It is the first day of November and it is the start of German Literature Month hosted by Caroline from Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Lizzy from Lizzy’s Literary Life. This event steps into its second decade today, and it is one of my favourite reading events of the year, and so I am very excited!
German writers are famous for their novellas and so I thought I’ll start with one. I’ve wanted to read Heinrich Böll for a long time and so read his first book ‘The Train was on Time‘.
Andreas is a soldier in the German army during the Second World War. When the story starts, he is deployed into the Eastern Front. Andreas has a premonition that he is going to die soon. He even roughly knows where. He calculates the when while he is on the train and he is filled with dread. But he meets two fellow soldiers on the train, and an easy camaraderie develops between them, and they start hanging out together. One of them taken on the leadership role of the gang, and takes the other two under his wing. What happens after that forms the rest of the story. Does Andreas’ premonition come true? You have to read the book to find out.
I loved ‘The Train was on Time‘. The dread of a soldier going out to war is so beautifully and realistically depicted in the story. The camaraderie of the three soldiers and the experiences they share is also wonderfully depicted. In the second half of the book a character called Olina makes her appearance, and the long conversation that she has with Andreas is one of the beautiful and magical parts of the book. Heinrich Böll’s prose has the classic long sentences loved by German writers and is a pleasure to read.
One of the things that I discovered through the book was Sauternes, which is a French sweet wine. I love learning about new wines, and I love dessert wines and so this was a pleasurable discovery. My favourite dessert wine is a Canadian icewine called Inniskillin. Now I can’t wait to try Sauternes. So exciting!
‘The Train was on Time‘ is a nuanced war novel (or an anti-war novel). It is also a beautiful love story, though not a conventional one.
I’ll leave you with some of my favourite passages from the book.
“Soon. Soon. Soon. Soon. When is Soon? What a terrible word: Soon. Soon can mean in one second, Soon can mean in one year. Soon is a terrible word. This Soon compresses the future, shrinks it, offers no certainty, no certainty whatever, it stands for absolute uncertainty. Soon is nothing and Soon is a lot. Soon is everything…”
“It’s a terrible thing to maltreat a person because that person seems ugly to you. There are no ugly people.”
“Suddenly he realized they were already in Poland. His heart stood still for a moment, missed another beat as if the artery had suddenly knotted, blocking off the blood. Never again will I be in Germany, Germany’s gone. The train left Germany while I was asleep. Somewhere there was a line, an invisible line across a field or right through the middle of a village, and that was the border, and the train passed callously over it, and I was no longer in Germany, and no one woke me so I could have one more look out into the night and at least see a piece of the night that hung over Germany. Of course no one knows I shan’t see it again, no one knows I’m going to die, no one on the train. Never again will I see the Rhine. The Rhine! The Rhine! Never again! This train is simply taking me along, carting me off to Przemy´sl, and there’s Poland, hopeless hapless Poland, and I’ll never see the Rhine, never smell it again, that exquisite tang of water and seaweed that coats and clings to every stone along the banks of the Rhine. Never again the avenues along the Rhine, the gardens behind the villas, and the boats, so bright and clean and gay, and the bridges, those splendid bridges, spare and elegant, leaping over the water like great slender animals.”
“He waited until it was dark. He had no idea how long it took, he had forgotten the girl, forgotten the wine, the whole house, and all he saw was a last little bit of the forest whose treetops caught a few final glints from the setting sun, a few tiny glints from the sun. Some reddish gleams, exquisite, indescribably beautiful on those treetops. A tiny crown of light, the last light he would ever see. Now it was gone … no, there was still a bit, a tiny little bit on the tallest of the trees, the one that reached up the highest and could still catch something of the golden reflection that would remain for only half a second … until it was all gone. It’s still there, he thought, holding his breath … still a particle of light up there on the treetop … an absurd little shimmer of sunlight, and no one in the world but me is watching it. Still there … still there, it was like a smile that faded very slowly … still there, and now it was gone! The light has gone out, the lantern has vanished, and I shall never see it again…”
Have you read ‘The Train was on Time‘? What do you think about it? And, which is your favourite sweet / dessert wine? 😊
I like this his later books read so different to this one I’ve reviewed a lot over the years I may get to him this month as have a couple left to read by on my shelves
Glad you liked this one, Stu. Very interesting to know that his later books are very different to this one. Nice tlo know that you are thinking of reading some Heinrich Böll this month. Will look forward to finding out which books you read. Happy reading 😊
I’ve only read The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, but I’ve got a couple of his on my wishlist…
I’m not keen on dessert wines, but I can occasionally be tempted by a Stella Bella Pink Moscato!
See stellabella.com.au/product/2021-Stella-Bella-Pink-Moscato
Nice to know that you’ve read The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Lisa. I want to read that. Thanks for telling me about Stella Bella Pink Moscato. Let me see whether I can find it.
Great quotes Vishy! I read this back in 2014 and loved it a lot – such a fascinating book!
Glad you liked it, Kaggsy 😊 Such a wonderful book, isn’t it? Will stop by soon and read your review.
I think I didn’t read this but I have a most exquisite bottle of Sauternes here. It’s the king of sweet wines. There’s a nice one from Hungary too. I rarely drink alcohol so the bottle has been here a few years. It was a birthday present. Some Sauternes are among the most expensive wines you can get. Google Château d’ Yquem. 😋
Oops – this emoji looks like it’s sticking it’s tongue out. It’s meant to say « yummy ».
Don’t worry, that is the ‘yummy’ emoji 😊
On the iPhone it looks a bit questionable 😁
😄😄
This is so nice, Caroline! King of Sweet Wines – I love that! I am dying to try it now 😊 Will read up on Château d’Yquem. Thanks for telling me about it 😊
It’s absolutely delicious. Château d’Yquem is the Rolls Royce of Sauternes. In the 90s you could buy a bottle of a really old one, but the prices have gone up. I’ve been told some years are collector’s items. But you can find others that are very nice too. I hope you get to try it. It’s so lovely. The bottle I have is from some small winery.
So nice to know that, Caroline 😊 Thanks for telling me more about Sauternes, especially Château d’Yquem. I can’t wait to try it 😊
I pressed enter too quickly. I’ve never had ice wine. It sounds delicious too.
This sounds like a typical Böll. Not sure why I didn’t read it. I know I would like it.
I hope you get to try icewine and like it. Inniskillin is really wonderful. If you get to read this book by Böll, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I want to read your two favourites, The Clown and The Silent Angel 😊
I will try to find the wine. It would be great to taste it. The Clown is special to me. It’s among my all time favorite books. I hope you’ll like it. He’s not read that much anymore in Germany. I suppose because he was very religious.
Hope you enjoy icewine 😊 I’ll try to read The Clown soon. Glad to know that it is one of your all-time favourites. (Do you like it as much as your other favourite ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Continis’? 😊) Sad to know that Böll is not read in Germany anymore.
I don’t know whether to be very excited or be very afraid about the fact that you are launching into this new event, focussing on a new set of authors from another country…my TBR is quivering.
Thank you 😊 I always try to read German literature in November. Such rich literature in that language.
I have not read this book and I don’t think I’ve tried a dessert wine, but would gladly do so if offered a glass.
Hope you get to try dessert wine. It is wonderful! This book is great too 😊
[…] Bernhard Concrete 1 Berthold Eagles of The Reich 1 Bogdan The Peacock 1 Böll The Train Was OnTime 1 2 Women in A River Landscape 1 Boschwitz The Passenger 1 2 3 Bronsky Barbara stirbt nicht 1 […]
Thanks Vishy. I came to The Train Was on time via your blog. It is a wonderful journey