Tightly plotted, briskly paced: in its admirable economy what thrillers ought to be and seldom are. For Altman (A Gathering...
A WWII spy novel good enough for a place in the le Carré tradition.
It's 1942; the British are on fire to learn exactly how Hitler plans to come at France; the Nazis are just as eager to disinform them. German-born Eva Barnhardt is the pivotal agent—which is to say the spy very much in the cold—in this high-stakes game of geopolitical Ping-Pong. No ideologue Eva. Recruited a few years back by the disreputable if undeniably charming agent William Hobbs, she's been working for the British reluctantly, resentfully, but quite efficiently—brave and brainy Eva an undercover natural despite herself. At this point in her young life, however, she doesn't see that either side offers much to choose from. She despises the Nazis on principle. She detests the Brits for personal reasons: Hobbs seduced her—a child of 20—made her fall in love with him, then left her to be manipulated by MI6. She's in Berlin now as the result of MI6 pressure—but also because the German Secret Service, having pierced her cover, is tickled pink that she's there. The Germans have allowed her to become party to certain troop movement information relative to the French invasion (disinformation, of course) that they're vitally interested in conveying to their enemies. Hobbs has figured this out, though Eva as yet has not. As the denouement approaches, the SS is stalking Hobbs, and Hobbs, who has belatedly come to realize how much he loves the girl he so callously exploited, is stalking Eva, grimly aware that he may have to kill to keep her from unknowingly betraying his country.
Tightly plotted, briskly paced: in its admirable economy what thrillers ought to be and seldom are. For Altman (A Gathering of Spies, 2000), an impressive advance over a just-average debut.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14837-X
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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