The story described in The Vanishing Sky was one that
I was originally very excited to see.
Not being German, I was not sure what would be the story of these two
young German men who were fighting and living near the end of WW II. The two brothers and their trials and
tribulations were heart-wrenching at times as I tried to imagine what I would
have done and felt if either of these had been me. Their nuclear family was a bit of a enigma;
mother was about like any mother would be considering that both her sons were in
a position to lose their lives. The
father was living out his own remembrances from WW I and projecting his
experiences onto his children.
The oldest son had just returned
from the eastern front but his injury was not really physical but more deep rooted.
He was not able to eat and wandered in the community. In a war-torn country this was looked at
askance by neighbors. The younger son
was at a school/camp run by the Hitler Youth.
Here they learned the essence of adoration of the Fuhrer as well as how to follow orders – it was an
indoctrination camp basically. There was
tension among some of the boys. But when
the time came for them to be called to fight the Allies as all the adult
able-bodies were already committed or dead/injured.
The story seems to skip back a bit
and forth and is a psychological/sociological view. Some readers might not prefer this jumping
back and forth and even decide to put the book down half-way through it. The story depicted was probably reflective of
the times in Germany near the end of the war, which would have been confusing
and unsettled. The book is written this
way, I assume on purpose.
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