Occasionally verges on the melodramatic, but nevertheless an insightful portrait of a complex man and period in history.
From author Mayer (Life in a Jar, 2011) comes a historical novel based on the life of Ernst Techow.
In June 1922, the foreign minister of Germany, Walther Rathenau, is killed by conspirators, one of whom is young Ernst. Murdered in his car by machine gun fire and a grenade, Rathenau is mourned by many, though right-wing and anti-Semitic groups—the kind that will seize power in the years to come—applaud his death. Convicted as “as an aide to murder” and sentenced to 15 years in prison, Ernst isn’t nearly as troubled by his crime as by his time previously spent in the Free Corps “in the company of the hardest of men” who wouldn’t think twice about shooting a student or communist. In prison, he shares a cell with a philosophical man nicknamed Puck (after “Shakespeare’s fairy”), and the two eventually form a bond. Only after Puck introduces Ernst to the profitable world of forgery does Puck admit a most dangerous secret—this man Ernst has come to know and trust is, in fact, Jewish. How can Ernst reconcile his past beliefs with this newfound reality? What does this mean for Ernst’s life after prison with the Third Reich on the rise? Exploring Ernst’s life both before and after his help in the assassination of Rathenau, the historical novel is at its best when describing the unstable days of the German Revolution. Swept up in his duties as a soldier, Ernst nevertheless has feelings of his own: “Events were spinning out of control and Ernst could only hold fast to the purpose he was entrusted with, its burden and responsibility.” Ernst’s relationship with Puck can feel forced at times: Puck goes so far as to quote Hillel, and he even persuades Ernst to read Rathenau’s writings, from which “Ernst began to construct a very different picture of the man he had helped assassinate.” For the most part, though, Ernst’s portrayal as a multifaceted, sometimes violent man is a believable one.
Occasionally verges on the melodramatic, but nevertheless an insightful portrait of a complex man and period in history.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Long Trail Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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