Customer Reviews

The Story of My Disappearance: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You know how sometimes it takes several pages before you really get into a book? Well, this book only needed one sentence to get me nibbling at the bait, and two more paragraphs to have me completely hooked.

In the Newport, Rhode Island bar where Suleika and Paul were going through the death throes of their relationship, a sudden, brutal murder brought back into Paul's life a man who he had betrayed and long thought dead.

The central character is quickly revealed as an East German operative named Paul Wederkind, planted into the RI fishing community, shortly before the Berlin Wall came down. The old tub of a fishing boat he operates with Suleika, the widow of the man he secretly entered the USA to assist, also serves to covertly transport "cargo" to and from Russian submarines.

As the story unfolds, we learn about the machinations of the East German secret police, the war in Afghanistan, the Cold War - all things that normally would not interest me, but the writing is so compelling, I found myself just absorbing the story.

I've long been a fan of speculative fiction exploring alternate history, but in this book, the author seems to create an alternate biography. Partway through the book, Paul Wederkind changes his name to a more Americanised form, Watkins - is this really an autobiography? Well, the book jacket tells us Paul Watkins (the author) was born of Welsh parents and educated at Eton and Yale, so I guess not. Maybe this is his more exciting alternate life - I can associate with that. But he obviously has a Suleika in his own life - the author photo on the jacket is attributed to someone of that name.

This is the first of Paul Watkins' books I've read, and I'm grateful he seems to have been reasonably prolific, so I can enjoy more of this wonderful writing.

First, I do not believe there is anyone around right now who can write as well as Mr. Watkins. "Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn" I feel was his best, but this is darn close.

"My Disappearance" is written in the first person. The narrator (later named Paul Watkins) weaves the stories of his three lives - East German soldier/spy in Afghanistan, spy in America and lover in America - into a quilt made up of wonerfully woven words and twisting plotlines.

From the first page, Watkins interjects a mysterious tensionthat trails through the book as is a constant undercurrent adding significantly to this yarn of a spy left in the cold when the Berlin Wall falls.

I strongly recommend all of Watkins. This one should be one of the first and not to missed.

This is a believable and compelling story about the violent and dangerous life of East German agents, recruited under pressure; threatened and beaten to carry out their assignments. The assignment of this guy is to spy on a friend, and later to be a courier in disguise in Newport, R.I. (smuggling things to and from a Russian submarine). This is where he is when the Wall comes down and has to decide what the heck to do when stranded in a free country with a fake ID. Everything about this caught me by surprise.

What happens to spies whose country seizes to exist? This happened to those Stasi spies who were abandoned in America and elsewhere at the end of the Cold War. Paul Wederkin is just such as spy. The story tells how he came to be there, through his Afghani war experience, his friendship and the death of his friend. However, the real surprise is in the beginning when his dead fried walks into a Rhode Island bar and murders someone in front of him.

This story packs just a little too much action into too small a space for me. Its pace is a bit frenetic. However, the depth of character and prose lyricism remains strong as in all Watkins' books.

To give you an idea, before the story even opens, our hero, the East German Paul Wedekind has been a promising engineering student who has been recruited (coerced) by the secret police to spy on his friend, has served in Afghanistan, has been taken prisoner by the Afghans and has at last come to America as a spy for the Russians. Whew! And before dinner, too!.

But that's only the intro: the real story is about his work in America. The Cold War is over and he hopes he has been forgotten but that's overly optimistic. The adventure is grand and utterly amazing, but that's okay, because you love the story anyway.

His crisp and disciplined prose continues to delight me and I predict the day will come when folks quit comparing him to Hemingway and begin compariing Hemingway to him.

A terrific piece of work by Paul Watkins. This writer has crafted a wonderful story of love, horror and mystery so well plotted and with such splendid character development that this book is a must for new writers to study and a great read for thriller readers. From the very first line, you are hooked. I found this book on a new paperback carousel and read the first page. Boom, I'm a Watkins fan and as a developing writer myself, I find his style as easy to read as Scott B. Smith's "A Simple Plan." More, please, I say to Mr. Watkins.

Through recalling terrifying and traumatic events of his past, including his reluctant experience in the military with his best friend Ingo Budde, Paul Wedekind confronts his old life as an East German working for the secret police in order to build a new life as Paul Watkins, married to Suleika, a fellow "ex-agent". Finely drawn characters. A moving novel of one man's emotional journey from his past to his future. The author creates a picture so vivid and realistic that the reader can actually FEEL what's happening to Paul. A very exciting read. Well worth your time.

This was my first Paul Watkins book, but I will now look for and read others. I rated this book and 8, but it is an honest 8. Grapes of Wrath gets a 10. I was hooked by Mr. Watkins' book and enjoyed it very much. It is serious and interesting and thoughtful. Not a page turner in the conventional sense, but if that is what you want, I'm sure Danielle Steele will be coming out with two more books this month. The characters in "The Story of My Disappearance" are unusual and interesting, though the lone female could have been developed more fully. As a writer, what I liked in this story was the plotting and the attempts at weaving past and present, which was done skillfully though not perfectly. Who can do that perfectly? I don't know. But it must be done in a novel like this, which portrays how our past is never really left behind. Even if we force it down inside us, it may still erupt from the outside, as people and incidents from our past come back to haunt us. Read this book. I think you'll like it.

A masterful novel filled with compelling characters, dense plot, and powerful language. Watkins once again breathes life into young men who struggle to come to terms with their past. From the first chapter, I was hooked, and not until the last page - and many, many intervening stories about his past - did I fully understand Peter Wedekind, the main character. Watkins deserves more attention than he is getting, and this is one of his best!

I have to say that I do enjoy Watkins work in general. Yet I felt this piece was a bit forced and unconvincing. The book has a nice start, raises ones curiosity quick then drifts a bit.

I think that the story was damaged by the use of a love story with Suleika. Her character was uninteresting, obstuctive, and could have been replaced with a good dog. It almost seemed as though Watkins felt forced to insert love scenes that went nowhere. Each mention of her seemed to bring about a roadbump in the story. I wonder if there was a rewrite that caused this. The death of her husband, with no explainations as to who he was, seemed unpolished. Was Watkins (character in the book) first supposed to be more of an outsider? That would make more sense then coming to town and having the other spy fall in love with you, being that her husband is dead and all.

I must also say that naming the main character the same as yourself is a bit much. It made me take pause and wonder if I should continue to the end.

In fairness I did enjoy the story itself. The interactions with the old friend and the days in camp were very interesting and well done. I would hope that this kind of detailing continues in his future work and that the heavy romance takes a back seat.

I picked up this book in London. I decided to look under the last shelf of the "Fiction A-Z by Author" section of my local bookshop, and chanced upon Paul Watkins' most recent novel.

This is a good yarn. The narrator, Paul Weidekind, and his girlfriend Suleika are fishermen in North Eastern USA. Their apparently honest, hardworking life on the sea is turned upside down by the appearance on shore of someone for Weidekind's past who he thought he had left behind long ago. I don't want to detail the plot here as that would spoil it. Suffice to say this is a great thriller.

Watkins' own experience on a deep sea trawler in North Eastern USA have clearly lent to his detailed descriptions of a fishermans' life. Watkins' also chooses historical contexts in many of his novels, as this one does.

In short, I read this book in about two days. I recommend it wholeheartedly. You won't be disappointed.