Customer Reviews

The Wall

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

 

 

This is the best new novel I've read this year. In a stunning display of bad timing, American intelligence officer, and Communist spy, Stuart Glemnick defects to the east on the same day that the Berlin Wall comes down. Comparisons to the thrillers of Le Carre, Deighton, and Graham Greene are apt, but only up to a point. As Stuart's brother Douglas and Stuart's German lover Uta chase Stuart from one collapsing Communist dicatorship to another, the novel is as much madcap picaresque as it is a thrilling manhunt. Brother Douglas is an exterminator from Dallas, and he is mistaken early on by a crazed CIA agent for a master terrorist named Jiri Klek. The result is a series of hilarious set pieces, as Douglas simultaneously looks for his brother, dodges assassination attempts, and cures hotels all the way across Central Europe of their silverfish infestations. Yes, there's a good deal of Le Carre here, but also a good deal of Pynchon and Delillo, with not a little of the satirical spirit of Candide thrown in. This is a wholly original and shamelessly entertaining book, the first real post-Cold War novel. I can't wait to read the author's next one.

On November 9, 1989, in a shocking turn of events, Stuart Glennick, an American spy, defects to the East. Accompanying Stuart on his flight to the Communists is his German girl friend, Uta Silk. Three hours later, the wall comes tumbling down. Uta changes her mind and returns to the West.

Meanwhile, a fellow spy, Stuart's best friend Nester Cates has been sent in to bring Stuart back at all costs. At the same time that Stuart flees the West, his brother Douglas is in Berlin looking for solace after losing his job and wife. Instead of finding inner peace and harmony, Douglas is mistaken for a terrorist and is in danger from both sides. Still, everything returns to Stuart and how his defection is affecting everyone in his circle.

THE WALL is great historical fiction that brings to life the most dynamic series of events that culminate with the fall of the Iron Curtain. Stuart is a great character, whose motives are clearly shown by author John Marks. ! The impact of his defection on his friends, lover, and sibling is also distinctly spelled out so that readers can understand their deepest feelings. Though there are moments when the novel seems a bit stretched (for instance, the resemblance between Douglas and the terrorist), the dramatization of the fall of the wall and the rest of the East is a brilliant thriller that clarifies what really happened in an exciting way.

Harriet Klausner

I was expecting big things from this thriller, set amidst the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent uprisings in Eastern Europe--and found it all rather disappointing in the end. One problem is that there were way too many characters bouncing around all over the place, and while some felt real, far too many others were simply too cardboard for me (especially the main villain Styles, and the spunky young reporter Jodie). Marks does manage to introduce the reader to the major events of those months, and captures the aura fairly well--but at the expense of any kind of plausibility in many of the characters' actions, and certainly at the expense of the weak plot. Although strong on atmosphere, overall comparisons to Greene and LeCarré are way off-track.

I am not a huge fan of spy novels, but this book kept me riveted from the beginning. At times the book did seem a bit like Forrest Gump, in that the characters just happened to end up at ground zero of all the most chaotic events surrounding the Wall's fall. However, to successfully capture the feel and madness of the time, Marks must do this. The book is excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Cold War history.

I found this book while on vacation in a beach house and I was looking forward to a good book to escape with. Too bad this wasn't the book. The plot was weak -- too cliched and too convenient. ...And Styles?? Jiri must not be that good of a terrorist if his two attempts on Styles still haven't finished the job. Maybe I missed something since most reviewers enjoyed the book. But as a German and History teacher, this novel really left something to be desired.

Brings the descriptive color of James Lee Burke to the days of the wall's collapse and a complex understanding of the conflict, confusion and disillusion in the surround. Having been in Berlin, Budapest and Prague in those months, I commend his insight. Extraordinary descriptive language and use of metaphor. Similar qualities to the superlative "Bombay Ice."

The plot was disguised, but there were far too many different people who were not well introduced. This led to a very hasty ending. However, I would like to give it 4 stars, but the book didn't read well enough for that, so its 3.

The author should spend his time writing novels in another genre. He obviously is not familiar with the intelligence community, military or otherwise. Pass this turkey by.

This book has American written all over it. Asides from a weak plot which requires implausible coincidences for the story to move forward, it is an attempt at a sophisticated political spy thriller without the sophistication. It is written by somebody who obviously understands Europe and some of it's period's zeitgeist a little better than the average American but overall the story is awfully flawed and full of the most banale American dogmas (misconceptions).

Can you forgive this writer referring to one of his character's past as a political officer for the Nazis as a fascist? How about "a communist stewardess" simply because of flying an airline for an Eastern block country. Small stuff maybe which goes well with American lack of reality but which I find utterly irritating.

The black and white mentality which underpins this novel prevents it from having the complexity it so aspires to. For this author it naturally follows that one of his characters who fought Franco in the International Brigade in Spain would now be a high level official in Ceausescu's regime.

The inner dialogue and motivations of the main characters are "high school" level at best and utterly simplistic and cliche.

This is a book positively reviewed in the New York Times for anybody who holds that paper in any high regard. This book is nothing more but pretentious intelectual hogwash.

No, The Wall isn't racist, a Hollywood establishment that hasn't seen fit to greenlight a movie based on this amazing thriller centered on a black hero is. Denzel, Will Smith, don't you pay guys to find properties like this for you!
If you love Tom Clancy or those other frequent flyer authors, move on. What John Marks has accomplished in this epic, globe-trotting tour-de-force is a combination of J R R Tolkien and Martin Cruz Smith that no one else could have dreamt up. Shoot outs with Commies in the Mountains of Mordor, that's what this book has, and if some amateur reviewers didn't get it, thank god the professionals at Publishers Weekly did.
I only hope this guy writes another novel before the tiresome twits get him down.