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Almost Like Spring (2002)

di Alex Capus

Altri autori: Vedi la sezione altri autori.

Serie: Kurt Sandweg und Valdemar Velte (1)

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714371,471 (3.38)14
With brilliantly vivid irony, a mosaic of voices tells the true story of Switzerland's most notorious bank robbers: Kurt Sandweg and Waldemar Velte. As 1933 draws to a close, the pair arrive in Basel from Wuppertal, Germany. Rebels on the run, they are searching for an escape from the confines of a callously regimented society left impoverished by the Depression and the onset of Nazi power. However, their desperation leads them to a realm outside reality, on a destructive path of vengeance for the world's abhorrent lack of justice. Resolute on their doomed mission, neither expected to fall in love. Seen through the benign eyes of Dorly Schupp, the agonising humanity of their relationships are sharply juxtaposed against the reckless cruelty of their crimes. Yet in a world equally heartless and unremitting, who should shoulder the blame? Capus relates the portrait of these chillingly charismatic figures in a curious blend of documentary and narrative where precision of detail collides with an economy of emotion, and leaves the desolation of their situation stark and blindingly poignant. Suspended between the tragic and comic, Capus's novel mimics the absurd idiosyncrasies of life where often nothing but interpretation is left to determine the sacred from the profane.… (altro)
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In Almost Like Spring, Capus tells the riveting story of a series of bank robberies in Switzerland in the mid-1930s. He begins the book like this:

This is the true story of Kurt Sandweg and Waldemar Velte, two bank robbers who set off for India from Wuppertal in the winter of 1933/34, intending to travel there by sea. They only got as far as Basel, where they fell in love with a shop assistant who sold gramophone records and bought a tango disc from her every day. My maternal grandmother went for a walk with the bank robbers on two occasions. A police squad almost shot my grandfather in open countryside because he vaguely resembled one of them.

This is the fourth novel I’ve read and enjoyed written by Capus who writes in a kind of oral storytelling tradition and with an irresistible “charm” (someone else’s word, not mine). He often writes about real people or events in history but when rendered in his style, the stories seem almost-but-not-quite legend or folktale-like, the effect lends us the space to see something…well…different. Reading his short novels, the four that are available in translation, has been pure pleasure and I look forward to reading more. ( )
  avaland | Feb 1, 2016 |
Ce très petit livre (140 pages) est basé sur un fait divers de l’hiver 1933-1934. Deux braqueurs allemands, au lieu de fuir en Inde, s’arrêtent à Bâle après être tombé amoureux d’une vendeuse de disques. Au cours du livre, ils braqueront encore, en faisant encore des morts et semant le trouble dans la ville suisse.

Alex Capus ne nous raconte cette histoire ni du point de vue des braqueurs, ni du point de vue des vue des policiers, ni même de celui de la vendeuse de disques mais de celui d’un narrateur extérieur qui a la particularité d’avoir des grands-parents qui ont vécu cette période. Plus particulièrement, sa grand-mère était l’amie de la vendeuse de disque, qui l’avait invité le premier soir pour ne pas être seule avec les deux hommes. Or, la grand-mère était plus ou moins acquise au grand-père et donc l’expérience n’a pas été reconduite (en fait, ils ne se supportaient pas, étaient très maladroits ensemble mais tout le village les voyait ensemble). La vendeuse de disque se retrouve seul avec les deux hommes avec qui elle se lie d’amitié (elle est divorcée d’un mari qui la battait et vit seule avec une mère pas drôle du tout) tout en ne sachant pas qui ils sont, bien sûr. C’est cette histoire que raconte le livre.

Cela a été pour moi une très bonne lecture car l’histoire est entraînante mais surtout Alex Capus la raconte très bien. Il mêle les souvenirs qu’il a de ses grand-parents à un travail sur les archives de police, les journaux et les témoignages de l’époque. Il arrive à incarner ses personnages, à les rendre humain et à faire de l’humour dessus. La vendeuse hésite à dénoncer les braqueurs après avoir su qui ils étaient. En fait, ceux-ci, malgré le nombre de morts impressionnants qu’ils sèment, sont gentils et ont une bonne raison pour faire ce qu’ils font. Ils sont même lettrés et ont une grand conscience du danger qui monte dans leur pays. Alex Capus décrit aussi une époque : celle d’une société marquée par la première guerre, en pleine mutation mais encore emplie d’un grand sens des convenances.

Ce n’est pas inoubliable mais à mon avis, très appréciable. ( )
  CecileB | Nov 30, 2013 |
Slightly disappointing: it looked like an interestingly quirky hook for an historical novel, but Capus doesn't really manage to do anything very special with this rather sordid story of two 1930s bank robbers from Wuppertal. Part of the problem is that Sandemann and Velte were evidently not very sympathetic characters: incompetent robbers with a tendency to panic and shoot people. The fact that they were well brought-up young men who didn't approve of the Nazis doesn't really cancel out their unfortunate habit of murdering bank clerks, Swiss policemen and random passers-by. Capus tries to hang his story mostly on the men's friendship with (or courtship of) a Basel shop assistant, but that doesn't give him enough to build a novel on, so we get an awful lot of padding of one sort or another. The only bit of this peripheral stuff that really works is his account of his own grandparents' brief involvement with the robbers. ( )
  thorold | Jan 1, 2013 |
... ( )
  Clairinne |
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» Aggiungi altri autori (1 potenziale)

Nome dell'autoreRuoloTipo di autoreOpera?Stato
Alex Capusautore primariotutte le edizionicalcolato
Brownjohn, JohnTraduttoreautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato

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dtv (13167)
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Das ist die wahre Geschichte der Bankräuber Kurt Sandweg und Waldemar Velte, die im Winter 1933/34 den Seeweg von Wuppertal nach Indien suchten.
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With brilliantly vivid irony, a mosaic of voices tells the true story of Switzerland's most notorious bank robbers: Kurt Sandweg and Waldemar Velte. As 1933 draws to a close, the pair arrive in Basel from Wuppertal, Germany. Rebels on the run, they are searching for an escape from the confines of a callously regimented society left impoverished by the Depression and the onset of Nazi power. However, their desperation leads them to a realm outside reality, on a destructive path of vengeance for the world's abhorrent lack of justice. Resolute on their doomed mission, neither expected to fall in love. Seen through the benign eyes of Dorly Schupp, the agonising humanity of their relationships are sharply juxtaposed against the reckless cruelty of their crimes. Yet in a world equally heartless and unremitting, who should shoulder the blame? Capus relates the portrait of these chillingly charismatic figures in a curious blend of documentary and narrative where precision of detail collides with an economy of emotion, and leaves the desolation of their situation stark and blindingly poignant. Suspended between the tragic and comic, Capus's novel mimics the absurd idiosyncrasies of life where often nothing but interpretation is left to determine the sacred from the profane.

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