Little Man what Now?     by Hans Fallada, Translated by Susan Bennett Original title: Kleiner Mann was nun? Original language: German Published by Academy Chicago Publishers Pub. Date: 1990 Format: Paperback Dimensions: (in inches): 1.01 x 8.50 x 5.50 ISBN: 0897330862 Edition: REISSUE List Price: $17.95, £11.41 Buy online from Amazon.co.uk for £10.27 Buy online from Amazon.com for $12.57 Published by Libris Pub. Date: 1996 Format: Hardcover List Price: £13.50 Not available for ordering

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A set of colourful and sympathetic characters from the Weimar Republic period in Germany are assembled in one of the most successful books of its era. Although it deals with a society besieged by mass unemployment and political strife it’s humorous and positive in tone; enjoyable and often tender in its story of a young, hard-up couple trying to survive — with a baby on the way — in a harsh economic climate.

Little Man —What Now? is full of fascinating detail of urban life in this important and, in retrospect, disastrous period. It shows, no doubt realistically, how the German working class were divided between Nazi, Socialist and Communist viewpoints as well as the more minor but interesting details of apartment-block life, of Weimar fads like Naturism, of the pornography business in that time and the ins and outs of how department stores operated.

The ‘Little Man’ of the title is a well-meaning but timid character surrounded by magnificent larger-than-lifes; his mother, a sympathetic ageing trollop living it up for all its worth, his courageous young wife Lammchen, the veteran nudist and salesman Joachim Heilbutt and his mother’s fancy man, the jolly Mr. Jachmann.

Together they people an animated and enjoyable picture of Germany in the 1930s just before all hell broke loose under the great Austrian leader. First published in 1932, Little Man —What Now? has been recently retranslated and published in a beautiful new edition by a small publisher, Libris, who specialise in forgotten German classics.

‘«What a good idea of yours to come. Look around. It’s just the usual sort of den, hideous really but I don’t mind. It doesn’t worry me. It’s nothing to do with me.»

He paused.

«Do you see the nude photos? Yes, I’ve got quite a collection. Thereby hangs a tale. Whenever I move in anywhere, and put the pictures up on the wall, the landlady is always horrified. Some want me to move out on the spot.»

He paused again. He looked around him. «Yes, there’s always trouble to start with,» said Heilbutt. «These landladies are mostly incredibly narrow-minded. But then I convince them. One simply has to reflect that in itself nudity is the only decent state. That’s how I convince them.» Another pause. «My landlady here for example. Mrs. Witt. She was in such a state! ‘Put them in the chest of drawers,’ she said, ‘excite yourself with them as much as you like, but not in front of me...’.»

Heilbutt stared earnestly at Pinneberg: «I convinced her. You must realize, Pinneberg, that I’m a born naturist, so I said to Mrs. Witt: ‘All right, sleep on it, and if tomorrow morning you still want me to take the pictures down, I will. Coffee at seven please.’ So at seven o’clock in the morning she knocks on the door with the coffee tray, and I’m standing there, completely naked doing my morning exercises. I say to her: ‘Mrs. Witt, look at me, look closely at me. Does it disturb you? Does it excite you? Natural nakedness is without shame, and you aren’t ashamed either.» She’s convinced. She’s stopped grumbling about them. She thinks I’m right.»’ p201-202