The Good German

Rating:
Summary: A hard look at the real questions
Review: Like in his other books (Los Alamos in the best, In my opinion), Kanon uses the mystery genre to ask difficult questions and to try to answer them.

An American journalist returns to Berlin immediately after WWII. He reunited with his lost love and, through her and through his work, meets a series of Germans and non Germans, whose lives have been twisted and torn apart by the war.

The main theme of the book, namely, who is a good German, or, more accurately, who is a good person, is presented in a series of subtle onion skins, which get peeled as the book progresses. The real greatness of Kanon is that the answer to the question is ultimately a matter of the reader's personal choice.

I love Kanon's writing and think that this is a truly brilliant book, but I must admit to one area of discomfort. This book is one of a wave of recent publications that seeks to portray the German suffering in the Second World War. Kanon is very fair in this regard, because he presents the German suffering suffering in its context and because his protrayel of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust is both powerful and touching. But the fact still stands that lately there have been quite a few books that have focused on the poor Germans and their trials during the war. As a Jew whose life was hugely influenced by the tragedies of the holocaust, I feel uncomfortable with the new trend. I understand that many Germans suffered horribly, but despite this touching book, I am hard pressed to feel pity for any of them. The voices of my many relations who died in the camps are simply too loud for me to hear these statements.

This not withstanding, The Good German is a brilliant book and an excellent topic for a book club or any reader with a heart.

Rating:
Summary: Kanon's 'Good German' is a real thriller!
Review:
It is in the months following WWII in Berlin that "The Good German" is set. Joseph Kanon in his third novel captures, readily the tonal integrity, the dynamic symmerty, the
full atmosphere of this traumatic time in history. Jake Geismar returns to Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference, at least that's his cover.

More knowledgeable than his colleagues know, Jake has spent time in Berlin before the war. He's now looking to pick up the pieces, perhaps more literally than one might think. At the center of his reasons for returning: to find Lena, the woman he loved-and left-because of the war. Jake finds Lena, but Lena's husband is missing. He's a top-rated mathematician and both the Russian and American intelligence agencies want him-badly.
However, as the Conference is progressing, an American soldier's body is found in the Russian sector of Berlin. Thus begins what is certainly one of the tautest murder mystery thrillers lately.

Yes, Kanon evokes LeCarre, Len Deighton, even Robert Ludlum in places, yet he holds his own with the riveting story line and Jake is a memorable character, one who easily combines romance with espionage, social significance with irony. Philosophic
and poetic, Kanon's literary reach is broad, but not so much that it drags. The author, clearly in control of the plot development, cruises to a dramatic-and exciting-finish. ([e-mail])


Rating:
Summary: A hard look at the real questions
Review: Like in his other books (Los Alamos in the best, In my opinion), Kanon uses the mystery genre to ask difficult questions and to try to answer them.

An American journalist returns to Berlin immediately after WWII. He reunited with his lost love and, through her and through his work, meets a series of Germans and non Germans, whose lives have been twisted and torn apart by the war.

The main theme of the book, namely, who is a good German, or, more accurately, who is a good person, is presented in a series of subtle onion skins, which get peeled as the book progresses. The real greatness of Kanon is that the answer to the question is ultimately a matter of the reader's personal choice.

I love Kanon's writing and think that this is a truly brilliant book, but I must admit to one area of discomfort. This book is one of a wave of recent publications that seeks to portray the German suffering in the Second World War. Kanon is very fair in this regard, because he presents the German suffering suffering in its context and because his protrayel of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust is both powerful and touching. But the fact still stands that lately there have been quite a few books that have focused on the poor Germans and their trials during the war. As a Jew whose life was hugely influenced by the tragedies of the holocaust, I feel uncomfortable with the new trend. I understand that many Germans suffered horribly, but despite this touching book, I am hard pressed to feel pity for any of them. The voices of my many relations who died in the camps are simply too loud for me to hear these statements.

This not withstanding, The Good German is a brilliant book and an excellent topic for a book club or any reader with a heart.

Rating:
Summary: great book!!!!
Review: "The Good German" is set in post-World War II Berlin, a place of espionage, dirty tricks, black market activities and human suffering. A murder takes place in 1945 as the Allied leaders are gathering for their Potsdam conference (an American officer's body is discovered floating in a lake in the Russian occupation zone, his pockets full of money.) But more than just a murder mystery, there are larger themes in the book, such as collective guilt, a society that succumbed to genocide, and the justice of the victors. The book's main character is an American who is involved in a love triangle, a situation somewhat reminiscent of "Casablanca." Although I found the book to be a moving portrait of a city down on its heels and its luck, where corruption and violence are commonplace and where even the innocent may be compromised, overall it unravels. Conveniently, the hero always seems to be in the right place at the right time as well as bulletproof. And the car chase absolutely defies belief!

Rating:
Summary: Fast-paced detective story explores German guilt
Review: The novel takes place at ground zero of the end of the European war-the gutted Reichstag building, Hitler's bunker and the Brandenburg Gate. This Berlin is a rubble-strewn wasteland riddled with drunken Russian and American occupations troops, many scavenging for souvenirs and female companionship. More destitute refugees pour in everyday. In the middle of this maelstrom, an American reporter for Collier's Magazine--Jewish--arrives. He lived (and loved) in Berlin before the war, leaving the city when he still could, and leaving behind the woman he loved. He returns determined to see if she has still survived.

It is next to impossible to find anything sensible written about what Germans could have done once they learned about the Nazis' campaign to rid Europe of all Jews. Most authors on this subject have sharp ideological axes to grind, and hector the reader on how heroic they would have been in similar circumstances-failing only to mention that they would also be dead. Kanon takes many stabs at this volatile subject from the point of view of a number of the German and a few Jewish survivors. Unlike lofty modern moralists, the narratives of the inhabitants describe their individual situations which are as varied as their fallible characters. One wonder of this nuanced work is that-just as in real life-only one of Kanon's characters can make a solidly convincing case for innocence or guilt--an attractive Jewish Greifer ("nabber") who was forced by the Nazis to seek out and turn in Jews still hiding in the City.

In this soot-laden atmosphere of besotted soldiers still firing randomly into skulking civilians, and where death from starvation is an ongoing routine, the reporter stumbles on a puzzling murder of an American corporal. It is a rare moment when the sins of the past surface too explicitly to prevent this fast-paced detective story from seizing the reader's imagination, and running with it to an imaginative and satisfying climax.

As someone who lived in Berlin in 1945-46, the scenes of devastation, of the human misery and the brutal arrogance of the Soviet occupation ring as true as anything I've seen or read. The story is filled with a cast of interesting and some hateful characters, many well-developed. The story is never plot-dictated, although the cleverness and daring of the hero occasionally verges on the unlikely. Nevertheless, a rousing tale with a complicated but finally deeply satisfying love story.

Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: I usually complain that too many books are "told" rather than dramatized in scenes and that far too few authors make good use of dialogue. To its credit, "The Good German" is dramatized in scenes but, if anything, dialogue is overused. (Some people might think there is no pleasing me, but that isn't the case.)

"The Good German" is set entirely in Berlin at the very close of WWII. I found this setting to be intriguing and, even though I was born post-WWII, I have visited Berlin and Kanon's evocation felt so "right" to me. I feel he must have researched post-WWII Berlin very thoroughly and the book might be worth reading for its setting alone.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I didn't find the plot convoluted or labyrinthine. I found it trite, hackneyed and a little silly. Even though it's simplistic, it's also somewhat confusing. Kanon is not one of those rare authors who's good at managing a large cast of characters. In fact, he's terribe at it. For the first half of the book, it was difficult remembering "who was who" and this is especially true of the peripheral "members of the press" characters.

The dialogue and characterization in "The Good German" are simply awful. Some of the dialogue was so bad it actually made me wince. Characters say things no one would ever dream of saying and they're all stock, cardboard cutouts with no personality or life of their own. After reading 500 pages of the book, I didn't feel I knew the protagonist, Jake Geismar, at all. As another reviewer has already pointed out, this was quite a feat of (bad) writing since Jake appears on every single page.

The "love story" (I hesitate to call it that) was totally unbelievable. Both characters, and Jake in particular, were so incredibly selfish and self-centered I found myself thinking that love really had very little to do with their relationship. And I'm another reader who couldn't buy the woman's "quick recovery."

Finally, "The Good German" is simply too long. I enjoy long books as long as they have something to say, but this book contained so many unnecessary, extraneous scenes that the flow of the story was often interrupted.

I was going to award this book one star only. I hated it that much. But, on reflection, there are a lot of books out there that are worse and some that are truly unreadable. In the end, I decided to give "The Good German" two stars for its superb use of setting.

I can't really recommend this book to anyone, but if you do decide to read it, please don't think it takes its theme (What, exactly, made one a "good" German during WWII) seriously. It doesn't. This is definitely beach or airplane reading and not even good beach or airplane reading at that.

If you'd like to read a book that takes a very intelligent look at the German thought process, read Bloch's "The Sleepwalkers" instead.

Rating:
Summary: The Good German
Review: This is a wonderful novel that takes place in post World War II. The author does a wonderful job of maipulating many different plots into one excellent story. From the finding of an American soldier's body in Potsdam, to the romantic relationship between an American journalist with a married German women, the novel jumps from plot to plot and finally comes together in the end. The novel also does a marvelous job of describing the very troubled city of post war Berlin. The city has been carved up among the allied powers and there is friction between them. Women and children are raped by Russians and are forced to sell everything they have or trade cigerettes in order to just survive.

Overall I was very pleased with this novel which kep me captivated and also taught me alot at the same time.