Aus Grosser Zeit

“From Great Times” – that is the ambiguous title of the book. The great times are always in the past when you are getting older. But these time described in the book were indeed great times for the privileged. Kempowski writes about his own family in Rostock , beginning with his grandfather William, who started a successful shipping company. On the go he dismantles the myth that you only have to work hard and you certainly will make a million. His grandfather worked hard, but he also married a rich woman, which allowed him to invest in the right place. It takes place in the second half of the 19th century. and till the end of the First World War. It tells the story how his parents got together. A nice approach is to tell the story by different people while the story is progressing and there is almost now overlap. One fact is always told by one person, but you can imagine how the other guys would feel in this situation. Every storyteller is talking about the Kempowski family from his point of view: servants, neighbors, war comrades. It gives you the big picture of the society and at the same time the story is advancing. It makes it more believable and you take always different points of view into account. It prevents you from having certainties. Each person has also his specific way of talking. I listened to it as an audiobook presented by the author himself. He reads it in the typical accent from Nothern Germany. That put an additional funny dimension to it. Foremost all, when you hear colloquial phrases everybody repetitively uses.
The great times in Europe were the years before the First World War when the economy grew and great scientific advances were made. But the book encompasses also in great detail the war and how people went to it with great, stupid nationalism and ingenuity. You get to know about the file at the front an at home. The books stops when the Second Reich with the emperor Wilhem II collapses.
I am very keen to read from Kempowski;s book series on his family.