I know I will get lots of likes on this review if I make some vapid topical political connection. Something something analogue to America something something Trump voters. So imagine I did that. But even though Kleiner Mann is even lesser known than Jeder stirbt für sich allein, I liked it a lot; there's just something it that spoke to me personally right now. Fallada has always spoken to me, maybe because the Grimm fairy tale from which he took his name (one of the Grimmest in the collection really) was just about my favorite as a kid. I respect the mellifluousness of the name "Fallada." Also, in this age of heightened concern for diverse representations, I would hasten to mention that his works uniquely, compassionately and honestly depict the poor, at least, to a greater degree than many other works or many other Western literatures.

So anyway - this book. A sad, simple portrait about sad, simple people struggling to get by, and the alienation that comes from being completely powerless in the face of enormous capitalist systems. Yet there is humanity and compassion in this book without it being a mere political soapbox. There are strange moments of humor mixed in with the heaping tragedy and the sense of doom that comes not from the Nazi-era but from the daily grind of poverty. I've been there. There but for fortune go I again.

Of course, the book takes on an additional poignancy because of Everything We Know about politics and history. It's like when you watch an old movie and feel sad because all the dogs in it are dead. Reading this, you know the ultimate spoiler already: that the vast majority of the characters, likable and not, died horribly in the war just a decade later. I'm very sad lately, and it feels like the world and my life are both falling apart, and this book just fit that in a useful way right now. And it's true I'd probably find the same relatable sad poignancy and hopelessness in an old shopping list Fallada wrote. But as I read this, I found myself lamenting the fact that I've only met about two people ever who have even heard of him; I wonder how many mildly viral online think pieces could be self-righteously shared about his books (This wouldn't be one of them).

Sehr eingängige, emotional aufwühlende, traurige, hervorragend erzählte Geschichte, die lediglich ein gewaltigeres Ende verdient hätte. Dennoch tolle Literatur!

Sincere, moving, unvarnished, unsentimental, still terribly timely. Unfortunately.