BARRACK 3 ROOM 12

by Marcel Haedrich ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 11, 1943

Reflective, analytical, severely honest, this is an unaccented record of life in a German prison camp as experienced by an assorted handful of Frenchmen in Barrack 3, Room 12. Save for a transposition of names, one can assume it to be nonfictional, and it should appeal to those who appreciated Koestler's Dialogue with Death. Haedrich lacks Koestler's brilliant introversion, but gives a sharp sense of this life of exile, imprisonment, monotony; the magnitude of trifles, the return to the petty and the primitive as the men are thrown back on ""essential preoccupations.....hunger, cold, fear""; the idealization of women and wives and children, the quest for God, the few sustaining hopes and make-believes; and paramount, the destitution of defeat. It is significant, though somewhat limited in appeal. Unfortunately, a too literal piece of translation makes it seem awkward in the reading.

Pub Date: Feb. 11, 1943

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Reynal & Hitchcock

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1943

Categories: FICTION