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nelleeto's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
crafalsk264's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is the first book from Brian Moore and I will probably make him a regular author on my list. I enjoyed this book and after looking up the real history of the man that was the inspiration for this book.
This story begins in the early 1990s—about 40 years after WWII ended and is based on a true story.
Pierre Broussard (Paul Touvier) is an elderly French man who is on the run from Nazi hunters planning their revenge for his atrocities and war crimes. And they seem to know his habits, itineraries and were one step ahead of him. However his training in Hitler’s SS Division. The old man is still skilled enough to be able to turn the tables on them and eliminated the assassins. For 40 years, he has been protected by the Catholic Church. How considers himself a religious man and mourns the old church ways and rituals. The chase makes it’s way between churches, monasteries and religious retreats across France.
The real Paul Touvier was a very religious man and he had close relationships with the Catholic Church. He was first Frenchman to be convicted of “crime against humanity.” After the liberation of France he went into hiding to avoid the execution he was sentenced to.
There are so many stories from WWII which are dramatic enough to read like fiction and provide fodder for stories for years to come.
hcq's review
4.0
This is perhaps best described as a meditative thriller. It's written for grownups, in the sense that pretty much all the characters and sides are given depth, even if they only appear for a short bit; both the good and the bad guys have reasons for what they do, and they're good, interesting reasons on both sides. There are no cartoon characters here.
I liked it a lot, and I find myself thinking about it often since I read it. I also kept thinking, "this would make a great movie," and sure enough, someone took a shot at it (but apparently didn't do a great job, which is a pity.) I might have to see it, just out of curiosity.
I liked it a lot, and I find myself thinking about it often since I read it. I also kept thinking, "this would make a great movie," and sure enough, someone took a shot at it (but apparently didn't do a great job, which is a pity.) I might have to see it, just out of curiosity.
xterminal's review
3.0
While they were both still walking the earth, Graham Greene said of Brian Moore, "He is my favorite living novelist." And while Greene's place among the canon for twentieth-century British literature is as solid as they come, I fear that (the late?) Brian Moore may toddle off into obscurity as we wander through the next century. As a writer of what I can only call "literary mysteries," Moore and his mentor, Greene, stand with a handful of others, almost all British-- Geoffrey Household and Stephen Gregory are, in fact, the only two I can think of off the top of my head, and they, too, are destined for obscurity.
In this, his eighteenth (and last?) novel, Moore gives us Pierre Brossard, a Vichy sergeant who was pardoned of his war crimes in 1971, but has since been re-charged with the international Crime Against Humanity for the murder of fourteen Jews at Dombey during WW2. Brossard has been hiding with the Roman Catholic church for forty-four years, moving from abbey to abbey, concealed both by the Vichy-sympathizing elements in Mother Church and higher-ups in the French government. But with these new charges come new dispensations from a new Juge D'instruction and a far more liberal Pope, and he finds the doors of many of his old hideaways closed to him again, just as a new terrorist group is sending assassins after him for the murder of the Dombey Jews.
The synopsis of the book on its jacket doesn't really give much in the way of hope for this being all too gripping a novel; to continue the comparisons to Greene, this is more an End of the Affair than it is a Third Man. But that doesn't mean it's still not a cracking good detective story. Interestingly, all the major players are given to you within the first few chapters; it's up to you to figure out who they are and how they tie in (it is eerily reminiscent of Heinrich Boll's novels in this regard). Beneath the detective story lies the story of France itself, still struggling to find a national identity more than forty years after the end of World War II.
Despite all the heavy-sounding material, it really is a rather quick read, and it moves along fast enough that you can keep the pages turning with minimal effort.
In this, his eighteenth (and last?) novel, Moore gives us Pierre Brossard, a Vichy sergeant who was pardoned of his war crimes in 1971, but has since been re-charged with the international Crime Against Humanity for the murder of fourteen Jews at Dombey during WW2. Brossard has been hiding with the Roman Catholic church for forty-four years, moving from abbey to abbey, concealed both by the Vichy-sympathizing elements in Mother Church and higher-ups in the French government. But with these new charges come new dispensations from a new Juge D'instruction and a far more liberal Pope, and he finds the doors of many of his old hideaways closed to him again, just as a new terrorist group is sending assassins after him for the murder of the Dombey Jews.
The synopsis of the book on its jacket doesn't really give much in the way of hope for this being all too gripping a novel; to continue the comparisons to Greene, this is more an End of the Affair than it is a Third Man. But that doesn't mean it's still not a cracking good detective story. Interestingly, all the major players are given to you within the first few chapters; it's up to you to figure out who they are and how they tie in (it is eerily reminiscent of Heinrich Boll's novels in this regard). Beneath the detective story lies the story of France itself, still struggling to find a national identity more than forty years after the end of World War II.
Despite all the heavy-sounding material, it really is a rather quick read, and it moves along fast enough that you can keep the pages turning with minimal effort.
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