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A review by ditten
Alf by Bruno Vogel
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Turns out, episotolary elements in war novels I've read in 2024 are what'll be my undoing. Oh, how they get to me ðŸ˜
This short book about Felix and Alf, two German teens in love at the beginning of WWI is a remarkable little read.
The boys meet at school, become friends, and fall in love. After enjoying a short time of innocent, youthful happiness together, Felix accidentally stumbles on a pamphlet detailing how homosexuality is a crime, and it rocks him to his core. To protect Alf from the knowledge that they're both sexual criminals, he distances himself from Alf who's devastated and in his despair enlists.
Originally published in Germany in 1929 (and then banned by Hitler and the Nazis a few years later), Alf is explicitly queer, and explicitly critical of the war, patriotism, religion, the criminalization of homosexuality, and hypocrisy in all areas of German society. Alf uses the ordinary lives of its teen protagonists to call out the double standards and willful ignorance of societal institutions like school and family, and as the introduction states, the book can be read as a call for "an outright gesture of rebellion against an entire society in need of fundamental moral, cultural and political change."
To have this book be published in 1929 feels like an incredible feat: bold, necessary, and ahead of its time. To have it still be universally relevant today feels achingly sad and humbling.
This short book about Felix and Alf, two German teens in love at the beginning of WWI is a remarkable little read.
The boys meet at school, become friends, and fall in love. After enjoying a short time of innocent, youthful happiness together, Felix accidentally stumbles on a pamphlet detailing how homosexuality is a crime, and it rocks him to his core. To protect Alf from the knowledge that they're both sexual criminals, he distances himself from Alf who's devastated and in his despair enlists.
Originally published in Germany in 1929 (and then banned by Hitler and the Nazis a few years later), Alf is explicitly queer, and explicitly critical of the war, patriotism, religion, the criminalization of homosexuality, and hypocrisy in all areas of German society. Alf uses the ordinary lives of its teen protagonists to call out the double standards and willful ignorance of societal institutions like school and family, and as the introduction states, the book can be read as a call for "an outright gesture of rebellion against an entire society in need of fundamental moral, cultural and political change."
To have this book be published in 1929 feels like an incredible feat: bold, necessary, and ahead of its time. To have it still be universally relevant today feels achingly sad and humbling.