Well this was a complete impulse buy for me. I had never read anything by Boll before, and in fact all I knew about him was that at some point he'd won the Nobel Prize for Literature. But, I'm a sucker for a good recommendation, and Mr B's had just that. Plus the cover was all austere looking and made me think of 1984. So buy it I did.

When it arrived I was surprised (for reasons I don't quite know) to find it a very slim volume - only 140 pages - so it was a very quick read. Though this is not to say that it didn't managed to pack an awful lot into those pages.

It tells the story of Katharina Blum, a domestic in 1970s Germany. She goes to a party at her godmother's house, where she meets a man, spends the evening dancing with him, then goes back to her apartment with him. The next morning, police break into her flat to demand his whereabouts - turns out he is a wanted criminal. Blum is taken in for interrogation as the police believe she must have helped him to escape her apartment block, which has been under surveillance all night.

The rest of the story tells of the interrogation, the ensuing press reporting of the case that is horrible flawed and utterly smears Blum, and Blum herself, who finally murders the reporter writing all the slurs about her.

But the plot isn't the point of this novel - indeed you are told all of the above on the back cover of the book. It's the narrator that makes this book special. It can only be assumed that the narrator is Boll - there is no reason to think otherwise. He tells the story in a completely clinical way and seems to remain emotionless, in juxtaposition to the frenzied, sensational reporting of the newspapers. But there is a certain anger bubbling below the surface, just detectable, that carries the reader along.

I'm aware that I'm not explaining this terribly well, which is why I'm not a professional book reviewer. Hmm. But it's very good. Promise. ( )

This book pissed me off!! Not Mr Heinrich Böll... not his language... not the story. The damn press that is the central 'bad guy' in this book! Böll did an excellent job presenting his case. I could feel his anger, his disdain. It was tangible. And did I mention... it pissed me off? I think I would have done the exact same thing if I were wearing her heels.

One thing i found evident, Böll did hold contempt for the press, for politics, for religion (but thought highly of art). It came out in this forensic-like detailed tale of an innocent victim of these powers. And like the plague, her relations and friends, those around her, were infected with it also and suffered.

Sad thing is this stuff really does go on and on and on... I'm not talking about the feeding frenzy around the Spears and Lohans who seem to invite such press, but the truly innocent ones who become unknowingly players in a game that is too big for them.

Good read, but it should make you angry. ( )

A sobering look at the power of the press and its ability to abuse it. The book opens with the arrest of Katharina for the murder of a newspaper reporter. It then proceeds to look at the events leading to the murder through the notebooks of the policemen involved. What unfolds is a damning indictment of a right-wing press which attempts to occupy the moral high-ground by destroying innocent lives for the sake of political preaching and good copy, and is as relevant today as 30 years ago, when it was written.
The notebook style breaks the prose down into bitesized chunks, and the dry style, befitting a policeman's notebook, is a brilliant technique for highlighting the events without the author directly engaging in making moral or political judgements. At slightly over 100 pages, this is a quick and easy read, but at the same time it is powerful and touching. It poses important questions about the role of the press as a 'moral compass' and the insidious imposition of political agendas onto an unsuspecting public. Excellent.

Saw the film of this today and was reminded what a fine piece of work it is. Katharina is a remarkably sympathetic character, her dignified life ripped up just as love gives her the hope of happiness. The blinkered police and self-serving tabloid press give the novel further resonance, but it is Katharina's intensely sad story that lingers. ( )

Great novel, and prescient, about bartering liberty, in the form of privacy, to protect society from terrorism. This was made into a movie, perhaps in the late 70's or early 80's. Boll won a Nobel prize, at least partly on the power and merit of this novel. ( )