A fast-moving plot and vivid characters make this a most satisfying read.
A Waffen SS colonel plans to profit from World War II while his adjutant hopes to survive it in this tale of good and evil, sex and love.
Young Cpl. Shtefan Brandt looks fit and Aryan, so Col. Himmel chooses him as his adjutant. Himmel is a dashing hero who leads his men on daring raids against the Allies without “a bone of fear in his body.” Brandt is Catholic, but he’s terrified that Himmel will find out that he's mischling—he had a Jewish great-grandmother. Fortunately, "for an assassin, a brigand, a tyrant and a thief, my master did have his good points,” such as never checking Brandt’s background. The thoroughly apolitical Himmel knows Germany is losing the war, and he schemes to steal the Allied payroll from a train. Characters are well-portrayed—Shtefan is upright, principled, even virginal until Himmel orders him to bed a woman. He fears disappointing his master, who can put a bullet in his head at any time. In occupied France, they see the beautiful 18-year-old Gabrielle Belmont, whose parents have been executed. The hateful Himmel takes her as his unwilling mistress—if she refuses, he’ll make certain her townsfolk die—but both men are smitten with her. In time she secretly loves Shtefan, but both live “only at the Colonel’s whim,” so if they even hint at their feelings they will both die. Himmel reveals his robbery plan to Shtefan, which includes them and Gabrielle absconding to South America with the loot. But Shtefan hopes to steal both Gabrielle and some of the money from Himmel. Disgusting as the colonel is, he’s an insightful man. Knowing from an intercepted letter that Shtefan’s mother has just been sent to Dachau, he tells his adjutant that “In the end, your kind will find my kind.”
A fast-moving plot and vivid characters make this a most satisfying read.Pub Date: April 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-335-14457-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There are more than enough quotable lines to fill a couple of reviews.
Berg’s debut is set in an age when telephones were novel.
If you want to make a phone call in 1952, you’ll lift the receiver and hear an operator say “Number, please.” And if you live in Wooster, Ohio, that operator might well be Vivian Dalton. She’ll listen in on your conversation even though she knows she shouldn’t, always hoping to hear “something scandalous.” Her Pawpy had advised “Just don’t get caught,” but her dead granny’s advice (ignored) was better: “Be careful what you wish for.” Vivian wishes for gossip about rich Betty Miller, whose “life was always perfectly in place,” but Betty has a delicious secret about Edward Dalton that’s sure to ruin Vivian’s life. Vivian never finished high school and frets that her bright teenage daughter, Charlotte, will exceed her in life. The narrative is sprinkled with dictionary definitions of fancy words Vivian doesn’t know, like “privy” and “myriad.” She thinks the school has assigned pornography to Charlotte when she sees The Myth of Sisyphus and thinks it’s about syphilis. Meanwhile, Betty is ever so full of herself because her father owns a bank and the ladies of Wooster always accept her written invitations. She briefly considers calling her Christmas party “Savior’s Celebratory Soirée.” Then she hosts a special afternoon tea to reveal the news about Vivian’s husband to a group of ladies “well versed in the art of displaying false concern.” Berg’s storytelling is warm, sympathetic, and witty—Vivian's "fear had eaten her common sense like it was a casserole,” and her “rage had melted and cooled a little into a hardened shell of shame and humiliation.” Vivian hires a private investigator to look into her husband’s past and consequently deletes chocolate from all her recipes. (Well, it makes sense to her.)
There are more than enough quotable lines to fill a couple of reviews.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-297894-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read...
Marrs’ debut novel traces the stories of five people who find their soul mates—or do they?
Imagine if you could submit to a simple DNA test and then receive your Match in your email. Not just an online date who might be geographically compatible, but a true and unique genetically destined partner. While the potential long-term benefits may seem to outweigh the negative consequences, the system is far from infallible; as any science-fiction fan could tell you, if it sounds too good to be true, there’s usually a catastrophe lurking at the other end. Marrs’ novel traces five individuals who meet their Matches under varying circumstances and with widely conflicting outcomes. During the course of their romantic adventures (and misadventures), the entire DNA matching algorithm will prove to be susceptible to hacking, also proving that (gasp!) just because something may be driven by science doesn’t mean that it’s free from the world of human error. The philosophy posed by the novel speaks not just to the power of love and the laws of attraction, but also serves as a commentary on today’s world of genetic exploration. Do these breakthroughs simplify our lives, or do they make us lazy, replacing the idea of “destiny” or “fate” with “science” as a larger power that we don’t need to question? These ideas keep the novel moving along and create a deeper level of interest, since most of the narrative threads are fairly predictable. The two exceptions are the psychopathic serial killer who meets his Match and begins to lose interest in killing and the heterosexual man matched with another man, both of whom must then redefine sexuality and love, commitment and family.
Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read all in one sitting.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-335-00510-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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