“Billiards at half past nine” ( German “Billard um halb zehn” ) is a novel of the West German writer Heinrich Böll , published in 1959 . Formally, the novel takes place within one day - September 6, 1958, however, using the memories of the characters, the story captures the events of the past years. At the center of it is the story of the Femel family from the end of the 19th century until 1958. It reflects Boll’s disgust for the Nazi period, as well as for the war in general [1] .
| Billiards at half past nine | |
|---|---|
| Billard um halb zehn | |
| Genre | Novel |
| Author | Heinrich Böll |
| Original language | Deutsch |
| Date of writing | 1958 |
| Date of first publication | 1959 |
| Publisher | |
Story
In the center of the story is the family of the Femels, which includes three generations of architects : Heinrich Femel, his son Robert Femel, and Joseph, the son of Robert.
Leonora, secretary of Robert Femel, describes Robert as well as the small joys of her ordinary daily life. Robert is meticulous in everything he does. Robert's old friend arrives at the office , but Leonora sends him to the Prince Heinrich Hotel, where Robert spends every day from half-past nine to eleven. The man searching for Femel was called Nettlinger. Having come to the hotel, he demands to take him to Robert, who played in the billiard room. However, the hotel employee Jochen, who was at that moment behind the reception desk , does not allow this, guided by Femel's desire.
Upstairs, in the billiard room, Robert tells Hugo, the fight from the hotel, about his life, and the reader finds out that Nettlinger was one of the policemen. Robert and his friend Srell, who were classmates with Nettlinger, were opposition to the Nazis, they were not going to take the "buffalo communion." Srell disappears after being beaten by Nettlinger and gymnastics teacher Ben Wex, also a policeman. Nettlinger and Wex not only beat Srell and Robert, but also corrupted his brother, Otto, who died in a battle near Kiev in 1942. His mother, Johanna Kilb, came to the clinic for the mentally ill , she was declared insane to protect her from the persecution of the police. Today Heinrich is 80 years old. Heinrich and Robert meet in a bar after visiting Johanna at the hospital, sitting and talking for the first time in many years. Meanwhile, Srell returned to Germany .