The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Penguin Classics)

How the irresponsible practices of media makes an impeccable women a murderer

What a great book. The Volker Schloendorf film led me to it. I'd recommend both highly together or singly

Heinrich Boll (d. 1985) was one of the three greatest German novelists (along with Gunter Grass and W.G. Sebald) of the latter half of the 20th Century. This novella was initially published in serialized form in "Der Spiegel" in 1974. Boll wrote it midst public controversy in Germany over the reporting of political violence by a large-circulation newspaper, which Boll felt unduly transgressed the rights of individuals in a liberal democracy.Katharina Blum is an attractive young woman with a strong sense of honor trying to make a living, independently, in the restaurant/catering field and taking care of the homes of affluent professionals. She is the epitome of the capitalistic ethic, a young woman from a working-class background attempting to secure for herself a comfortable petty bourgeois existence. By happenstance, she ends up entertaining, as a romantic interest, a fugitive who, unbeknownst to her, is suspected (wrongly) of terroristic activities. She is ensnared in the investigation, and then spotlighted and hounded by the large-circulation newspaper (the "News"). The newspaper cloaks itself in the familiar homilies of a free press, but in actuality it wallows in the gutter of yellow journalism, and by the end of the novella it has sullied Katharina Blum, indirectly killed her aged and ill mother, damaged the lives of several unassuming friends of hers, and precipitated other unforeseen violence.In addition to its critique of sensationalistic, irresponsible journalism, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM also attacks the media's intrusion on individual privacy. Other themes or issues are wire-tapping, sexual harassment of attractive and socially vulnerable young women, the undue influence of the wealthy and connected, the hair-trigger readiness to accuse or tar someone as a communist, and Germany's repression of anything relating to Nazism.Boll writes the novella as an after-the-fact account or report (although it is not presented in chronological order). The style is rather dry and almost dead-pan at times, and Boll takes pains to carefully parse words and meanings and to be meticulous in word choice, in marked contrast to the reporting of the "News." The account is compelling; despite some stylistic quirks, the book quickly draws in the reader and is difficult to drop until finished. THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM is not great literature, but it is literature with a social conscience, it transcends the particular circumstances that prompted its initial publication, and its heroine is an especially memorable one.

An excellent book in a good translation. Generally superior to either the American or the German film. Recommended.

As always, excellent.

Böll has written some brilliant, penetrating books. I wouldn’t include this among his best. It’s pure satire. Too much tongue-in-cheeck, too “on the nose.” The characters are as thin as air. It’s an easy read, but I couldn’t wait for it to be over, honestly.What books by Böll should you read instead? The Clown, yes, is rightfully a classic. And The Silent Angel, his rediscovered first novel—a towering achievement.

This story of Heinrich Boell constitutes a deadly attack against an aggressively subjective, hysterically ideological and insidiously provocative press. This press pushes its readers to consider acts of violence even against innocent people.With their articles full of insinuations, its whorenalists tarnish the reputation of irreproachable people by using them as scapegoats in order to impart their message of hatred. Moreover, they work together with the secret services, 'our national body of the tape, the wiretap.'RelevanceThis story has lost nothing of its social relevance. Actually, the media all over the world are controlled by large financial groups. They became the mouthpiece of the powerful in this world, whose only aim is to defend, as Bertrand Russell said, their 'sinister interests'.These media conglomerates are trying to create for their audiences an entire virtual world, which has nothing to do with (the search for) objective truths (the facts). As Terry Eagleton rightly said, today 'a bunch of power crazed bullies dictate through their privately owned outlets what the public should believe'.Not to be missed.

I know that on the surface this book has some basis in West German attitudes and politics in the time of the pre-1989 divided Germany. And all of the web literature that someone read to me talks mainly about this historical foundation.But, for me, this book was reminiscent of The Stranger by Albert Camus. In the case of Katharina Blum, we have a character who is extremely normal on the surface - hardworking, law abiding, self-supporting. But her main feature is her self-integrity and her obedience to her own rules of life, as in the assistance she provides to a person sought by the police. After all, she has hitherto been highly successful in marching to her own drummer. Thus, she seems to me to be a "unique" hidden behind the veils of seeming conformity. Indeed, even her conformity is her conscious choice. In the last analysis, she is self-regulated and not societally regulated.This is apparent in her interviews with the police in which she chooses to alienate herself rather than to continue to conform as a good citizen. It is certainly true in respect to the "free press" which takes the form of sensationalistic tabloid in this book. The intrusion of society into her integrity, whether in the form of authority or in the form of a "treasured value" (i.e., the press), leads Katharina Blum to do something that is universally recognized as anti-societal and then to return to the rules of society. I wonder what might be her future beyond the ending of this book.This is really worth reading.

After reading the short book three times I finally get the incredible writing of this great man, Heinrich Boll.

To read. Delivered as promised, and I was kept updated on progress

Great book

A little harsh on journalists (who do of course deserve a lot of stick), but believable characters (and action) I really liked. Böll is my new favourite postwar German writer!

This is the second book I have read by Boll, the other being 'billiards...'. I've since become a fan of his. 'Katharina Blum' is a concise, yet powerful work of literature. Boll typifies the machinations of the gutter press in this fictional story. Just as relevant in today's political and cultural climate of guilty before proven innocent.