Rating: 
Summary: A very good read
Review: Spanning from WWII to the 1980's is a very difficult task. To do this in 180 pages is near impossible. Mulisch does this successfully with The Assault. This story follows Anton as his family is murdered for simply having a member of the Nazi party dead in front of their house. Anton suppresses the memories of the events and restarts his live with his aunt and uncle. Through out his life though people continue to show up and jar his memory and desire to understand what happened. Mulisch could have made this story longer and no one would have complained. He is poetic in his language and lets his readers find the details instead of revealing them. The 5th star is absent because I felt the book had some political preachiness and it seemed unrealistic for the Anton character to move on the way he does. All in all it was a very good and quick read. Suggested for all ages.
Rating:
Summary: A very good read
Review: Spanning from WWII to the 1980's is a very difficult task. To do this in 180 pages is near impossible. Mulisch does this successfully with The Assault. This story follows Anton as his family is murdered for simply having a member of the Nazi party dead in front of their house. Anton suppresses the memories of the events and restarts his live with his aunt and uncle. Through out his life though people continue to show up and jar his memory and desire to understand what happened. Mulisch could have made this story longer and no one would have complained. He is poetic in his language and lets his readers find the details instead of revealing them. The 5th star is absent because I felt the book had some political preachiness and it seemed unrealistic for the Anton character to move on the way he does. All in all it was a very good and quick read. Suggested for all ages.
Rating: 
Summary: History is not black and white
Review: Thank you Harry. I read this book years ago and I can only recommend it to anyone that really wants to know what happened in Nazi-occupied countries. This is not necessarily about the Netherlands only. You may take any of the countries under Nazi rule. Mulisch describes what happens to a man who starts investigating into the death of his family during WWII and he slowly finds out that things were not the way people thought. History books may tell us facts but they cannot reveal the human tragedies that happen.
Rating:
Summary: Haunted by a history the victim wants to forget
Review: The most widely distributed Dutch novel and the source of a film that won the best foreign-language movie Academy Award in the late 1980s, Harry Mulisch's compressed (185-page) 1982 novel is a powerful account of a man who does not want to learn more about the trauma of his youth at the end of the Second World War, but cannot escape it. The Truth--a quite complicated truth--seems to seek him out and press itself on him. The non-hero eventually learns not only "whodunit," but why some puzzling events occurred. The novel is absorbing (I had to stay up and finish reading it) and superbly crafted. . . and more heartbreaking even than the initial horror of the boy losing his home and whole family in one night. My only doubt is about sparing a twelve-year-old from reprisals. Although such reprisals were more common Nazi practice in Poland and Greece than among conquered fellow "Aryans," I think that deciding to spare and help a nine- or ten-year-old would have been less open to question and that the perceptions of the 1945 night that are recorded could be those of a younger child.
Rating:
Summary: Haunted by a history the victim wants to forget
Review: The most widely distributed Dutch novel and the source of a film that won the best foreign-language movie Academy Award in the late 1980s, Harry Mulisch's compressed (185-page) 1982 novel is a powerful account of a man who does not want to learn more about the trauma of his youth at the end of the Second World War, but cannot escape it. The Truth--a quite complicated truth--seems to seek him out and press itself on him. The non-hero eventually learns not only "whodunit," but why some puzzling events occurred. The novel is absorbing (I had to stay up and finish reading it) and superbly crafted. . . and more heartbreaking even than the initial horror of the boy losing his home and whole family in one night. My only doubt is about sparing a twelve-year-old from reprisals. Although such reprisals were more common Nazi practice in Poland and Greece than among conquered fellow "Aryans," I think that deciding to spare and help a nine- or ten-year-old would have been less open to question and that the perceptions of the 1945 night that are recorded could be those of a younger child.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive!
Review: The novel is about one incident, but still spans 38 years. It starts when a police officer who collaborates with the German occupiers of Holland is being assaulted and shot. In revenge, the Germans burn the house in front of which he was found, but somebody had been dragging the body around... why? The main person, a boy from the house, loses his parents and brother in the killings that take place because of the assault. He grows up in another city, and becomes a doctor. His encounters with some persons (e.g. the son of the police officer) are being documented, and his philosophical musings over the subject. Only after 38 years he finds out what really happened... (I read the originial, Dutch version.)
Rating:
Summary: Makes you think....
Review: This book is more than just a thrilling story about Nazi retaliation in German-occupied Holland. Rather, this is very much a story about human nature. It's an insightful commentary on what people are all about and an exploration of motives behind people's actions.
Rating:
Summary: Makes you think....
Review: This book is more than just a thrilling story about Nazi retaliation in German-occupied Holland. Rather, this is very much a story about human nature. It's an insightful commentary on what people are all about and an exploration of motives behind people's actions.
Rating:
Summary: The assault on a German officer makes hell brake loose...
Review: This book should be read by everyone who is interested in the Second World War and the consequenses of this terrifying event. The main question is how to live with the memory of the horror of war; how to cope with people who were 'wrong' those days. Read this book and think about it. It's a must.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: this book was tottaly amazing. It had every feeling and it felt like i was there in the second world war. a definte book to look into for the Mulisch-lovers.
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