The Revolt of Gunner Asch

Original reviews calling this "the German Catch-22" do a bit of a disservice to the book, as they mislead readers into thinking this is a surreal comic extravaganza like Joseph Heller's monumental work. This book deals indeed with the absurdity ever present in military life, but it does so in a much more realistic and less antic way. Like Heller's Yossarian, Gunner Asch of the German army is acutely aware of the paralyzing stupidity inherent in military bureacracy and sets out to do something individual and self-affirming in opposition. But the adventures of the hero of Hans Hellmut Kirst's novel are mellow and low key by comparison. There is little that is laugh-out-loud funny in this book. Rather it is a gently amusing story, with a show more compelling, quiet drive that ends in a subtle but very satisfying punchline. I look forward to reading the follow-up books about Asch's further adventures. show less

Kirst served in the German Army in WW2. His experience energises this portrait of an artillery regiment in a garrison town in pre-war Germany. There is a current of nostalgia and sympathy in his portrait of small town Germany, and for what might be called the 'noble profession of arms'. Kirst's main target, however, is the absurdity of mindless militarism and the brutalisation of young recruits. The story is much lighter than this suggests, a fast paced satire that sits somewhere between Hasek's 'Good Soldier Svejk' and Heller's 'Catch 22'. The closet match (and a very close one) is Leslie Thomas's 'Virgin Soldiers' and 'Onward Virgin Soldiers' which covers much the same ground in the post WW2 British Army in Malaya and Hong Kong. The show more later Asch novels become much darker, and the satire more biting, before returning to a the theme of new recruits in the final novel of the series set in post war Germany, 'What Became of Gunner Asch'. A worthwhile read, as is the remainder of the Asch series, and Kirst's 'Night of the Generals'. show less

De grootse soldatentrilogie 08/15 beschrijft op fascinerende wijze, met waarheidsliefde en intensiteit, de verschrikkingen van de oorlog. In De kazerne wordt de lezer geconfronteerd met de wederwaardigheden in een Duits legerkamp, vlak voor het uitbreken van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Hier heerst nog de geest van het Pruisische militarisme: 'Befehl ist Befehl'. Net achter de horizon ligt het het komende conflict, dat ieders leven ingrijpend zal veranderen.

Kurzbeschreibung bei Amazon:
Teil 1 der 08/15 Trilogie.

Null-acht-fünfzehn war ein Universalwort des deutschen Soldaten über ständig wiederkehrende Typen, Dinge und Geschehnisse seines Alltags, Routinehandlungen, die ihren Sinn längst verloren hatten, über Schikanen und Qualen, die man hinnahm, ohne nach dem „Warum“ zu fragen.
Hass und Eulenspiegelei, Tragik und ein grimmiger Humor, Anklage und ein unerschütterlicher Glaube an die Würde des Menschen und den Sieg des gesunden Menschenverstandes geben diesem einmaligen Buch vom deutschen Soldaten das Gepräge. Anscheinend aber bleibt die bedingungslose Absage des Autors an den Krieg, an die Unmenschlichkeit und an die Mächte des Chaos.