'Een Klein Leven' was al bezet, dus werd het 'De Drie Levens'.

Nochtans zou de eerste titel net zo goed gepast hebben (beter zelfs dan bij het eigenlijke boek): Josef Klein is immers niet alleen klein van gestalte, hij is ook zelden groot(s) in zijn daden.

Zijn onopvallende leven(tje) doet er eigenlijk niet veel toe.
Of toch?

Dat het uiteindelijk 'Drie Levens' werden, slaat op de drie belangrijke periodes in Kleins leven: een (mislukte) zoektocht naar het geluk in New York in 1939, de noodgedwongen terugkeer naar een verwoest Duitsland in 1949 en de vlucht naar Argentinië in 1953.

Dat laatste gedeelte doet heel erg aan 'De Reiziger' denken. Die postuum verschenen roman uit 1939 van Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz zou quasi integraal tussen pagina 204 en 210 passen. Dat een en ander daarin véél urgenter wordt beschreven, komt omdat de auteur het zelf aan den lijve heeft meegemaakt.

Dat is hier niet het geval.

Lenzes boek is namelijk gebaseerd op teruggevonden brieven van Klein aan zijn broer Carl.

Dat verklaart meteen de mildheid waarmee de auteur het verhaal reconstrueert, Josef is haar oudoom. Gelukkig hoeft dat geen bezwaar te zijn: met mededogen kruipt ze in het hoofd van de man en nodigt je als lezer mee naar binnen.
Of je zijn gedachtenwereld en drijfveren aannemelijk/ aanvaardbaar vindt òf je vooral ergert aan zijn laf- en besluiteloosheid, laat ze helemaal aan jou over.

Ik hou het op het eerste en dat heeft voornamelijk met de mooie melancholieke stijl van Ulla Lenze te maken.

Ze redt Jozef Klein van de vergetelheid en bezorgt hem iets dat hij nooit gehad heeft:

Een tweede leven.

Geen kleine verdienste.

2.5

I am not a fan of time jump books, I feel like all too often they are disjointed and take away from the story for me. I didn’t care for it in this book either. I also felt this book had no action, everything was a bit slow motion. That is an a bad thing, but it takes a certain mindset to read. It worked, but it is something to be aware of. I enjoyed the characters and the setting. I especially enjoyed the narrator‘s point of view a “Nazi Spy.” It was a fresh and different view of WWII events than I usually read. Overall I enjoyed the book, I’m not rushing to recommend but I wouldn’t not either.

*I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.*

Rounded up from 2.5 STARS. I received an uncorrected Proof of this book in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.

"You don't want to be in the wrong, buy you know that you are, and you're trying to keep it a secret from yourself." -198

Sometimes books suffer from telling you too much, and sometimes book suffer from not telling you enough. This one I felt suffered from the later. It was a translation, which maybe had something to do with it, but there were so many large gaps of time within the story. It was also told from 3 different timelines, none of which were all that far apart: We had New York 1939, Neuss Germany 1949, and Buenos Aires 1952, and the novel alternated between these 3 times/locations to tell the story. I felt like there were so many things I was missing and pieces of the puzzle that were impossible for me to fill in. The constant jumping around made me feel disconnected, and as soon as I would start getting into the story, it would flip. Overall it was a disjointed story that left me confused and with many lingering questions. I feel disappointed because I think this had a lot of potential. Josef comes to America as an immigrant, leaving behind his younger brother. In New York he gets a job at a print shop and in his spare time, enjoys tinkering around with his radio hobby. When approached by a man to assist him with his "business" that involves radio transmission, Josef accepts the offer. He knows something is off, but when he finally discovers what he has gotten himself involved in, he finds he is already in too deep and can't easily back off without double crossing the wrong people. Mixed into all of this is a woman he meets "on the radio" and this relationship is completely confusing, along with the relationship he has with his brother back in Germany and his brother's wife. Somewhat explored in the novel is what it was like to be a German in America at that time, but the whole thing was lackluster in my opinion.