The Good German

Joseph Kanon at his best. I love historical fiction and this fit the bill. Post-WWII Germany and the Allies are sorting out who is going to court as a Nazi and who is getting a ticket to the US of A. Well researched and the interesting plot keeps the pages turning.

Well done!

The Good German (Bestselling Backlist) was a big disappointment. The setting in post-WWII Berlin would seem to offer a rich opportunity for an engrossing book. However, this one failed to grab me and I gave up at 33%. Even after 175 pages, the plot was sluggish and the characters uninteresting.

The book presents both general descriptions and detailed examples of the scene in post-WWII Berlin: the bombed-out, destroyed city; the impoverished, starving, and bewildered displaced persons; and the occupation government and the occupiers themselves. These elements were belabored until this reader was exhausted.

The leading characters seemed unrealistic, their personalities vague, and their passions incomprehensible.

The plot itself can be summarized in two words: slow and dull. There is an attempt at romance, but I've seldom seen a less romantic or convincing treatment. As for the mystery-- it was so slow that any possible suspense was killed by repetition and glacial movement.

I wish I had read even less.

Nice LeCarre cynicism. Descriptions of immediate post-war Berlin quite good. Love making scenes clinical. Secondary characters poorly maintained in too many instances as in "who's this guy again?" Nothing like the movie and better than the movie, too.

Well paced with interesting and well drawn characters. Sometimes predictable, but with periodic unanticipated twists. A fascinating time: both the setting and the novel require each of us to ask ourselves, "what would I have done?"

This book takes place with Allied occupation in Germany, early post WWII. While reading I asked my husband about the authenticity re: historical areas etc. that I hadn't heard of before. He's a Social Studies teacher of 35 yrs .and knows the wars explicitly from beginning of our country and on with a lot of trivia which makes history more interesting. If he hadn't heard of something or someone (those he always knew) we'd look it up and learn more. This might sound boring and tedious to some, but I found it an excellent read and it didn't really take as long as it sounds. The only characters that were fictional are the main characters. The rest are real areas, people, and history that really did happen. I do hope my review doesn't put anyone away from this book.

The situation in Berlin was described in great detail. It was someone difficult to keep to the story line as it jumped around,a lot. It would seem to be two different story plots, a love story and espionage.

World War ll, our last morally unambiguous war, ended in a miasma of ambiguity. This story, set in a destroyed Berlin immediately after the end of the war in Europe, is about that time and that ambiguity.
Kanon is a very good writer and storyteller. This book is well worth one's time.

This is not the great American novel by any means but was a good, involved story that kept my interest through the entire book. Also contained some good insights regarding Berlin immediately following WWII.

Berlin just after the end of the WWII. Ancient story - the wall has not been erected yet, people could move around from one 'sector' to another, Russians were still the local conquerors.

In that very environment a murder was apparently committed and an attempt is made to solve it. It is hard to imagine a less unique circumstances that existed for a short time in a city that is now the capital of Germany again.

Two stars, the book is suitable for readers seeking 'special circumstances' and how many readers like that are around?

I love to read both history and historical novels dealing with Europe in the period around World War II. This is a good, fast-paced story with some memorable characters, and, as a historian of the period, I believe it is quite accurate in its depiction of events and attitudes of the time.

I enjoy almost all historical fiction which is well written. This is well written, except for the huge number of characters to keep track of. But I do understand that the number of characters kept the reader wondering the resolution of the mystery.

I love to read both history and historical novels dealing with Europe in the period around World War II. This is a good, fast-paced story with some memorable characters, and, as a historian of the period, I believe it is quite accurate in its depiction of events and attitudes of the time.

I enjoy almost all historical fiction which is well written. This is well written, except for the huge number of characters to keep track of. But I do understand that the number of characters kept the reader wondering the resolution of the mystery.