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Heinrich Boll. Mein trauriges Gesicht. Klaus Staeck, ill. Gottingen, Ger. Steidl. 1994. 42 pages, ill. DM 20. ISBN 3-882-43330-2.
The testimony of an increasingly productive writer in his early thirties, who was just beginning to publish, Mein trauriges Gesicht (My Sad Face) is one of Heinrich Boll's earliest stories, first published in 1950. It is reproduced here from volume 1 of the 1987 (1977) Collected Works, in bold, double-spaced print, and illustrated with photo collages by Heidelberg's renowned social critic via pop and poster art, Klaus Staeck.
The buyer of a bibliophile edition of a Boll story, suitable as a gift, is probably not at first sight delighted with these images: not sad faces but surrealistic heads are shown, depicting man nine times over as an absurdity, complementing visually the writer's message. Man's head and his thinking are common, ridiculous, or monstrous: a close-up of a...