Tim Binding

In Island Madness by Tim Binding, it is 1943, the tide of war is slowing changing but on Guernsey Island, the Germans are still the occupiers of this small part of Britain. On the surface life appears fairly serene, parties are held, amateur theatre performances are given, the daily business of life goes on, but underneath resentments are building with smuggling and black market operations coming into play.

When a young local girl is found murdered, suspicion falls on many. As she was one of show more the women that openly associated with the Germans, was this a reprisal murder, or is it a case of a young girl falling into the hands of some soldiers at the wrong time, or is this something else entirely?

Island Madness is a well written account of the German occupation of Guernsey Island. In subtle ways the author shows the impact of war upon this community. The storyline raises the question of morality and responsibility during wartime, as it makes it’s point that what is acceptable during wartime would not be condoned during times of peace. I enjoyed this story and really liked how the author didn’t make all the Germans bad and all the British good. Each character has their own choices to make according to their own moral makeup.

While the murder plot is at the heart of this story, Island Madness was much more about how one prioritizes one’s values during times of crisis. On Guernsey Island we see that although some collaborated and some resisted, many simply put their heads down and tried to endure. show less

On the surface, Jeremiah Benbo is a quiet fruit and vegetable grower. Secretly, as Solomon Straw, he travels the country as England's hangman. He is proud of his ability to maintain his professionalism, while balancing it with a sense of compassion. We are in his mind as he contemplates the mechanics and physics of hanging--how long the rope must be; how tight the noose--and the psychology of his profession--how to calm the convicted man on his walk to the scaffold and allow him to maintain show more his dignity. All the while, he does not seem to fully understand the consequences of his job, or to question its morality, until circumstances converge to cause him to question whether he has hung an innocent man.

Binding is an excellent writer, and if at the beginning it is difficult to understand how all the characters and elements will fit together, in the end it all coalesces. The book gives us a unique point of view on the death penalty.

(This novel is set in Great Britain in the 1950's when the death penalty was still imposed.) show less

This isn't a 'what if' book about the War, but one that shows us how the inhabitants of the Channel Islands dealt with being occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. The occupation is a fascinating story in itself - a source of pride to the Germans, and a huge consumer of German resource and Eastern European manpower, the islands were cut completely loose by Churchill and the islanders who chose not to, or weren't able to, escape were very much on their own. Binding's depiction show more of collaboration and resistance, of a world where sometimes social class seems more important than nationality, and of the way in which individuals negotiate their own fate against a background of barely incomprehensible events, is fascinating. The thriller plot (the murder of a local girl who was too friendly with the invaders) offers a good hook off which to hang these complexities - people are not always what they seem, and - even in war - morality is not always black and white. show less

Very little is known about the British author Tim Binding other than that he was born in Germany in 1947. A perfect execution, published in 1996, was his second novel.

The story of A perfect execution is somewhat convoluted, as if the reader is half blind, and can only see part of the story, while the other half id obscured. The duality in the story makes the reader see the story mainly from Jeremiah Bembo's perspective, a perspective which is also "halved" as Bembo lost an eye at an early show more age. Out of Bembo's field of vision are at least his cousin, his wife and her acquaintances and a large part of his own life, his normal life, when is he not Solomon Straw.

Jeremiah Bembo, his cousin and his wife, Judith, all grew up together in rural England, in the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury, where Bembo's family run a very successful trade as market gardeners, a business he will later take over. During the summer holidays the children make extra money with their Punch & Judy show, with Bembo's cousin as the puppeteer.

The scene seems idyllic enough, until one day it is all destroyed by an German bomber, ironically not through bombing, but as the plane crashes into and utterly destroys the glass houses. A piece of glass hits and gets lodged into Bembo's eye, initially distorting his sight, and later the loss of the eye. In his distorted view, Bembo sees the German pilot as the victim of the cruelty of the British youths. He cuts the pilot, who is suspended in the air, hanging from the treads of his parachute, down and mercifully kills him.

This event, which destroys the basis of their existence, leads to Bembo's choice to become Britain's executioner. To protect his identity, he adopts the name Solomon Straw, a name which reflects the way he sees himself as the personification of wisdom, with echos of division in halves and the lack of other qualities, as his heart turns as cold as his glass eye.

Bembo's cousin embarks on a career as a successful entertainer, eventually making fame on television, and running into various problems and scandals.

Jeremiah Bembo alias Solomon Straw enters upon a career unlike any other man, his aim to perfect the killing. After his marriage with his wife Judith, "Judy" he identifies with Mr Punch (of Punch and Judy). This identification with the puppet, dangling from the ropes, not unlike the German pilot, seals his fate. The question remains who is the cruel puppeteer.

Ethel, a friend of Bembo's wife outside his field of vision, is harassed and murdered, and it is Solomon Straw's call to execute the murderer, young Danny Dancer. Willing to make his last execution perfect, Solomon fails and makes several mistakes. He is not in perfect control. He is a plaything at the hands of cruel fate, failing to see things clearly, as once Oedipus had failed to see and pierced his eyes.

Perhaps not a perfect novel, A perfect execution is an impressive achievement. The disjointed, convoluted way of telling the story is somewhat difficult to follow, but the story is certainly compelling. The scenes in the car are creepy, and psychologically convincing. The murderer, the puppeteer and the hangman: one remains unknown. show less