Reading German Books in 2020 discussion

Zugspitze at 2.962 m - Tallest mountain in Germany, located in the Bavarian Alps

Read 11 to 15 books to achieve this level

Create a topic below to commit to this level

I think I should be able to do level 3/Zugspitze...at least one book a month is possible.

Moving up to Level 3 Zugspitze

11. Siegfried Lenz The Turncoat

How are you getting on with The Turncoat? Review on website going up tomorrow.

Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) wrote: "How are you getting on with The Turncoat? Review on website going up tomorrow."
Pro
I enjoyed this book enormously at the time of reading but even more so when I read all the endnotes. I did not fully comprehend the difficulties for the author in writing about a traitor at the time it was originally written. I am very glad in its final form it had both the parts included. Of course that would be a problem! Traitorous behaviour regardless of the circumstances.
I noted one other reviewer was confused when Proska changed sides. It took me a couple of pages before the penny dropped.
The interaction between the men in the forest camp was excellent, capturing exactly how people behave in groups, the boss, the pairings, the weirdness and so on. The tension when creeping around in the dense vegetation was very well written. Descriptions of the forest, trees and the river was excellent throughout.
One note which did not sit well for me was the love interest. it started well, the train meeting, but seems to go nowhere and the author's mention of Proska remembering that he had not written to her was the end of it.
It was such a good read and I am looking for another Lenz to read soon.