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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
Well written spy thriller, set in the late 1940's, mostly in the Eastern/Soviet sector of Berlin, during the blockade/airlift.
Kanon's use of dialog is outstanding - lifelike and facile, subtly revealing his characters' motivations, while continually driving the story forward. His descriptions of a ruined city and a society in tumult are so detailed, it feels like viewing news reel footage - and feels somehow voyeuristic, as though you are secretly watching someone behaving really badly.
Much of the story is set in Prenzlauer Berg, of particular interest to me, since I have family that live in the now-trendy area. Interesting to read of Volkspark Friedrichschain while the hill covering the anti-aircraft tower was being built, of the trams on Danziger Strasse and Prenzlauer Allee, and the Wasserturm after its use by the Nazis.
Recommended as a first class thriller, and to anyone who would like to know something about the horror of Berlin's past.
Kanon's use of dialog is outstanding - lifelike and facile, subtly revealing his characters' motivations, while continually driving the story forward. His descriptions of a ruined city and a society in tumult are so detailed, it feels like viewing news reel footage - and feels somehow voyeuristic, as though you are secretly watching someone behaving really badly.
Much of the story is set in Prenzlauer Berg, of particular interest to me, since I have family that live in the now-trendy area. Interesting to read of Volkspark Friedrichschain while the hill covering the anti-aircraft tower was being built, of the trams on Danziger Strasse and Prenzlauer Allee, and the Wasserturm after its use by the Nazis.
Recommended as a first class thriller, and to anyone who would like to know something about the horror of Berlin's past.
Finished Leaving Berlin late one night. It’s a good book for me, because it is a great story with a strong underpinning in history. Kanon is a great writer, I think that’s well known, but this was the first book I had read by him. It’s a great story driven along by a highly-readable use of dialogue, which I wrote about in a previous post.
One thing that was really interesting was that the main character (Alex Meier) is a writer. As you know, I don’t do plot summaries here, but he is a Communist who left to flee the Nazis and then after the war had to flee the US due to the Red Scare. So, he’s in Communist Berlin now.
Like all spy stories, everything is a shadow. You don’t know who is your enemy and who is your friend, and you don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. People are all reacting to different information, some right and some wrong.
The fascinating twist on that old formula is that the protagonist, in this case, is a writer–a fiction writer. We see him employing his storytelling skills to survive in a world of spies and in a surveillance society. He’s got a gift for it. He knows what people know, what motivates them, what they are likely to think when they heard something, what they would be likely to do in a certain situation. These are all skills that writers have, and he uses them to be the chess master of the situation, just as he would have in his own novels.
(You wonder about this….whether the CIA or KGB ever thought of having fiction writers come up with the false narratives that might move a real-life spy situation.)
The other very powerful part of this book is the sense of the claustrophobia of living in a surveillance state. To me, this is relevant to the world we live in today. When I talk to people about the right to privacy and the importance of the keeping the government out of our emails, mail and phone calls, I often hear that they don’t mind people in their emails because they have “nothing to hide.”
When you read Leaving Berlin, you get a great sense of why that’s not the right way to think. You understand how it is to live when everyone is watching…when helping your own brother could get you killed, for example. There’s a cascading effect, too. Once a certain mass of people are watching and informing, you might as well have everyone doing it. When you take a walk, people watch. Where’s he going? How is he seeing? Why would he be walking now?
It’s literally palpable when you read this book. There can be no liberty at all when the government can know everything we do. It isn’t about having things to hide.
This book is highly recommended. It was listed among on the New York Times, NPR and Wall Street Journal books of the year for 2015 and deserves its place on those lists.
https://marriedbooknerds.com/2017/10/22/review-leaving-berlin/
One thing that was really interesting was that the main character (Alex Meier) is a writer. As you know, I don’t do plot summaries here, but he is a Communist who left to flee the Nazis and then after the war had to flee the US due to the Red Scare. So, he’s in Communist Berlin now.
Like all spy stories, everything is a shadow. You don’t know who is your enemy and who is your friend, and you don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. People are all reacting to different information, some right and some wrong.
The fascinating twist on that old formula is that the protagonist, in this case, is a writer–a fiction writer. We see him employing his storytelling skills to survive in a world of spies and in a surveillance society. He’s got a gift for it. He knows what people know, what motivates them, what they are likely to think when they heard something, what they would be likely to do in a certain situation. These are all skills that writers have, and he uses them to be the chess master of the situation, just as he would have in his own novels.
(You wonder about this….whether the CIA or KGB ever thought of having fiction writers come up with the false narratives that might move a real-life spy situation.)
The other very powerful part of this book is the sense of the claustrophobia of living in a surveillance state. To me, this is relevant to the world we live in today. When I talk to people about the right to privacy and the importance of the keeping the government out of our emails, mail and phone calls, I often hear that they don’t mind people in their emails because they have “nothing to hide.”
When you read Leaving Berlin, you get a great sense of why that’s not the right way to think. You understand how it is to live when everyone is watching…when helping your own brother could get you killed, for example. There’s a cascading effect, too. Once a certain mass of people are watching and informing, you might as well have everyone doing it. When you take a walk, people watch. Where’s he going? How is he seeing? Why would he be walking now?
It’s literally palpable when you read this book. There can be no liberty at all when the government can know everything we do. It isn’t about having things to hide.
This book is highly recommended. It was listed among on the New York Times, NPR and Wall Street Journal books of the year for 2015 and deserves its place on those lists.
https://marriedbooknerds.com/2017/10/22/review-leaving-berlin/
I liked this book and found the plot really interesting. There were a few things I found unbelievable but definitely enjoyed it. I'll read more from Kanon.
I got a chance at the pre-release ARC of Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon as part of my membership at NetGalley. It intrigued me as a throwback to my time living in Berlin–and under Communist “secret informer” eyes even before that–, as well as a complete change of pace from my usual fare of scifi, fantasy, and romance novels. It was everything a political thriller should be: gripping, with small details that made the final reveal make sense.
The writing itself evoked Kafka and that hunted, haunted perspective of someone who has made a choice not to trust anyone. The politics of the U.S. Commie Scare drive the inciting incident, but the story has all the feeling of the titular location. The streets mentioned, the Brandenburger Tor, these were all places I’ve been, and the story felt every bit as surreal as a fantasy, being thrown back to when the walls still showed strafing–even as late as my last visit in the late 90s. But this story was also set in a time when the initial post-war fervor for ideology was at its height:
Alex looked at their bright, attentive faces, Brecht’s cynicism as out of place here as it had been in California, and for the first time felt the hope that warmed the room. Shabby suits and no stockings, but they had survived, waited in hiding or miraculously escaped, for this new chance, the idea the Nazis hadn’t managed to kill.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and this story, even with its early, disjointed jumps, captures the underlying reality that pushes questionable decisions. I know there’s a file somewhere in Berlin that documents the years I lived there with my family; my father has seen and read the redacted version. Knowing who the confidential informants were–who were also our friends–makes for another surreal echo for me in this story. As well as the classic German class distinctions and need for philosophical underpinnings and rationalizations. I don’t know how much of that will convey to someone who doesn’t have the personal experiences I do, but I suspect those echos will be as gripping and uncomfortable even for those without my perspective.
For that reason, I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes a “quiet” historical thriller, driven, in the end, just by the love of a father for his son–an echo across generations. It takes some getting used to the literary devices in the early chapters, but the action doesn’t let you go, either, so it’s likely a book for those who read a mystery once for the reveal, and then ten more times for the nuances that got you there. Even more, I strongly recommend this to anyone who thinks they know Communist history in its monolithic path. The details matter, as well as the personal lives and motivations that push forward such a stark ideology, and this story plays that out as clearly as any I’ve read on the subject.
The writing itself evoked Kafka and that hunted, haunted perspective of someone who has made a choice not to trust anyone. The politics of the U.S. Commie Scare drive the inciting incident, but the story has all the feeling of the titular location. The streets mentioned, the Brandenburger Tor, these were all places I’ve been, and the story felt every bit as surreal as a fantasy, being thrown back to when the walls still showed strafing–even as late as my last visit in the late 90s. But this story was also set in a time when the initial post-war fervor for ideology was at its height:
Alex looked at their bright, attentive faces, Brecht’s cynicism as out of place here as it had been in California, and for the first time felt the hope that warmed the room. Shabby suits and no stockings, but they had survived, waited in hiding or miraculously escaped, for this new chance, the idea the Nazis hadn’t managed to kill.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and this story, even with its early, disjointed jumps, captures the underlying reality that pushes questionable decisions. I know there’s a file somewhere in Berlin that documents the years I lived there with my family; my father has seen and read the redacted version. Knowing who the confidential informants were–who were also our friends–makes for another surreal echo for me in this story. As well as the classic German class distinctions and need for philosophical underpinnings and rationalizations. I don’t know how much of that will convey to someone who doesn’t have the personal experiences I do, but I suspect those echos will be as gripping and uncomfortable even for those without my perspective.
For that reason, I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes a “quiet” historical thriller, driven, in the end, just by the love of a father for his son–an echo across generations. It takes some getting used to the literary devices in the early chapters, but the action doesn’t let you go, either, so it’s likely a book for those who read a mystery once for the reveal, and then ten more times for the nuances that got you there. Even more, I strongly recommend this to anyone who thinks they know Communist history in its monolithic path. The details matter, as well as the personal lives and motivations that push forward such a stark ideology, and this story plays that out as clearly as any I’ve read on the subject.
A thrilling ride through Communist, Cold War Berlin. Fast-paced and full of intrigue, action and danger, it brings the city, the politics, and the history to life.
Not as good as it could be - tangled plot - but rich in historical detail and post- war Berlin atmosphere.
My eyes are closed
But I'm not asleep.
Snore snore snore.
Kanon's weakest novel. Slow. Boring.
I quit after 45%.
But I'm not asleep.
Snore snore snore.
Kanon's weakest novel. Slow. Boring.
I quit after 45%.
DNF I couldn't warm to the characters, I felt like I was missing something throughout. If I didn't know better I would have sworn this was the second in a series I hadn't read. Not one for me.
Almost four years after World War II, Berlin is a mess, divided in two. The east is occupied but the political ideas from the Soviet Union and the Allies are trying to control the west. This power struggle will later divide Germany into two with the erecting of the Berlin wall in 1961. Alex Meier is a young Jewish writer who managed to flee Nazi Germany to find a home in America. Only he found himself in the crosshairs of Joseph McCarthy during his “Red Scare” witch hunts. Alex and his family are now facing deportation; that was until he was given an alternative by the CIA but is this a solution at all?
The setting for Leaving Berlin is fascinating, the rebuilding and restoration of Germany is interesting enough as it is, but then you have the political struggle and influences of America and the Soviet Union as well. The American propaganda towards communism plays a big part in this espionage novel, and reading a book about a country being torn apart by the Cold War was really interesting. I am very interested in the history behind the Cold War, especially when it comes to the way the media was used to manipulate and of course I am interesting in the Soviet Union. As far as this novel goes, it was entertaining and I enjoyed reading it, however the setting and political history interested me more than the plot. I would have enjoyed a non-fiction novel of post-war Berlin more than Leaving Berlin, but that does not mean I regretted reading it.
The setting for Leaving Berlin is fascinating, the rebuilding and restoration of Germany is interesting enough as it is, but then you have the political struggle and influences of America and the Soviet Union as well. The American propaganda towards communism plays a big part in this espionage novel, and reading a book about a country being torn apart by the Cold War was really interesting. I am very interested in the history behind the Cold War, especially when it comes to the way the media was used to manipulate and of course I am interesting in the Soviet Union. As far as this novel goes, it was entertaining and I enjoyed reading it, however the setting and political history interested me more than the plot. I would have enjoyed a non-fiction novel of post-war Berlin more than Leaving Berlin, but that does not mean I regretted reading it.