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avid_d's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
paul_cornelius's review against another edition
4.0
Had I read Judgment on Deltchev before his other postwar novels, I think I would have clearly understood where Ambler is coming from. It's not just the experience and brutality of World War II that changed the upbeat tone of his prewar works into something more sinister laden. It's his seeing how Communist liberation was destroying the Balkans and the area of Europe he seems so enamored with.
This novel turns around an assassination. But it's not so much the actual assassination that is at the heart of the plot per se but the assassination of ideals. This novel makes an interesting complement, in a way, to Koestler's Darkness at Noon. In both, the beliefs that furthered commitment to communism twist back upon themselves and end not in tragedy but in obscure destruction of the soul.
The plot of Judgment on Deltchev does plod a bit towards the end and engage in excessive explanations. But the story and lesson from it is worth it.
This novel turns around an assassination. But it's not so much the actual assassination that is at the heart of the plot per se but the assassination of ideals. This novel makes an interesting complement, in a way, to Koestler's Darkness at Noon. In both, the beliefs that furthered commitment to communism twist back upon themselves and end not in tragedy but in obscure destruction of the soul.
The plot of Judgment on Deltchev does plod a bit towards the end and engage in excessive explanations. But the story and lesson from it is worth it.
glenmowrer's review against another edition
2.0
Thin beginning that expands dramatically in the end which unfortunately involves long paragraphs wherein characters explain the plot and fill in the events. Ambler seems a writer with respect for his readers but this one falls a bit short for me. Still, a remarkable reveal for us, 80 or more years later, of the state of European fascism and communism conflicts in small Eastern European/Balkan countries which is more relevant today in light of the Putin invasion of Ukraine to "stamp out Nazism."
mc510's review against another edition
2.0
Only Ambler book that I've abandoned before finishing. Just didn't grab me as others have, much too much didactic exposition in the first 40 pages; didn't get further.
darwin8u's review
4.0
"It's in the nature of this judicial system that one is condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance."
- Franz Kafka, The Trial
I might need to rethink this and give it five stars. It is still gnawing at me a couple days later. Ambler's thriller centers on a British poet that travels to a Balkan/Eastern European dictatorship to cover the show trial of Papa Deltchev for treason.
It is a thriller that owes a lot to Kafka, Nabokov, Koestler, and to Buchan's [b:The 39 Steps|153492|The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1)|John Buchan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391320797s/153492.jpg|2422487]. Ambler slowly unravels the conspiracy wrapped around conspiracy as Foster (the poet narrator) uncovers the truth about the former leader and his family. It is hard to read these Ambler novels without seeing the future novels by le Carré, Furst, & Steinhauer standing behind every closed door and lurking in every dark shadow. The post WWII Ambler novels seem to engage in the same type of shift that happened to le Carré post 9/11. The world gets thrown off center a bit and Ambler sees a new type of enemy, a new darkness, a new shadow to explore. Amber shifts from Hitler and Fascism to the Soviet Union and totalitarianism like le Carré pivoted from the Soviet Union and totalitarianism to terrorism and eventually to the problems within our own oligarchy and bureaucracy. I love writers who can move, shake, and keep up.
Anyway, the novel is worth the read just for the kangaroo court scenes.
___________________
- Franz Kafka, The Trial
I might need to rethink this and give it five stars. It is still gnawing at me a couple days later. Ambler's thriller centers on a British poet that travels to a Balkan/Eastern European dictatorship to cover the show trial of Papa Deltchev for treason.
It is a thriller that owes a lot to Kafka, Nabokov, Koestler, and to Buchan's [b:The 39 Steps|153492|The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1)|John Buchan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391320797s/153492.jpg|2422487]. Ambler slowly unravels the conspiracy wrapped around conspiracy as Foster (the poet narrator) uncovers the truth about the former leader and his family. It is hard to read these Ambler novels without seeing the future novels by le Carré, Furst, & Steinhauer standing behind every closed door and lurking in every dark shadow. The post WWII Ambler novels seem to engage in the same type of shift that happened to le Carré post 9/11. The world gets thrown off center a bit and Ambler sees a new type of enemy, a new darkness, a new shadow to explore. Amber shifts from Hitler and Fascism to the Soviet Union and totalitarianism like le Carré pivoted from the Soviet Union and totalitarianism to terrorism and eventually to the problems within our own oligarchy and bureaucracy. I love writers who can move, shake, and keep up.
Anyway, the novel is worth the read just for the kangaroo court scenes.
___________________
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