BRUCKNERSTRASSE

Novel, Nazi Germany; 1944"" -- another one but with a different tack: the ordinary people who live on Brucknerstrasse in a small Silesian town wear a badge of guilt no less condemnatory than the officials and soldiers directly involved in Hitler's war. The older generation include: Richard Krueger, a political scapegoat rained of all feeling; Groener, his brother-in-law, the local ""swine"" with an active azi history who continues to influence Krueger; the barkeeper, the baker, the refugee with sons lost or gone to the front; and the younger generation-- Klaus and Alfred who have returned as wounded soldiers with bitter hatred their major motif; Klaus' sister Helga, disillusioned; and for contrast, a Belgian prisoner at forced labor in the town. Both generations are lost-- lost to pity, incapable of innocence, but uite capable of brutality. The enemy does reach Brucknerstrasse but not in time to destroy it; it has already destroyed itself...the characters are well done and the story is satisfactory, if a little bald at times; but the author's point in her first novel is quite clear-- the Germans were not ignorant of what they were doing and as such cannot be absolved.