Customer Reviews

In Search of Klingsor: The International Bestselling Novel

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Some of the great Nobel Prize winners of the early 20th century--Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Johannes Stark, and Nils Bohr--play roles in this fascinating novel about the effort to unmask Klingsor, codename for the prominent scientist believed to have overseen and approved Nazi Germany's research into an atomic weapon. Gustav Links, a German physicist, is co-operating with Francis Bacon, a young scientist and OSS officer, just after the Nuremberg Trials, as he tries to identify Klingsor.

The novel, supposedly Links's journal about the search, is both intelligent and unusual. Links applies scientific laws and their corollaries to the art of fiction, suggests scientific hypotheses which might be applicable to espionage, and reveals "autobiographical disquisitions: from set theory to totalitarianism," along with discussions of parallel universes, game theory, and even the quest for the Holy Grail as described in Wagner's Parsifal. The scientific discoveries of Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Planck, et. al., are presented clearly, so that even someone like me, who is neither a mathematician nor a scientist, can understand enough of the material to make the book and the search for Klingsor both tension-filled and exciting. Two love stories--that of Links in the mid-1930's and of Bacon in 1946--provide breaks from the sometimes textbook-like disquisitions on physics.

Volpi's language is rich in metaphor and often playful--an electron is described as a criminal who commits atrocities and slips away, and quantum mechanics as a police chief who wants to nab him during that "one brief instant, when someone is able to make out his silhouette." And this simile may be unique: "He had behaved like a subatomic particle, subjecting himself to the imperious forces of bodies far more powerful than he."

Despite its cleverness, however, the book has some clumsy plotting and some dead-giveaway moments, which marred the narrative for me. Links often sets up meetings with German scientists and then meets with Bacon to talk about the scientist's "file," an artificial device which gives information to the reader but acts as a brake on the narrative. At one point, Volpi even introduces a new character, who, at just the right moment, and "by pure coincidence...is transcribing Nazi party archives that were used during the Nuremberg Trials," a report which is then analyzed, another narrative-slowing episode.

Cliches are sometimes a problem. One of the female characters, who, incidentally, will meet her lover only at night, says, "If you really love me, you have to promise me...that you'll always trust me," then asks about the search for Klingsor and the scientists her lover has interviewed. Amazingly, the "intelligent" lover never gets suspicious, even when warned about her "Slavic accent," and tells her everything, even bringing her into his interviews with Schrodinger and Bohr. The unmasking of a "new" Klingsor in the conclusion does not surprise, nor does the identity. This is a very unusual and intriguing novel, however, incorporating fact, fiction, science, and philosophy in new ways, and readers interested in science and math may be so intrigued they'll willingly excuse any narrative lapses. Mary Whipple

The key statement of this book, and the key discovery made by its main character, is that we will never truly know what really happened in the Second World War and its aftermath, when the United States, victorious against one enemy, suddenly had to start fighting another. History is a plastic, porous thing that defies the sort of objective study that the protagonist brings to the story.

This novel was a fantastic read, thoroughly engrossing and filled with fascinating detail, though I must admit that I am not historian enough to speak to its veracity. It would seem to present a vivid and believable picture of both university life in America during the Second World War and of life in Germany immediately following. Personalities such as Werner Heisenberg, Neils Bohr, Kurt Godel, John von Neumann and Albert Einstein are pulled out from their equations and biographies and made into fleshy, fully-human characters, each of whom plays a crucial role in one man's search for truth and another's attempt to reclaim his past. This novel reminds us, in the same manner as Sylvia Nasser's "A Beautiful Mind," that scientists are not cold and unfeeling robots in the mere pursuit of knowledge, but rather that all of them are acutely aware of the moral, social and emotional implications of their work as it impacts society on every level from the global to the personal.

Mr. Volpi has created a beautiful, sprawling, rhapsodic work that begs the questions, what is science? what is history? what is duty? what is love? He has placed all these in a strikingly relevant context that pulls the reader along. As to the question of cliche stated above, I would suggest that the examples cited would serve to inform the reader of certain information of which Mr. Volpi chooses to have the protagonist remain unaware. In all, one of the best books I have read this year.

Volpi's In Search of Klingsor is a good idea surrounded by a clumsy plot that ends up searching for direction.

The idea of using Quantum Mechanics, Physics and Mathematics to educate and inform the reader, as well as to carry the plot forward, is both creative and well done. The sections describing the theory and thought processes of scientific discovery are the highlight of the book. These sections assume the reader is intelligent enough to grasp the essential concepts (a compliment to the reader) and then blends the concepts in prose to move the plot forward. If Searching for Klingsor were primarily a science book then it would be an unparalled success.

However, ...Klingsor is supposed to be a mystery (apparently). It is also a romance novel and a character study. Unfortunately, none of the characters really have any redeeming qualities, and the romances between these characters is less appealing because of them. I guess a spy or mystery novel's characters are supposed to have some character flaws (there is a bad guy in there somewhere), but there seems to be a difference between a flaw and a total lack of moral character.

Ultimately, the novel suffers from a lack of direction. Is it a spy novel? A mystery? A character study? A Science Novel? The novel trys to be all of them and subsequently fails in most areas. As a discussion of some scientific and mathematical theories it succeeds well; in other areas it is less successful.

A really wonderful book. Its plot is intriguing and excellently developed. We are not only plunged into a post WW- II thriller but also immersed into a classroom where we are thought the basis of the best science of the XX century. The result is a very good novel. Congratulations to the author.

This is my first Volpi book. And although I never heard from Volpi before, I am very impressed after finishing this novel. It is just a wonderful mix of good writing and science -mostly physics. Bravo, Volpi.

It will be particularly interesting to those in physics, math, and even economics. Volpi walks reader through complex concepts in an intuitive and simple way, and builds the story around the development of the atomic bomb.

The main plot is simple. Once WWII is over, a seemingly naive American scientist goes to Germany to find the brains behind the Nazi scientific initiatives. His mission allows him to meet famous scientists: Einstein, Von Neumann, Borh, Heisenberg, Godel and Schrodinger. Slowly, the main character puts all the pieces together and offers interesting details of the last days of the Nazi regime.

The last chapter closes the story brilliantly. So even if it feels as if the story is not going anywhere for a short while, keep reading, it only gets better!

Great book, got it in time and as expected. Really recommend it to any who is a WWII well documented historic novel with a bit of fiction.

I'm not too sure about this book. It certainly lacks any real subtlety, and many of its points are laboured. Too often I winced at the way Volpi's thoughts are hammered across. It could be the English translation though, I suppose. The inelegance of this book really frustrated me.... maybe I've been reading too much Hemingway again...

I ordered this book in plenty of time to get it for Christmas (more than 2 weeks). It did not come and I received no updates until AFTER Christmas at which point I was told sorry for the delay it would arrive shortly. A few days later I received a note processing a credit because the book was out of stock. If I would have known it was out of stock when I ordered it, I could have gotten it somewhere else.