RETRO READS
IRON GUSTAV by Hans Fallada (Penguin £9.99)
Iron Gustav by Hans Fallada
Tyrannical father Gustav has problems with his family. All five children, rebelling against harsh parental discipline, go off the rails in this unflinching family saga set in Berlin in 1914.
At his pleasant home, Gustav runs a successful horse-carriage business but is losing control of his nearly adult offspring. Particularly moving is the fate of daughter, Eva, who becomes in thrall to a sadistic crook and sinks into prostitution. As war grips Berlin, Fallada’s characters experience poverty, hunger and hardship made worse by corrupt profiteers, politicians and army leaders.
Fallada captures the small tragedies of family life, the loss of dignity caused by unemployment, squalid housing and the misery of seeing civilised values destroyed.
This anti-war book, censored by Goebbels in the Thirties, is a gripping addition to modern German history.
REEF by Romesh Gunesekera (Granta £8.99)
Reef by Romesh Gunesekera
A big treat — and a resulting sadness — to discover Gunesekera’s magical evocation of a Sri Lanka on the brink of destruction.
Narrator Triton tells how he became a ‘houseboy’ (general skivvy) aged 11. His taciturn boss, Mr Salgado, is a marine biologist concerned about the deterioration of coral reefs. Triton, without a shred of self-pity, slaves away — cleaning, laundering, bed-making, weeding the chrysanthemums — and teaches himself to cook.
Descriptions of his mutton patties and baked crab stuffed with cheese, onion, cinnamon and herbs make you drool.
Into the bachelor household comes gorgeous, stroppy Nili and Mr Salgado is seduced. The domestic routine changes but Triton’s love-cake (ten eggs, butter and cashew nuts) goes down a treat.
Revolution rumbles, life never stands still and, as Triton observes in a wonderful 1994 novel that throbs with longing and loss: ‘It takes years to learn how other people cope with themselves, how they come to terms with the changes that always happen to them’.
The ending made me cry . . .
