Charlie Rose

helmet  06/21/2012 03:40 PM Report

Erik Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts" suggest a very different Hans Fallada than the person suggested here in this interview. Goebbels scripted endings to his novels. Larson quotes Thomas Mann saying "A stench of blood and shame" is associated with books compromised under the Nazis. I think the writer probably struggled between his work and wanting to stay alive and made compromises that don't play well in movies or interviews but are what real living people do. It's unfortunate that this interview is not honest about this because it gives a slanted view of what good people do under extreme stress. Good people and artists sell out too. The forces are too terrifying and strong. But it doesn't make them terrible people. I think we are all better served when courage is understood honestly and not at super human levels. This interview makes Fallada sound as if he stood up against the Nazis but instead he kept compromising with them hoping to stay alive, as nearly all of us would. I am not familiar with "Every Man Dies Alone" but if it were written with the urgency expressed in this interview, perhaps it was Fallada's way of making up for some of those compromises. To me, that would make for a much more interesting interview.

unclehelmut  06/08/2009 10:17 PM Report

Schillinger ends the conversation saying the book is gripping. She's right. Somehow Melville House has decided that we should have a chance to read a book like this. Let's just be thankful for Melville's choice to publish, for the book and what it stands for: individual choices and conscience still count.

Dennis_Johnson  04/16/2009 05:33 PM Report

Jake, I'm sorry you think it all comes down to personal greed. I'm sorry, that is, for your sake -- that's an awfully limited way of thinking. I mean, really? You think someone gets into book publishing to make money? You think there's big bucks in selling translated fiction?

REMant, you can read about the difficulties Hans Fallada faced when the Nazis discovered his book had been made into a movie by Jewish producers, such as the revocation of his ability to sell foreign rights and his eventual placement on the Undesirable Writers blacklist, in Jenny Williams' biography of Fallada, More Lives Than One.

Jake  04/16/2009 12:25 AM Report

Re: the first comment: Anyone involved with the publication of a book, be he or she editor, writer, or publisher--who appears on tv is there for one reason:to promote the book of course, and "sell it."

The interview was compelling but I had to keep reminding myself that the original idea for the book was not Fallada's, but came from someone else, as did the dossier upon which the book was based, the plot, the story, even the characters. Fallada, of couse, put it all together. No small accomplishment. Writing it in 24 days was no small accomplishment either (under the influence of morphine perhaps?)but such bursts of creative energy "under the infuence," as it were, of one drug or another, are not unheard of. One thinks of DeQuincy, Coleridge and any number of other writers.

REMant  04/15/2009 02:45 PM Report

Fallada was not exactly forgotten nor escaped film and TV production : http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0266325/ but only The Little Man was made outside of Germany. I don't know what Jewishness has to do with it, or with his other works save one. Can this be an advertising ploy?