو ستاره ی تمام*

یک کلاسیک مدرن. کلاسیک از آن جهت که شخصیت پردازی های آن واقعاً رنگ و بوی کارهای کلاسیک را به مشام می رساند و مدرن از آن جهت که روایت به شدت پیچیده و در هم تنیده، و زاویه ی دید پریشان و گریزپایی پی افکنده شده است. ‏

فصل اول کتاب دقیقاً مصداق همین کلاسیک مدرن است. شخصیت پردازی ها همه سر جای خودشان است . شما اطلاعاتی را به دست می آورید که شاید واقعاً تا به آخر داستان به دردتان نخورد با این حال همین اطلاعات به درد نخور است که خواننده را به کاراکترهای کتاب نزدیک...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Three generations of Germans, two world wars, a lot of deaths, destruction and guilt in between. That's a good way of summarizing this book.

Central character is Robert Faehmel. Strongly antiwar, hated the guts of Germany's militaristic leaders during both world wars yet, due to circumstances of self-preservation, became a commander of retreating German forces [mainly due to his expertise in blowing things up:] during the waning days of the second war and was responsible for the senseless demolit...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Rob Atkinson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel is one of the quintessential works of 20th C. German Literature, dealing as it does with the haunted legacy of Nazism, Germany's collective guilt in the post-war years, and the burden of memory, as reflected in the account of one German family, the Faehmels. Their history unfolds through the reminiscences of three generations, Grandfather, Father, and Son, all architects by trade; it eventually goes back as far as the old man's arrival in Cologne in 1907 and ends with the single, fate...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Hubert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone.

Shelves: fiction, history, european-history, international-writers-book-club

A damning indictment of early 20th century Germany through the lens of three generations of a family of professional architects. Although the events take place within a single day in 1958, the characters invoke memories, flashbacks, and stories which demonstrate how old wounds are never wont to heal quickly. The author investigates the consequences of extreme nationalism with great psychological insight.

Böll is a master at distorting the reader's sense of time in order to convey a sense of natio...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Marc L rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Een eerste keer gelezen in 1987 en ik was toen al behoorlijk onder de indruk. Böll geeft op een heel beklemmende manier weer hoe Duitsland in 1959 nog helemaal niet klaar was met het naziverleden (in de roman is geen sprake van nazi's, in de plaats verwijst Böll constant naar het Sacrament van de Buffel, maar dat laat niks aan duidelijkheid te wensen over). Het gegeven van de drie generaties en hun omgang met de abdij van Sint-Anonius (de grootvader bouwt die, de zoon blaast die op en de kleinzo...more

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Nov 29, 2009 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It has been almost a month (and seems much longer) since i finished reading this book. It has been sitting next to this keyboard ever since. I haven't discussed it with friends. I haven't been tempted to share my thoughts in any way. That's about as tepid a 4-star assessment as possible.

#1 of all #1s: completely disregard any blurbs to the effect of "The interruption of this routine by an old schoolmate and former Nazi who has become a power in German reconstruction triggers a conflict both abso...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Charles Puskas rated it 4 of 5 stars

My wife and I are going on a Rhine river cruise this month and I wanted to read a novel reflecting 20th century Germany by an author in the area. The author is from Cologne and much of the novel concerns this city. The time span of the novel covers most of the 20th century with characters denouncing the war policies of both Hindenberg and Hitler. In the Second War those who follow Hitler partake of the Host of the Beast. The lambs are those vulnerable creatures who choose to resist, though in th...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Venus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

امروز برای اولین بار فهمل با او تندی کرد بهتر بگوییم کار به خشونت کشید . حدود ساعت یازده و نیم بود که تلفن کرد و همان لحن صدایش خبر از چیزی ناخوشایند می داد . این ارتعاشات برای او نامانوس بود و درست به این دلیل که کلمات درست ادا می شد لحن صدا او را به وحشت انداخت . تمام ادب و اداب در این صدا تا حد فرمول تنزل یافته بود درست مثل اینکه فهمل به جای اب به او هاش دواو تعارف کرده باشد

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Oct 06, 2011 Marko rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't quite believe the blurb on the back, that the novel "encompasses the ENTIRE GERMAN EXPERIENCE," but Billiards at Half-Past Nine is quite impressive in its ability to show all three generations of the Faehmel family, before, between and after the two world wars. The narration is the most fascinating part of the novel, stylistically; the book is narrated for the most part in one-sided internal dialogue, moving from consciousness to consciousness of minor and major characters, as if the rea...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Cliff rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Heinrich Böll won the 1972 Nobel Prize for literature. If one wanted to be a little cynical, one could say that Böll was an 'acceptable' German writer of the time. He was a Catholic with no Nazi associations. At the same time, he had served on both the Western and Eastern Fronts as a non-officer combatant in the rather inappropriately named Wehrmacht (Defence Force) for the duration of World War Two and therefore could not have been said to have shirked his duty to his country. His family's hous...more Heinrich Böll won the 1972 Nobel Prize for literature. If one wanted to be a little cynical, one could say that Böll was an 'acceptable' German writer of the time. He was a Catholic with no Nazi associations. At the same time, he had served on both the Western and Eastern Fronts as a non-officer combatant in the rather inappropriately named Wehrmacht (Defence Force) for the duration of World War Two and therefore could not have been said to have shirked his duty to his country. His family's house in Köln was completely destroyed during the Allied air raids aimed at the civilian population. Like many Germans in similar circumstances, the family survived the subsequent winters by moving into and patching up a half-destroyed house in the vicinity to which anyone who could lay claim had been killed. Therefore Böll could even be said to have been something of a victim of the war rather than a prosecutor of it.

Reading Billiards at Half Past Nine in English translation many years ago (about the same time as the writer won his Nobel Prize) I was impressed by it. Re-reading it in German now, I struggled through the first sixty pages before giving up on it. Just to be sure that it was the book, and not my poor German, that was causing me the problem, I re-read some sections of the English translation.

The action of the novel takes place on a single day, September 6, 1958, but during the day various characters relate incidents from their past to others, so actually the content of the book deals with episodes dating as far back as the beginning of the 20th century.

I think the book is best described as a patchwork, in literary technique as well as plot. The narrative point of view continually changes. At times the narrative is taken up directly by one or other of the characters, at others it is told in the third person from the perspective of one or other of the characters, at others from the point of view of a detached, omniscient narrator.

Perhaps the changes in narative point of view are done with the purpose of providing a multifaceted view of each of the characters. If so, the experiment fails, because none of the characters receives a deep portrayal. As in other works of Böll that I have read - 'Das Brot der frühen Jahre' (The bread of the early years) and a collection of short stories - the characters are all minor variants on the same basic type - individuals who are unable to connect intellectually or emotionally with the society in which they live or with others.

Because the shifts in point of view frequently result in a storyline with little or no connection with the one preceding it, there is no continuity in the overall plot. If I had read on, my main motivation would have been to see whether the various strands were pulled together into a coherent whole by the end of the book but I felt this was unlikely to happen, particularly since what I had previously read of Böll gave me no confidence that he was able to provide a well-integrated structure to a story.

A further manifestation of the patchwork approach to technique is that sections of detailed realism, usually involving scenes of a mundane fashion and manifold repetition of certain sentences, alternate with sections of vague symbolism, to which the reader must supply his/her own interpretation. One suspects that these latter sections are intended to be interpreted as references to Nazism, while avoiding any specific descriptions of Nazi activities.

Not the least spark of humour or wit appears in the writing.

Probably would be most appreciated by readers happy to take the view that it is the responsibility of the reader, not the writer, to provide meaning to a novel (perhaps that was me, thirty five or so years ago). To say, as in the synopsis presently supplied, that 'Boll's well-known, vehement opposition to fascism and war informs this ... story' requires that sort of imaginative effort. (less)

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Jan 24, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Heinrich Boll, Billiards at Half Past Nine (Signet, 1962)

Heinrich Boll was a brilliant mystery writer. Moreover, he was capable of writing mysteries unlike anything seen before, mysteries that turned the genre on its head. He was also capable of expanding the mystery genre so that it not only bordered on, but crossed over into, literary fiction. Unfortunately, at one point Boll allowed the mystery to slide into the background and started to concentrate on the literary side of things. This leads...more Heinrich Boll, Billiards at Half Past Nine (Signet, 1962)

Heinrich Boll was a brilliant mystery writer. Moreover, he was capable of writing mysteries unlike anything seen before, mysteries that turned the genre on its head. He was also capable of expanding the mystery genre so that it not only bordered on, but crossed over into, literary fiction. Unfortunately, at one point Boll allowed the mystery to slide into the background and started to concentrate on the literary side of things. This leads to the inevitable question for the reader: what does a mystery novel look like when the mystery is absent, or at least so far in the background as to be unnoticeable for most of the
novel?

Billiards at Half Past Nine is your answer. While there are elements of mystery within the novel, the focus is less on what's going on around the characters than the characters themselves. This is not, in itself, a bad thing; the characters upon whom the focus rests, all of whom are members of the Faehmel dynasty of architects, are interesting enough, and it would take conscious effort to make the first half of twentieth-century German history boring in any way. We are shown that period of time through the eyes of various members of the Faehmel family in a series of recollections leading up to Heinrich Faehmel's eightieth birthday party in 1958. And were that the basis of the novel, it would have been a good, solid piece of literature; ultimately forgettable, but good.

Boll felt the need to add something else to it, and it is there that the mystery comes into play. In the opening scenes, Heinrich's son Robert, the present scion of the Faehmel dynasty, tells his maid that, while he is playing Billiards at a local hotel, he is only to be disturbed by certain people. Most of them are family, or other members of his business; there is one name, though, that stands out, because no one knows who this Schrella character is, or why Robert Faehmel considers him on a plane of import with the others. This part of the book is where it is lacking; one gets the feeling that Boll felt it necessary to impart complications into a novel that doesn't require them.

While it's a worthwhile read within the context of Boll's complete works, it's not a place for a novice to begn an exploration of one of Germany's finest novelists. The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum and The Train Was on Time are much better jumping-off points. ** 1/2 (less)

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Sep 14, 2012 Morgiana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classical, german

ich würde lieber 3.5 Sterne geben.
Sieht so auss ich muss mich wieder an den guten alten klassischen deutschen Romanen gewöhnen - war ziemlich interessant, aber irgendwie war es ein bisschen langweilig, konnte eigentlich keine Konnnektion zu Characters und Geschichte aufbauen.
Vielleicht ein anderes Roman (auf mein Tisch ist 'Wanderer kommst Du nach Spa...) werde ich ein bisschen mehr geniessen.
(und jetzt erinnere ich mich warum ich die deutschen Realisten wie Fontane gehasst habe...;)

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Nov 06, 2012 Darran Mclaughlin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: german

A little bit disappointing. For some reason I had a gut feeling I was going to love Boll but as it turns out I can only say I thought this was pretty good. Reading 2666 by Roberto Bolano, visiting the Gerhard Richter exhibition at the Tate Modern and watching the Baader-Meinhoff Complex in the last year got me interested in German post-war history, and I loved the Tin Drum by Gunter Grass. As it is I admired this book in parts but I don't feel compelled to seek out other books by Boll.

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Dec 06, 2012 H rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Apprentices, trucks, nuns. Life in the streets. I read this way back when in the 1970s, and I still like it. It begins as a course in Melancholy 1 but has a surprisingly cheerful ending. Well, sort of. I like the way the story is told--many voices, so much circling and obliqueness. And it never gives the reader what she wants--which, it turns out, is what she wants.

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Jul 03, 2012 Cooper Renner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though the actual events of the book all take place on one day in the late '50s, the memories and conversations of the various narrators arc back over half a century, looking into family history and the history of Germany in the first half of the 20th century. The word Nazi is never mentioned--unless I glazed over--but the Nazi period is very clearly referenced, and the complicity of the Catholic Church is implied as well.

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Feb 14, 2012 Jill Stafford rated it 1 of 5 stars

I joined a new bookclub in 2003 and this was the first book assigned. It took all of my will power to finish this book, but since I was new to the club, there was no way I was not going to finish it. It turns out that none of the members liked the book. Nine years later, we still talk about how awful it was!

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Apr 17, 2012 Jennifer Boettcher rated it 1 of 5 stars

Caveat - I can sometimes miss the point. That being said, if the point is buried under random stream-of-consciousness type monologues of a self-absorbed old man with a boring life I may never find it. I read half the book, I can't give anymore of my life to this novel - not even the Cliff notes version. I don't even care if the protagonist dies. In fact, because he wasted my time, I sort of hope he did.

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Feb 15, 2009 Christian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recht schwierig zu lesen, da die Perspektive oft wechselt; dies wird zum Schluss aber klasse genutzt, als der Schuss fällt. Im Nachhinein beim Nachdenken erschließt sich eine sehr interessante Geschichte, die ich während des Lesens in der Ganzheit so nicht wahrgenommen hatte.

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May 17, 2009 Mohamed rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this while working out in the gym. I liked the charcters. The story sheds light on life and thinking of other germans(non nazis)during and after war. I found it very intersting. But the book is more than that. I dont know how to explain it. But I enjoyed the book.

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Sep 21, 2012 AC rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels-german-writers

This is a wonderful, wonderful book -- and it has made me a fan of Böll -- the writing is lovely, humane, a spirit of dignity...

I found the ending somewhat less satisfying, as there were too many loose threads, and so the missing star. But this remains a wonderful read, and the discovery for me of a magnificent voice.

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Aug 10, 2010 Shokufeh شکوفه Kavani کاوانی rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

کتابهائ هاینریش بل همواره نفس آدم را بند میاورند و نمیتوانی تا تمامشان کنی ؛ آنها را به زمین بگذاری.

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Jan 18, 2012 Korovsky added it

Немного пафосная книга про несчастных немцев - сейчас для меня это чересчур. Может быть, в другой раз.

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Mar 18, 2010 Paul Servini rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature-german

A tale of coming to terms with the past and reconciliation set against the background of a family drama in post WW2 Germany.

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May 15, 2013 Rieka rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ich muss sagen, dass mich die Familie Fähmel wirklich berührt hat. Sie ist nicht nur ein Beispiel für Moral und Widerstandskraft sondern auch dafür das Geheimnisse und Lügen eine Familie viel eher auseinander bringt und die Mitglieder sich gegenseitig entfremdet als die Wahrheit. Die letzten Seiten habe ich förmlich verschlungen, da nur wenige Taten genügen die Vergangenheit aufzuarbeiten, Frieden abzuschließen und wieder in den Familienbund zu gehen. Einziger Kritikpunkt: manchmal hatte ich das...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Manuel Rios-Murillo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quizás lo deberían de leer los arquitectos y los que sufren de Bulli.

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Jul 29, 2011 Christy added it

Excellent! Moving and extremely thought provoking.

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Feb 21, 2009 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Incredibly excellent writing. What a mind.

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Sep 19, 2011 Kathryn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very compelling, if difficult to follow. Heartbreaking picture of the impact of both of Germany's wars on a German family.

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About Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Böll became a full-time writer at the age of 30. His first novel, Der Zug war pünktlich (The Train Was on Time), was published in 1949. Many other novels, short stories, radio plays and essay collections followed, and in 1972 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterizatio...more

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“Feelings can kill such good hard things as love and hate.” — 3 people liked it

“ - Хочешь, я сделаю тебя агнцем божьим в моей новой религии? Ты будешь знаменит и богат, они падут пред тобой ниц в ещё более шикарных отелях, чем этот. Ты, видно, новичок и плохо знаешь людей - их скуку можно разогнать только какой-нибудь новой религией, и чем глупее, тем лучше, - нет, убирайся, ты слишком глуп” — 2 people liked it

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