Customer Reviews

Infinity of Mirrors

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The novel takes place during the Nazi period in Europe. It captures a considerable number of nuances of the prewar Europe as well. Ironies, twists of fate, belief and disbelief are all there. It would make a tremendous film in the proper hands

This is a very well-researched and highly plausible historical novel of the Nazi era in France and Germany. The 2 main characters are a German army officer and a French Jew who fall in love and marry, and their respective attempts to live with the contradictions inherent in such an arangement at the times and places of the story.

Both characters are essentially decent people, with emotions and reactions understandable to the reader, and so it is possible to imagine some of the sensations and dilemmas one might feel when one is caught within the machinery of a formerly rational nation being transformed into a speeding, insane, and murderous juggernaut. Indeed, as a citizen of the post-2001 era USA, these sensations seemed chillingly real.

Being published in 1964, when the USA was in the full thrawl of the myth of American Exceptionalism, I imagine that the initial audience would have had a harder time imagining the characters' plight.

If you have not read Condon before, you will find that he is a little heavy on the telling, less heavy on the showing. To put it another way, you won't have to slog through 7 pages of description of Aunt Gertrude's broach on the way to finding out how the protagonists meet. Condon gives you a great story, and is able to give a vivid portrait of his characters, without making you wade through a lot of poetic, yet gratuitious, fluff.

I discovered this book by accident in my favorite used book store. I highly recommend it.

A WELL WRITTEN FICTIONAL LOVE STORY WITH HISTORICAL FIGURES INVOLVED AT VARIED PLACES. WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO ENJOYABLE IS THAT HISTORY ISN'T TOSSED IN AS JUST A BACKDROP. IT'S THOUGHT THROUGH AT EVER STEP.