The Good German (2001)

During the initial occupation of Germany, Russians and the other Allies jockeying for positions, for German brain power, this novel proved to be engaging and intelligent. How could the Germans let all that is WWII happen? All the reasons are intertwined in a very good plot: anti--semitism, fear for their lives, fear for the lives of those they loved, survival, nationalism, fear of communism. On and on. It happened. ( )

I read ISTANBUL PASSAGE last month and thoroughly enjoyed it. Someone said I should read THE GOOD GERMAN if I liked that. All I can do is echo the same. I thought THE GOOD GERMAN was a well told story in a setting and time that couldn't have been more real. It's Berlin in the summer of 1945, between the end of was in Europe and the end of war with Japan. As seems to be true now with Joseph Kanon's methid he weaves an intricate plot between historical fact and in this book, as in ISTANBUL PASSAGE, he succeeds quite well. Highly recommend this read to anyone who likes this sort of stuff. ( )

First, if you have seen the movie, switch off the memories. I liked the movie. Indeed it was one of the two factors that led me to buy the book. That said the movie collapsed characters and severely altered the story line. Different media and all that. What this book is is a good police procedural dressed up as a costume drama and then dolled up further as a questionable morality play. The morality play part is trite, obvious to anyone who knows the period and superfluous. It is part of why 4 stars instead of 5. The other part of the missing star is that the characters are straight out of central casting. Two paragraphs into each of them and you know them from a hundred prior novels and movies. They have no depth and will not stick with you the way say Elizabeth Yager from Rimrunners will. That said, they are serviceable devices to move the plot along. The period costume drama is excellently handled. It gives you the Berlin of Potsdam and the very early occupation without the burden of high politics. The Big Three are there essentially as stage props. I grew up around veterans of that war and the author seems to have nailed the sensibilities. The police procedural works better in the reading than the outline afterwards would indicate. By interweaving two mysteries and a host of loose ends that as in real life never get fully resolved the end is guessable but by no means obvious. The book is well worth the reading time and has sent me off to Amazon to buy another by the author. ( )

Jake Geismar is an American journalist who was stationed in Berlin before WWII and is returning now in post-war 1945 to cover the Potsdam Conference. And to try and find Lena, the married woman he left behind, but has never forgotten. The city is alien to him now: bombed out ruins inhabited by scared poverty-wracked people, mostly women and children, and the sense of despair on every corner. When Jake discovers a dead body at the conference, he begins an investigation that is inconvenient for both the Russians and the Americans. In the process he meets Bernie Teitel, an American Jew whose job is to uncover Nazi’s and collect enough evidence to convict them of war crimes; Gunther Behn, a retired Nazi policeman slowly drinking his way to an early grave over his wife’s death; and Renate Naumann, a former employee of Jake’s, now on trial for abetting the Nazis as a greifer, a Jew who turned in other Jews.



What makes this book more than a murder mystery, or a love story, or an espionage type of thriller, is that the German characters feel like real people making impossible choices. Lena’s sense of duty to her husband, despite knowing he was a Nazi; Bernie chasing former Nazi’s regardless of their personal situations, trying to find justice for the Jews; Gunther’s guilt for not being able to save his wife and testifying against a woman who may have had to make the hardest choices of all: Renate. The author is able to raise philosophical questions in the context of people’s lives. By doing so, he makes it harder to respond with stock answers and a black and white point of view. The American motives in the treatment of Nazi scientists alone are enough to trouble one’s conscience.



When I picked up this novel, I thought I was in for an easy read about a journalist, a love affair, and a mystery. Instead, I found myself wrestling with the ideas of justice, guilt, and reparations. This book has stuck with me, and I would recommend it to all those interested in the war and to book club groups. There is a lot to think about. ( )