:snowflake: ~ Winter book challenge ~ :snowflake:

The book I go back to

every time I'm free and bored is

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The book's title in German is

"Ansichten eines Clowns"

which means

"Opinions of a clown"

The clown is a 1963 novel

by West German writer

Heinrich Böll.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔◥ PLOT ◤▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

The book is about Hans Schnier who is a twenty seven years old clown. He's from a VERY rich family.

Hans comes from a Protestant family, but he has never been religious.

Hans have to travel around the country to perform as an artist. So he's staying in a hotel.

He also has very serious financial problems

He's depressed cause the woman he has been living with, Marie, left him to marry someone else.

After Marie left him, he started to talk to himself and to become mentally ill.

(In fact, it was society, or to be more specific, religion, that takes his wife away and saw him ineligible to have a Catholic wife.)

He had a sister named Henrietta who was in her teenage years but their parents forced her to volunteer for anti-aircraft duty many years ago and unfortunately she never came back.

Henrietta died.

He also has a brother named Leo

Leo recently converted to Catholicism and is studying theology in college.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔◥ SOCIAL ◤▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

EFFECT

This novel reflects the German society under Hitler and in the postwar years.

It criticises many aspects of society such as political and religious beliefs, marriage issues, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants, the effect of war on families (a millionaire one), and many other things in the society of .

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔◥ FAVORITE ◤▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

QUOTES

"There is one temporarily effective remedy: alcohol; there could be a permanent cure: Marie. Marie has left me. A clown who takes to drink falls faster than a drunk tile-layer topples off a roof."

"There’s nothing more depressing for people than a clown they feel sorry for. It’s like a waiter coming up in a wheelchair to bring you your beer.”

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔◥ AN ADVISE ◤▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

I'm not familiar with the Catholic and Protestant. I'm not even familiar with the criticisms against .

It would be better to be educated on these matters before reading the book.

#Winterbookchallenge

Thanks for reading my blog , I hope you enjoy reading this amazing book ~