Rate this book

Life Goes On (1933)

by Hans Keilson(Favorite Author)

3.42 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0374191956 (ISBN13: 9780374191955)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

review 1: I was expecting more from this book, but I think I will find the sequel "Death of the Adversary" more interesting. Life Goes On is an autobiographical novel about a German family struggling to survive an economic crisis in the early 1930s, just as the Nazi Party was rising to power. The book is mostly about the father, a shop owner, and his struggles with identity, pride and economic stability. He feels ashamed when his business falters as his store begins to lose customers and he must invent schemes to at least seem as though he is increasing his sales and competing with other store owners. He subsequently gets further and further into debt. Meanwhile, his wife begins to secretly go to neighbors and acquaintances for money and other needed items to maintain the household.... more The son finishes school and is in for a shock when he goes to Hamburg to live on his own. A friend of his also meets with adversity. This sets the stage for the unrest and disaffection of the German people as their economy crashes after World War I. The people must choose who to support: join the leftist labor movement or the national socialists.
review 2: 3.5 stars. First published in German in 1933, then banned by the Nazis in 1934, this novel has just appeared in English recently. The tale of a family and their hardships during the hyper-inflationary period and high unemployment following World War I, it looks at the same world as Hans Fallada's Wolf Among Wolves and Little Man, What Now? (though without the humor of the latter). Keilson was only in his early 20s when the book was written, so it's an impressive achievement. less

Download links for: Life Goes On

Advertising