SOURCE: A review of The Bread of Those Early Years, in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 3911, February 25, 1977, p. 201.

In the following negative review, Annan finds The Bread of Those Early Years typical of Böll's work.

Walter Fendrich, a washing-machine maintenance man, is the first-person hero of this novella [The Bread of Those Early Years;] twenty-three, Catholic, a virgin, and engaged to his employer's daughter, Ulla Wickweber. The story takes place in Cologne on a Monday in March during the early 1950s. Walter's father, a schoolteacher in a small town, has asked him to find a room for the daughter of a colleague who is coming to the city to train as a teacher. The moment Walter sees Hedwig he falls in love with her, both sexually and ontologically. In a semi-mystical flash he realizes that she represents an alternative way of life—less tough and less materialist...