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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A different kind of pot boiler, January 18, 2001
It is difficult to review this novel, written by a Swiss author and set outside Zurich in 1957. At first, it appears to be a standard police-officer-chases-child-killer crime novel. But unlike American novels, there is little character development, sparse detail, and no subplots to "flesh out" the rather bleak storyline. The prose plods along methodically, almost mimicking its stubborn protagonist, and the dialogue is at times awkward. But I hesitate to attribute any of this to bad writing because everything else about the story is so carefully constructed and obviously planned from the beginning. About half-way through the book, I became so engrossed I could not put it down. The final resolution, which relies heavily on coincidence, perfectly reinforces themes of randomness and absurd cruelty that run through the novel. Any other ending would seem contrived. You get the feeling that European audiences have different expectations about how stories are supposed to flow, and I strongly suspect a lot of metaphor and imagery has been lost in the translation to English. A movie based on this novel, and starring Jack Nicholson, should be coming out soon.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thought-provoking study of obsession., April 2, 2001
I sought out this short but sweet novel after catching the last half of the Sean Penn-directed film (yeah, I snuck in at my local multiplex, what of it?) which it inspired. The film definitely drew me in, despite the fact that I had little idea of what was going on. As is often the case, the book is more profound than the film (which is not a knock against the screen version; after reading Durrenmatt's fine novel, I went back to see the entire movie). Told in the sparest language, "The Pledge" is the story of one man's quest to set right a wrong, taking his responsibility (and its consequences) so far as to threaten his very existence. As other reviewers have noted, this is not a typical thriller, replete with hard-boiled narrative and the requisite twists. I found "The Pledge" to more closely echo the writings of Camus, in its examination of one man's conscience as he faces a challenge he simply can't walk away from. A complex story simply told, "The Pledge" asks the reader to look inward and ask: "How far would you go to keep your word?"
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Close to perfect., December 20, 2001
Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Pledge (Berkeley, 1957) While Durrenmatt is a well-known and well-respected author, it took making a film of one of his books to get most people in the States actually reading him. This new film tie-in translation of The Pledge is a great way to start, and will hopefully lead a lot more Americans to a lot more Durrenmatt. The Pledge is the tale of Matthai, a Swiss police inspector who becomes convinced during the investigation of a child's murder that the cops have got the wrong man. He promises the victim's mother that he will find the killer, and that promise eventually leads to complete and total obsession. The novel, told by Matthai's former superior over a long auto journey and dinner, leads exactly where you think it will, and then throws in a twist so nasty it's almost painful to read. Agee's translation was completed with an eye firmly on the readability factor, and this one goes relatively quickly (especially for a modern European novel); the payoff is well worth the time spent on the setup. Absolutely fantastic, and will cause me to have to revise my Best-of-2001 list. Very highly recommended. **** 1/2
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