I loved Days Without End. This is the sequel. It's set in the period following the war of independence when disorder is rife. The writing is again fabI loved Days Without End. This is the sequel. It's set in the period following the war of independence when disorder is rife. The writing is again fabulously lyrical and the author's empathy with his characters and ability to bring them to life is excellent. But it fell a long way short of its predecessor for me. It never quite rang true. A good novel gives the feeling the plot is being shaped by the characters. In this novel you feel the plot has too much control over the central character. Some of the things she does which the plot needs her to do don't make much sense. ...more
This novel has a single protagonist who we follow throughout his adult life. At the end of World War One he joins the Royal Irish Constabulary. BeforeThis novel has a single protagonist who we follow throughout his adult life. At the end of World War One he joins the Royal Irish Constabulary. Before long he is on an IRA death list and has to flee Ireland and leave behind his family and girlfriend. His homeless wanderings take him to France, America and Nigeria. I have to say I preferred the parts set in Ireland. When he's lost in the world the novel too seems sometimes on the verge of losing itself. It's written in very poetic language and on the whole a very fine novel. ...more
A comic novel set in Auschwitz is always going to be a hard feat to pull off but Amis' thrilling virtuosity with language quickly overrides all misgivA comic novel set in Auschwitz is always going to be a hard feat to pull off but Amis' thrilling virtuosity with language quickly overrides all misgivings. In fact Amis' comedy works better at evoking the sheer insanity of the Nazis than the gravitas of the soul searching later in the novel. The story revolves around the commandant's difficult relationship with his wife and the challenge a serial womaniser, a nephew of Martin Bormann, sets himself to seduce her. All the insane horror of the camp is thus a backdrop to an elaborate tussle of sexual pride. I can think of few writers who write better than Amis does....more
After reading Sarah Helm's brilliant non-fiction account of Ravensbruck, the Nazi concentration camp for women, I was curious to discover how it mightAfter reading Sarah Helm's brilliant non-fiction account of Ravensbruck, the Nazi concentration camp for women, I was curious to discover how it might be depicted in fiction. It's quickly apparent that the author's natural bent is for chick lit which throughout the novel makes appearances like damp on a wall and most apparent in the American character and her love affair with "the most beautiful man in the world". It takes most of the novel to understand what she's even doing in this book. Her other two narrators are a fictitious Polish girl, one of the "rabbits" operated on at the camp and the only female Nazi doctor at the camp. This is a real woman she's depicting and possibly the Nazi who most horrified me in the non-fiction account of Ravensbruck. It therefore was a brave move to try to get inside her mind. I can't say the author succeeded as she remains shadowy and there's little insight into how she could carry out such barbaric cruelty. The depiction of the Polish prisoner though is very good, especially her embittered unlikeability after the war. Nowhere near as harrowing as Sarah Helm's book but it's very well researched and written. ...more
A novel I'd have no reservations about recommending to everyone. An outrage is committed by British soldiers in a Spanish village during the war with A novel I'd have no reservations about recommending to everyone. An outrage is committed by British soldiers in a Spanish village during the war with Napoleon. To appease the Spanish an English corporal is instructed to find the commanding officer and kill him. He travels with a Spaniard, present to provide testimony the deed has been done. The novel's chapters alternate between the assassin and his prey. The English captain has no idea he's being hunted but has been mentally damaged by his experience of war. To avoid returning to his regiment he sets out for the Hebrides with a vague idea of learning the music of the islands. Miller's eye for historical detail is a constant delight and the world he evokes brilliantly vivid. The plot fizzes with dramatic tension. And of course there's a great twist....more
Trieste is a work of documentary fiction about Holocaust survivors. The author invents a female Jewish character who has a child by a Nazi. One day whTrieste is a work of documentary fiction about Holocaust survivors. The author invents a female Jewish character who has a child by a Nazi. One day while her back is turned the baby is snatched from its pram. What happened to him remains a consuming mystery to her throughout her long life. Hana discovers the child's father is an SS officer. A monster who reigned at various death camps, including Treblinka. Her desire to track down her son take her deeper and deeper into the incomprehensible insanity of Nazism. Her son, we learn, was snatched as part of the lebensborn project and then adopted by a German family. When his dying mother reveals to him he was adopted he too is constrained to research the holocaust. The text quotes lots of first hand accounts of Nazi atrocities. An incredibly clever and powerful book. ...more
There were times when this book reminded me of the film Billy Liar. A young man fantasising himself as the hero of a succession of adventure stories. There were times when this book reminded me of the film Billy Liar. A young man fantasising himself as the hero of a succession of adventure stories. This book contains a preface by the author in which he tells us this is a true story but urges us to read it as a novel of biographical fiction. Initially, our hero helps Italian Jews escape over the Swiss border. This for me was the most engaging (and believable) part of the novel. He is then urged by his parents to work for the Germans. He secures a job as driver for the head of the organisation Todt in Italy, General Hans Leyers. A young Italian boy with film star good looks (there's a photo of him) who drives a Nazi general about every day and wears a swastika armband for six months is going to need an exonerating excuse at the end of the war. Of course he's going to say he was secretly working for the Allies. He'll be shot or lynched otherwise. He has a fight with both his brother and best friend who are appalled he's wearing a Nazi uniform. His work though is so secret he can't tell them about it even though he's told his girlfriend who is the maid of the mistress of the Nazi general so potentially much more of a security risk than his own brother. Pino is not hired as a spy. His supposed spymaster is his uncle. We're told nothing about his uncle's credentials or contacts. His role is never officially verified after the war. The wireless operator is the novel's invisible man. He pops up about three times in the entire novel known only by a code name and doesn't feature at all at the end when the author tells us what happened to the various characters after the war. The information Pino gets is essentially all stuff the allies would have got from other sources. What else doesn't ring true is the hatred Pino professes to feel for his boss. Leyers likes Pino, they spend every day together, they share a mistress in the same apartment and even share a moment of danger together when the car is strafed by a spitfire. Another clue this is fiction and not fact is the reappearance of Pino's nemesis (a bandit who humiliated Pino up in the mountains) in a highly implausible location towards the end of the novel. We know life can be stranger than fiction but very rarely is it tidier than fiction. We learn Pino became something of a playboy in America after the war. This in itself tells you something. He doesn't come across a man with a social conscience. Pino is in his eighties when he finally tells his story. In other words everyone who could disprove it has died. Ultimately I would guess about 80% of this novel is fiction. But it's a very clever marketing ploy to present it as a true story. That said the author does a good job of researching his material and making it on the whole an enjoyable read....more
I've got no qualms about giving this one star because it's got a higher average rating than Hamlet, War and Peace and Pride and Prejudice. (Damning evI've got no qualms about giving this one star because it's got a higher average rating than Hamlet, War and Peace and Pride and Prejudice. (Damning evidence we're not perhaps evolving as a race!)
Romantic fiction is a bit like self-assembling furniture. There's no craftsmanship. Every interlocking component is functional. I skimmed through reviews and sometimes saw it described as beautifully written. It isn't beautifully written. The author has a rudimentary command of language. What she does though is describe beauty a lot.
You expect some research in a historical novel. There is little evidence the author knows anything about Venice in 1939. The Venice depicted is the tourist's Venice. The approaching war is a flimsy painted backcloth, a prop to heighten the romantic adventure. Venice used as a marketing tool. The author only needed to read one memoir by an Italian Jew to know Italian Jews were never made to wear the yellow star. A google search would have informed her that in 1943 the ghetto in Venice was largely a historical site not an active reality. Wikipedia would have informed her the Allies were not in Umbria in 1943. Neither has the author bothered to learn anything about the act of painting despite her character supposedly being a talented artist. She comes across as a child colouring with crayons. And neither has she bothered to learn anything about wireless operators and the world of secret ops despite her character supposedly transmitting vital information about shipping movement back to London. Her understanding on the complexities and dangers of this occupation is non-existent. Instead the narratives fixes obsessively on what the character eats, what canals she's swanning down and, of course, all the ins and outs of her feelings for her Italian aristocrat.
I'm probably taking this book too seriously. It's meant to be harmless escapism and who gives a monkeys if it's littered with historical inaccuracies and inventions? I suspect its appeal on a certain kind of woman (few, if any, men would enjoy this book) isn't dissimilar to that of soft porn on the imagination of adolescents back in the day when the world was more innocent. It titillates romantic fantasy....more
A somewhat flimsy and flippant tale set in world war two Italy. It begins with a fisherman rescuing a young feisty Jewish girl who has escaped the SS.A somewhat flimsy and flippant tale set in world war two Italy. It begins with a fisherman rescuing a young feisty Jewish girl who has escaped the SS. The fisherman soon turns into an action hero, a role his brother plays as an actor in the film industry. The plot becomes as implausible as it is senseless. Essentially we get the love story of a flawed but admirable man going to the rescue of an idealised young woman, sufficiently independent and intelligent to appeal to modern taste. There's an awful lot of banter between characters which serves little purpose and a backstory of brotherly rivalry. Never though came alive for me. ...more
A group of political emigres have taken refuge in Paris in 1938 and set up a clandestine newspaper opposing fascism. When the editor is murdered it woA group of political emigres have taken refuge in Paris in 1938 and set up a clandestine newspaper opposing fascism. When the editor is murdered it would appear OVRA, Mussolini's version of the Gestapo, is behind the killing. Carlo Weisz, a journalist for Reuters, is in Spain when the murder takes place reporting on the Spanish civil war. He now becomes editor. His work with Reuters takes him to Berlin where he falls in love with a high connected German woman who is involved in opposing the Nazis.
The Foreign Correspondent is very well researched and the period detail is good but, though it was an enjoyable read, for me it often lacked the tightness of plot and suspense to keep me fully engaged. ...more
An earlier taste of Hilary Mantel's dark fascination with individuals who lose their heads. This isn't quite as accomplished the Cromwell novels. The An earlier taste of Hilary Mantel's dark fascination with individuals who lose their heads. This isn't quite as accomplished the Cromwell novels. The focus is more fidgety. It's an aspect of writing I suspect she learned a lot about while writing this novel with its huge historical canvas. The story of the French revolution is here told through two of its chief protagonists, Danton, Robespierre and a lesser known friend of theirs called Camille Desmoulins. And it's Camille and his wife Lucile who become the stars of the show. Hilary lavishes as much love on Camille and Lucile as she would later do with Cromwell. And as was the case with Cromwell she uses Camille's enemies to crank up the dramatic tension. The baddie in this book is Antoine Saint-Just, known to history as the "angel of death" and boy does Mantel get you hating him!
A Place of Greater Safety is an utterly compelling, exciting and moving way of immersing yourself in the events and mechanics of the French Revolution. And underneath all the high drama it's also a story of betrayed friendship, personified here by Robespierre....more
WW2 chick lit. I should have abandoned it early but toiled on until the end. A young woman inherits her Italian mother's war diary and sets out to ItaWW2 chick lit. I should have abandoned it early but toiled on until the end. A young woman inherits her Italian mother's war diary and sets out to Italy to solve a mystery. It was excruciatingly cheesy and formulaic. I saw all the so-called twists early on. You might say it's a love letter to Italy but it's Italy seen through the sentimental lens of the two week tourist. Not a novel for anyone who expects some creative engagement with a book. It felt like the product of corporate market research. ...more
It's the end of the second world war and everyone is telling lies about the part they played in the conflict. Stefano claims to be an Italian soldier It's the end of the second world war and everyone is telling lies about the part they played in the conflict. Stefano claims to be an Italian soldier who fought with the Germans but was imprisoned when Italy changed sides. He is making his way back to Italy when he meets an orphaned young boy and feels compelled to take him under his wing. They take refuge in a house but are discovered by a former German soldier. There's clearly something sinister about this man. In the house next door there's another former German soldier and his wife. This soldier is shellshocked and addicted to drugs. The novel is split into four narratives, becoming five later in the novel. Each chapter also features flashbacks, showing us the wartime experiences of each of the characters. Though the author sustains much of the mystery by withholding information. What this novel does best is show how much emotional damage the war did. It's a competently written and very well researched novel. The reason it didn't warrant five stars for me was I felt the author rather overegged the melodrama towards the end. The withholding of key information at times was a little heavy handed. And she used the same scenario at least a dozen times - showing someone on the verge of being killed who later we discover miraculously escaped. It became a little predictable as a ruse. It also got a bit over complicated. But on the whole an edifying read. ...more
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