Customer Reviews

The Good German

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First I must tell you that I don't typically read books like this one, but I love it! It is fast-paced, based in historical fact, suspenseful, and romantic. The imagery really takes you back to 1945 Berlin as it struggled to find its way, despite the ravages of war. You can empathize with the soldiers (both Russian and from the Allied Powers), and the German citizens as they dealt with death, distruction, poverty, guilt, and violence. In every chapter there is something to keep you reading and wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book.

Since reading it, I have passed it on to two other people who have loved it as much as I did.

Kanon has no pretensions to be a literary genius. He tells a good story, though, and this tale of mysterious-goings-on in post-war Berlin is educative and fast-moving, even if the ending is a little convenient and too delayed (perhaps the book should be shorter). It is written in that personal present-tense screen-play style which is not everyone's cup of tea. Still, the film is out there (a Clooney production) and the book is worth a read if you liked the film and probably vice-versa.

I loved this book. It's by no means a great work of literature, but it delivers a compelling story, intriguing characters, and ponder-worthy moral questions. Maybe a little too conspicuously moralizing, but after all, the book's setting (Berlin in the aftermath of Germany's loss to the Allies in WWII) presents an array of moral conundrums. Must be hard for a period writer to resist.

Surprisingly, there are also interesting parallels to be drawn between postwar Berlin and postwar Baghdad... I guess the issues associated with occupation are largely universal.

This was a book I never wanted to put down, though I was frequently obliged to. Last night, though, I read the last third straight through.

A great pleasure.

This is not the great American novel by any means but was a good, involved story that kept my interest through the entire book. Also contained some good insights regarding Berlin immediately following WWII.

First a disclaimer: I like my mysteries with atmosphere, context. Next I like characters. And least-most, a twisty plot or its cousin: fast, page-turning action. I can watch hair-raising chases on TV. With a book, I want to chew on the words, not race thru them. I want to investigate a new place, or maybe explore some cultural scene (like with Kinky Friedman saving Abbie Hoffman in New York in his detective novels--why else would I read the Kinkster's rotten prose except for his smelly atmosphere? or with Donna Leon in her believable, cold, wet Venice.)

The Good German starts all atmosphere, but quickly gets a Hitchcockian plot going after a strange two-bit murder that feels force fed, especially when the rest of the world is investigating millions killed. The novel plods along, and I must admit explores some interesting alleyways, but then towards the end, all turns Bondian and an action-packed thriller emerges. The endgame hunt for fascist rocketeers did not need a catchy macguffin to carry the plot. I know I am picky-too much action at the end; forced murder at the beginning. But, all in all, the book is worth reading. Its images of Berlin just after WWII, along with US Army recruiting of Nazi's with hot rocket design resumes and only a few mass murder problems, challenge our new post-modern nostalgia.

I love to read both history and historical novels dealing with Europe in the period around World War II. This is a good, fast-paced story with some memorable characters, and, as a historian of the period, I believe it is quite accurate in its depiction of events and attitudes of the time.

Long, slow, dull, predictable. A mindless plot that wouldn't challenge a ten-year old and supported by stick-figure characters who would be believable only to a Hollywood executive. The plot is dependent upon a level of coincidence that only Charles Dickens would accept.

The book's saving grace is its predictable, trite "love scenes" which allow the reader to flip through 25 or 30 pages without bothering to read.

Like Charles Cumming's "Typhoon", this book wasn't clear whether it was supposed to be some sort on Simple-Simon mystery or just a mindless romance. Thus, it reads like a draft of a pitch-script for Hollywood.

My suggestion is that if you like the era Kanon attempts to cover you would be far, far better off reading Furst or Downing. Even Kerr - who insists on saddling the reader with tiresome wiseguy dialogue and tedious rants against businessmen - covers the era with much superior plot and character.

"The Good German" is a cookie-cutter book custom built for the morons in Hollywood. They deserve it.

Did I struggle with this book. Buried beneath 500-plus pages of complicated story-telling is a worthy suggestion of the murky post-war 'appeasement' of Nazi scientists by a technological America desperate for their expertise. Once that's out of the way every other aspect of the story brings on a huge 'Who Cares?' The only thing I cared about was how long it was going to take me to get to the end (answer: far too long).

I've seldom come across characters I cared about less since . . . let's see . . . ah yes, 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian'. Although here the characters are bumped off willy-nilly in ridiculous shootings and Wild-West-style set pieces.

The shooting of a Russian general, a (relatively) formative character in the first half of the book is never referred to again. The 'love interest', such a driving force in the beginning, fizzles out like a wet firework.

The same, of course can be said of this plodding, boring novel. On a long plane journey you'll find the clouds more exciting.

I loved the book and couldn't put it down. It is so good that the feeling and rhythm of it stays - long after you have put it down. I am moving on to another of his books.