Book review: WHAT\u27S TO BECOME OF THE BOY? OR, SOMETHING TO DO WITH BOOKS
A memoir by Heinrich B611, translated by Leila Vennewitz New York, Penguin Books, 1985, 82 pp., $4 .9

Sarnoff, MD, Jeffrey R.

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Book ReviewRome to CologneW HAT'S TO BECO M E O F T HE BO Y? O R, SOMETHING T O DO WITHBO OKSA memoir by Heinrich B611 , t ran slated by Leila VennewitzNew York , Penguin Book s,1985, 82 pp., $4 .95Jeffrey R. Sarnoff, M.D .So me yea rs ago, whi le wa lking alo ng Rome 's Via d eL Corso, I sa w a sign: " RedLion Book shop-En gli sh Titles." I was learn in g my way around town- d ur ingmy first year as a medical st udent in Italy-a nd feeling a bit o ut of so r ts in thato ld culture th at was so ne w to me. Finding a book to read in English was awe lco me p ropositi on . Nest led amidst th e spy novels and murder mysteries was aslim vo lume e ntit led Th e CLown by Heinrich B611. Scan ning th e cover, I learn edth at B611 had received the 1972 Nobel Prize for Literature. As I opened it andbegan reading, I fo u nd tha t the book had a remarkably evoc at ive quality.W r itten in th e first person narrative st yle, the sto ry of an aging postwar WestGerman clown unfolded . Alie na te d an d increasin gly cyn ica l about his nati on 'sNazi past , the clown so ught to hold togethe r his mar r iage , hi s re lig ious faith , h ispolitical identity, a nd hi s act. In telling hi s story, the clown e licited strongemot io ns becau se B6 11 was so e ffec tive at interweaving polit ica l and historicalthemes with the plainest events of everyday life , such as smelling and tasting acup of fresh ly brewed coffee o n a cold, damp n ight in a dreary, sleepy Germa ncity. Grea t landmarks and wo rld events were made mea ningfu l in th e co ntex t ofan indivi d ua l's life , more by means of slowing down time to permit ca refulobserva t ion th an by means of th e drama used by so many authors. In a foreigncity m yself, I could understand the clown 's se nse of isolati on and lone liness. I didnot , fortunately, have to be funn y to have a fe w co ins in my pocke t.B611's clo wn has stayed with me, a nd thus, I suppose , B611 has done th e same.I was saddene d to learn that B611 died in July 1985 at h is so n's home near Bonn .H e was 67 yea rs o ld. B611 had wo n acclaim as an in ternational activist for writer 'sfreedom, and provid ed A lek sandr So lzhen itsyn with h is firs t shel ter in th e Westa fte r hi s expulsio n fr om th e Soviet U nion in 1974. Widely read from East toWest Germany, from the Sovi et U nion to Sweden, B611 ne ver rece ived mu chattention in the U nited States. Hi s books, th ough hard to find here , are worththe e ffort. .7576 JEFFERSON JOURNAL O F PSYCH I AT RYMost recently published in the United States, from Boll's recent wo r k, isWhat's to Become ofthe Boy? Or, Something to Do with Books. This work should be ofinterest for several reasons. Most importantly, it is a remembrance of lateadolescence by a man in his sixties, a man who lived in Cologne as a boy wh en theNazis were rising to power. The book addresses the development of theindividual's political, philosophical, and moral sense. Here was a boy wh o wasamong very few peers in not joining Hitler's Youth Movement. He was, itseemed, more at home with books than with flags . Before his grad uation, or" Certificate of Maturity," from secondary school in 1937, Boll, th e you ngest ofeight children , worried his mother. "What's to become of th e boy?" she askedaloud; she fretted about his introspective nature and propensit y for writingpoems. The basis for th e Clown 's alienation might perhaps lie in Boll's owncharacter; the man, as a clown, borrowed the nature of a ch ild , but Boll , as achild, very much acted the part of a man .Boll's adolescent stance, in differing from his peers' , as well as his paren ts'expectations, might have been difficult for many, but does not appea r to havebeen so for Boll, and I wondered, was it the presence, or th e absence , of certainqualities that would permit a person to develop so? Boll devoted his life tobooks-writing th em, and defending others' rights to do th e same. He has, thus,an swered his mother's question that star ts th e title o f th e presen t volume, byproviding a raison d 'etre that is also linked to th e question , why is this bookreviewed in this journal? It is precisely because this sectio n of th is j ournal has todo with books.Boll offers, on many fronts, unique perspectives. He tell s us, in his firstparagraph, of the two errors on his Certificate of Maturity: his date of birth , andhis profession. Boll had specified "book trade" for his diploma, but the schoolprincipal, without consulting Boll , changed this to "publishing." Boll wrote :"These two errors, which I cherish, justify me in regarding a ll th e otherparticulars, including my grades, with some skepticism" (p. 3). Refer ri ng to th eincorrect birth date: "that error permits me to entertain a certain doubt as towhether I am really th e person who is ce r tified th ereon as mature" (p . 3).This skepticism, of which Boll was conscious at the beginning of h is adultlife , persisted through his life, and through this book. Boll noted th at heacquired his education not so much in school, but on the way to school. Thegrammar schools of the era, he wrote , " p repared us not for life , but fo r dea th"(p. 36). The realization (p. 53) that " mate r ial survival took priori ty over pol iticalsurvival" had its adaptive function for this man who fought for Germany on th eEast and We st fronts , was wounded man y times, and eventually captu red by theAmericans.As in The Clown, this book is written in the fir st person narrative sty le, andpaints a vivid portrait ofa schoolboy' s life. Boll provides us with a richly texturedaccount of both his internal world and his external world, and in so doing,enables us to practically touch the intensity of the times, as this quotati on sho uldBOOK REVIEWSillustrate: (p . 7)Long before I knew Anouilh's pla y Tra veller Without Luggage, that waswhat I enjoyed being, and I still dream of being one. Hands inpockets, eyes open, street hawkers, peddlers, markets, churches ,museums (yes, I loved the museums, I was hungry for ed uca t ion , evenif not very assiduous in its pursuit), prostitutes (in Cologne th ere washardly a street without them)-dogs and cats, nuns and priests,monks-and the Rhine , that great gray river, aliv e and lively, besidewhich I co uld sit for hours at a time. . ."77

Rome to Cologne

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Rome to Cologne

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