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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
If you look up the boring in a dictionary it will say to see this book.
This historical novel is somewhere between thriller and love story. It bears many of the hallmarks of Sansom's brilliant Tudor-England Shardlake novels. Wartime Spain is brilliantly, tangibly evoked; he's an author with a rare knack for conveying an unseen place and time. The plot is gripping and engaging, though on occasions I lost patience with the routine way successive chapters were told from different points of view - always in the same order. It was meant to be a device to pull us deeper into the narrative but in the end it felt too formulaic. Like the Shardlake books there's also some heavy-handed Church-knocking and atheism promotion; not that the church of that time and place doesn't deserve hard questions to be asked. More that I've come to find this predictable in Sansom's writing; a better challenge for him would be to write an all-together good and helpful religious figure. Some of the foreshadowing of events is clumsy, and a few plot twists in the final sections are a little too much, and seem pointless, there for effect rather than reason. All of that feels like a great deal of criticism; but I guess most of the problems are small in the larger scheme. When's all said and done, Sansom can tell a good story very well.
Meh. The time period and setting interested me, but this was wordy and over-long. It could have been stripped down to a snappier 300 pages or so, losing only repetition and unnecessary scenes in the process, and still been a good basis for a film.
Sansom certainly conveys the atmosphere of Madrid immediately after the Civil War, the insecurity and poverty of its inhabitants, the constant looking over your shoulder. And he does a good job of exploring the complicated politics. But the characters seem shallow, with none of the depth and authenticity you find in [a:Almudena Grandes|34291|Almudena Grandes|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1328183952p2/34291.jpg].
After 400 pages of nothing much, the novel suddenly accelerates in a handbrake turn to a dramatic climax. Unfortunately the motivations of the baddies here left me puzzled. But at least Sansom doesn't go in for a Mills and Boon style ending. To put it mildly. And it's a better book than Victoria Hislop's crappy [b:The Return|2549004|The Return|Victoria Hislop|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328037236l/2549004._SX50_.jpg|2556575], so 3 stars.
Sansom certainly conveys the atmosphere of Madrid immediately after the Civil War, the insecurity and poverty of its inhabitants, the constant looking over your shoulder. And he does a good job of exploring the complicated politics. But the characters seem shallow, with none of the depth and authenticity you find in [a:Almudena Grandes|34291|Almudena Grandes|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1328183952p2/34291.jpg].
After 400 pages of nothing much, the novel suddenly accelerates in a handbrake turn to a dramatic climax. Unfortunately the motivations of the baddies here left me puzzled.
Spoiler
Why exactly does a high-up in Franco's administration spend so much time and energy trapping a couple of insignificant Brits? It would have worked much better to focus on just Sandy, motivated by spite and jealousy.
I couldn’t believe the ending - after all that rescue he just re joined again! Liked the history - a little slow in the beginning.
A post-Spanish Civil War spy novel set in Madrid at the beginning of WWII, featuring British characters that are old school friends. A story of love and friendship, in which traumatized former British soldier Harry Brett signs on reluctantly to spy on an old school friend and finds himself immersed in dangerous, high-stakes political intrigue. In the background is the pressing question of whether or not Spain will enter WWII on the side of the Nazis.
Intriguing concept, intriguing premise. It’s well researched: the historic detail feels authentic, Sansom establishes a great sense of the era and the place, and does an especially good job of incorporating the political machinations of the time into his story. At the outset, the characters are pretty well drawn, and the prose is clear, engaging, easy to read. But it the second half of the book, things start to go downhill, and the decline is bafflingly precipitous.
The writing becomes more and more cringe-worthy, especially when Samson is writing from the perspectives of his female characters. He slips frequently into over-explaining, as if the narrator feels an increasing need to justify and explain the actions of his characters. More and more the scenes tip into melodrama. The overuse of “business” between lines of dialog, barely noticeable at first, becomes impossible to ignore, mostly clichéd usages such as pleading looks, heavy sighs, legs shaking, etc. Many scenes are dramatized that aren’t dramatic, and should have been elided or summarized. There are teeth-clenching scenes of exposition-by-dialog, and an overall feeling of robotic stiffness and unnatural speechifying. Basically, much of the book feels like unrevised first draft writing. There is no excuse for this.
The plot begins to feel less and less plausible. The hand of the author in telling the story becomes more and more transparent, and the character motivations are less and less clear or credible. The main character, who is sympathetic at first, becomes less so as the story goes on: he is wounded, traumatized, passive, not particularly resourceful, and often simply weak.
It’s a shame. Almost all of this could have been avoided given more attention to basic fiction writing skills. As a hardworking writer myself, I must say that it’s a little heartbreaking to read a book like this. So much potential, all of it wasted on a book that ultimately uncooked, and therefore unworthy of publication. Was it lack of patience, lazy editing, or a headlong rush to get it out into the market? I don’t know. But I find the lapses pretty hard to forgive.
Intriguing concept, intriguing premise. It’s well researched: the historic detail feels authentic, Sansom establishes a great sense of the era and the place, and does an especially good job of incorporating the political machinations of the time into his story. At the outset, the characters are pretty well drawn, and the prose is clear, engaging, easy to read. But it the second half of the book, things start to go downhill, and the decline is bafflingly precipitous.
The writing becomes more and more cringe-worthy, especially when Samson is writing from the perspectives of his female characters. He slips frequently into over-explaining, as if the narrator feels an increasing need to justify and explain the actions of his characters. More and more the scenes tip into melodrama. The overuse of “business” between lines of dialog, barely noticeable at first, becomes impossible to ignore, mostly clichéd usages such as pleading looks, heavy sighs, legs shaking, etc. Many scenes are dramatized that aren’t dramatic, and should have been elided or summarized. There are teeth-clenching scenes of exposition-by-dialog, and an overall feeling of robotic stiffness and unnatural speechifying. Basically, much of the book feels like unrevised first draft writing. There is no excuse for this.
The plot begins to feel less and less plausible. The hand of the author in telling the story becomes more and more transparent, and the character motivations are less and less clear or credible. The main character, who is sympathetic at first, becomes less so as the story goes on: he is wounded, traumatized, passive, not particularly resourceful, and often simply weak.
It’s a shame. Almost all of this could have been avoided given more attention to basic fiction writing skills. As a hardworking writer myself, I must say that it’s a little heartbreaking to read a book like this. So much potential, all of it wasted on a book that ultimately uncooked, and therefore unworthy of publication. Was it lack of patience, lazy editing, or a headlong rush to get it out into the market? I don’t know. But I find the lapses pretty hard to forgive.
A Thriller for sure!
This book's endogenous will shock you. The author builds you up to the focal point of an escape and then. OMG! You can’t imagine thee ding! Amazing story!
This book's endogenous will shock you. The author builds you up to the focal point of an escape and then. OMG! You can’t imagine thee ding! Amazing story!
Having read Sansom's Tudor-era mysteries, the differences between those and this Spanish Civil War spy novel of sorts were interesting. The characters were well-built and many-layered and the depiction of post-war Madrid was gritty and detailed. The ending fell into a middle ground between happy and tragic that wasn't terribly satisfying, and the attempts to create tension and thrills fell a bit flat, but somehow the whole overcame the shortcomings of the later parts.
The Spanish Civil War and its aftermath is something I’ve not been near since High School but this book reignited some interested. A tortured and turbulent time in Spain’s history brought to life in the pages of a book with believable characters and a convincing narrative that conveyed the politics and drama of the time. I’m glad I read this now!
A friend gave this to me to read. I kept looking at it and thinking it was just massive and that it wouldn't be easy to make time for it. (It's 537 pages.) Well, I finally did, and it was well worth the time. Great story, wonderful read.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix