Hypocrites like Prelate Sommerfeld and Herbert Kalick are condemned in this novel, which ends with the protagonist playing the song "Poor Pope John" on the steps of a train station.
The protagonist of this novel believes that for someone in his profession approaching age 50, "there are only two alternatives: gutter or palace". A character in this novel who was attacked by the protagonist after calling him a "defeatist" later caused the death of a young boy by making him carry a loaded bazooka. Another character in this novel sent her daughter Henrietta to her death on anti-aircraft patrol and now runs a committee for the "reconciliation of racial differences", despite her earlier inveighing against "Jewish Yankees". Hypocrites like Prelate Sommerfeld and Herbert Kalick are condemned in this novel, which ends with the protagonist playing the song "Poor Pope John" on the steps of a train station. Its protagonist hangs out in Bonn making a lot of telephone calls to his Catholic family and moping about his lost love Marie, who has abandoned him for Züpfner. Hans Schnier is the title entertainer of, for 10 points, which novel by Heinrich Böll?
The protagonist of this novel believes that for someone in his profession approaching age 50, "there are only two alternatives: gutter or palace".
The Clown [or Ansichten eines Clowns; or The Opinions of a Clown]