Customer Reviews

Pavel & I: A Novel

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Dan Vyleta's novel PAVEL AND I was a revelation. Vyleta's blend of noir & historical fiction makes this a can't miss for WW II and Cold War espionage readers, German history buffs, and those (like me) who love a good whodunit. I've read some reviews comparing it to Kanon's The Good German, but this is a lot better. The writing calls on a literary tradition (Dickens, most prominently), but it doesn't depend on that. (In other words, you don't need to be a doctorate in anything to read - and dig - this novel.) In the most old-fashioned sense, Vyleta is a great storyteller.

Germany surrendered to the allies just over a year ago, but the occupation remains everywhere in the battered country divided up between America, France, England and Russia. Adding to the despondency is the weather is icy cold as 1946 turns into 1947.

American G.I. Pavel Richter remains in brutally freezing Berlin. His friend Boyd White arrives at his home asking for help as he has the corpse of a local midget to dispose of. Getting over his initial shock, Pavel agrees to help conceal the body in his place for now. However soon afterward Boyd is killed and Pavel learns the body living with him is a Russian double agent Suldmann whose delivery package is missing. Pavel's neighbors British Colonel Fosko and his prostitute Sonia along with German and Russian agents seek whatever Suldmann was carrying while Pavel just wants to get out of the mess he inadvertently finds himself in although he is in love with Sonia.

This is a fabulous historical mystery in which the atmosphere of Berlin just after WWI owns the well written story line. The prime players especially Pavel seem genuine. However the cast of a zillion support characters bring alive the war battered residents struggling with sustenance in any way possible as any pre war ethics mean nothing on an empty stomach; but intrudes on the main plot of deadly rivals competing to find Suldmann's cache.

Harriet Klausner

I stopped after the first couple of pages when I encountered this masterpiece: "...word had it not a woman there who had not been raped" (in Berlin by the Russians). I am not going to give a lecture here on how the world owes it to Russians for crushing Hitler at huge expense, or reminding everyone that Russia itself was being raped by the Germans for the previous 4 years. That phrase in the book is obviously an exaggeration, but it sets the tone for the book. And most readers don't even know that this is an exaggeration - they grew up on the same Hollywood junk as the author.
How would you like to see a book about a war in Afghanistan that would start with this: "There is not a person in eastern Afghanistan that did not lose a family member to an American bombing of innocent Afghan civilians". When you start arguing with an author, he will show you tons of documents and press reports about wedding parties bombed, and children collecting wood bombed, and women killed, etc.

Very good Post-World War II novel, kind of slow for a while but then it speeds up. Highly Recommended!

I absolutely love post-war Berlin thrillers and this is an impressive one - even more so given it is a debut effort. Berlin 1945-50 is such fertile ground for intrigue with former Nazis, the various occupying powers, street urchins, and people just trying to survive. Vyleta paints a tight canvass with the city a bleak and claustrophobic back drop. He fills it out with a strong cast borrowing creatively from Dickens. Readers will be fascinated by British Colonel Fosko but will have to reserve their true admiration for the main character and the book's narrator. None of the characters are particularly attractive, yet, we root for each of them in different ways.

The focus of the plot is almost a sideshow to the interactions and machinations between characters. In fact, the mystery is one that has been addressed many times before except, in this case, Vyleta wraps his own enigmas in riddles which makes it fresh and engaging. It is very clever in that at the end when we think we have wrapped up the mystery - a truer one is revealed and its resolution is left to our own imaginings.

An extremely well written novel. Despite the characters sounding like a pastiche of circus freaks and cliches - a midget, a prostitute, a one-eyed spy, a gang of street urchins straight from charles dickens and a fat english officer as the bad guy - each of the characters is totally believable and engrossingly developed. The strengths of the story are how it evokes the misery and desperation of post world war Berlin, and the depth of those characters. The I in Pavel and I, the teller of the story, successfully comes across as relatable but sociopathic, revelling in a reverse stockholm syndrome infatuation with Pavel.

"Pavel and I" is a beautifully written book that tells an exciting and witty adventure story. It's full of intrigue, seedy characters, exotic locations, and Vyleta successfully chills the reader with his descriptions of Germany's brutal winter of 1946. Its greatest success, however, is the commentary it makes on the nature, not of history per se, but of historiography and its dependence on the imagined. This is not a spoiler: Vyleta, an historian himself, makes clear just how much historians depend on the imagination, not to invent, but to complete our collective vision of history. In this way, the book works as an argument for history's artistry as much as its necessity and vitality.

I found this the most original aspect of the book. The characters are deep, often full of longing, and there is an Orwellian theme running through the depiction of Pavel, a mysterious American soldier. Readers who have traveled to Berlin, who take interest in the history of the 20th century, or who enjoy historical fiction will adore "Pavel and I".

"Pavel & I" is a meticulously crafted novel, intelligent and engaging. Vyleta's careful research and attention to the details of time and place make the city of Berlin in the winter of 1946 as integral to the story as Pavel himself. There are brilliant snatches of humor in the midst of the blood and cold and hunger of the grim post-war winter, and this is where Vyleta's truly original voice shines through. The wonderful (and horrible) cast reads like a circus playbill: an enormous British Colonel, a Russian midget, an opportunistic prostitute, a Dickensian street urchin, a spy with an eyepatch, and a pet monkey from hell... all refreshingly absurd, yet artfully developed and appropriately believable in context.

And then there is Pavel, who we feel we get to know quite intimately - yet he remains an enigma. The author notes in his acknowledgments that the novel is "interested in the question of how many of our personal needs and desires we inject into narrations of the past." By the end of the novel we are reminded that there are in fact two title characters - Pavel and "I" - and that the complex lenses through which "I" perceives Pavel are as fascinating and engaging as Pavel's story itself.

"Pavel & I" is one of the best-written contemporary novels I have read in a long time, and it continues to stimulate new thoughts and conversations. Here's hoping we see more from Dan Vyleta, and soon.

I have to admit, I only got Pavel & I yesterday and haven't gotten all the way through it yet. But I just wanted to check out what people on Amazon had to say and figured I'd add my two cents. This book is GREAT so far. It had me hooked by about page three. I'm not the kind of person who reads a lot of historical fiction, but this is just so accessible and readable, and the details about Berlin are really evocative. I am stuck at work but can't wait to get home tonight and see where Pavel & I takes me. It's already one of the best books I've read in a long time.

This is one of my favorite novels of recent years, truly unique in its tone and atmosphere, and utterly compelling. Both my father and I loved it (which is rare!) -- it's both a literary novel and a wonderful thriller. The setting is just wonderful: you will find yourself shivering with cold because of the Berlin winter. Very highly recommended.