Jackdaws

I only occasionally read historical fiction. However, a new friend spoke well of Ken Follet so I grabbed a sampling of his books from our public library to try. I started with Jackdaws which is set in 1944, primarily in Nazi-occupied France. It turned out to be an excellent read, and the only thing preventing me from reading it in one sitting yesterday was that I had other things I had to get done...

Turns out, Jackdaws was a great first choice for me. A fast way to win my involvement is to make your protagonist a woman who is tough and intelligent and still has real emotions. Particularly compassion. Flick is definitely that kind of character. When she's tough and necessarily ruthless, it is because she has to be. The rest of the time, show more she's as human as the rest of us. She laughs, she cries, her emotions sometimes lead her off course, and she makes mistakes. A real person in extraordinary circumstances.

That holds true for the majority of other characters also, including the antagonist. He too is a real person in extraordinary circumstances. We may not approve of his methods, his choice of who to serve in the war, but he does have real reasons for what he does throughout the book. At times, you can almost empathize with the antagonist, ...except that his methods are horrible enough that I really can't feel sorry for him. Eerrgh.

I had a fear that the book would be exposition heavy, but I was proven wrong about that. It seemed a little slow at the start, but I was hooked early enough that there was no difficulty reading along until the pace picked up. By then I was completely immersed and the book kept me motivated to keep reading all the way to the end.

There is graphic violence and depictions of torture in this book. However, they are not over-lavish or excessive. Follet doesn't sugar coat the kinds of things that happened to people during the war...some of the characters do horrible things...but Follet spends only enough time on the scene so that the reader has a sense of what is happening. I imagine that was a difficult balancing act during the editing phase...

Overall, a great book, well-written, well-plotted, and well-executed. A couple of "dings" for the slow start and simply because I have trouble saying "I loved it" and remembering the torture at the same time. show less

Jackdaws is an exciting espionage thriller set in World War II with a bit of a twist: it's about a team of British spies operating behind enemy lines, who are all women (including a couple of lesbians)...well, and one German transvestite.

The heroines are very interesting (particularly the transvestite), but Follett's greatest achievement in this novel is perhaps his villain, a German interrogator in charge of rooting out and breaking up the French resistance. He is not averse to using extreme brutal torture to extract information if necessary (and there is some very graphic violence in the novel, but with the Nazis as a subject that's pretty much inevitable), but he is extremely intelligent and would rather use trickery or emotional show more manipulation when those methods would serve the purpose. In fact, he finds the methods of his fellow Nazis rather distasteful.

At the same time, Follett portrays the lead heroine, Flick, as somewhat cold and steely, willing to kill the enemy in cold blood to protect her mission. Many writers today would use this juxtaposition to insinuate that the Nazis weren't such monsters as they are often made out to be and that the Allies were just as brutal and vicious. But in Follett's hands, the Nazi interrogator's supposed "scruples" are clearly rank hypocrisy which only serves to highlight the atrocious nature of the ends he pursues and the means he employs, while Flick's actions are underlain by a righteous determination not to suffer the guilt which rightly belongs to the aggressors against whom she fights. Very well done. show less

Definitely the Follett pattern: easy to read, a hero, a villain, a cast of easy to understand sidekicks, somewhat predictable plot, and definitely an enjoyable ride one wants to finish!

This was a very fine WWII espionage story. Although interesting, the early part of the novel is a little slow after starting with a bang, but it is worth getting through that. The story starts on May 28th, 1944, less than 2 weeks before D-day. The French resistance with British undercover agents, some in deep cover, are trying to disrupt German communications which is seen by both sides as critical to the success or failure of the invasion. The book starts with a failed attempt to destroy a telephone exchange. With only days before the invasion a second attempt is planned, this time with an all-women force of cast-offs and third string agents who had been washed out of training. Time is of the essence, however, and a rushed operation is show more put together.

I can't say I bonded much with the characters in this story - in particular the lead agent "Flick" who does come across as a real person. I did however get very drawn into this story as everything played out. It is a rather harsh and desperate time for all involved. Overall I found the portrayal of all the main characters pretty vivid and well done, and liked how they were developed through the story, with the Germans really done well. Getting inside the head of one of these guys, a German Army officer, Dieter, was spooky. I hate to admit that he was the most interesting character in the sense that he was really brought to life and I could understand who he was and his motivations.

There are some elements in the story (Nazi torture in particular) that might bother or upset some people. I enjoyed this a lot, and it is well written and it just makes it up to the level of an excellent book for me. show less

Le gazze ladre è il nome in codice di un gruppo di donne che a pochi giorni dallo sbarco in Normandia deve portare a termine una pericolosa missione di sabotaggio nella Francia occupata dai nazisti. Questa, in breve, la trama. Per quanto riguarda il mio commento… wow!!! Quanto m’era mancato Ken Follett! Innanzitutto, io adoro i libri storici, e quindi, vabbè, sono un po’ di parte. Ma la storia è molto avvincente, come al solito i personaggi sono tutti affascinanti, e dalle molte sfaccettature, tanto che un paio di volte mi trovavo a tifare per i "cattivi"! Verso la fine è stato veramente emozionante, era un bel po’ che un libro non mi teneva così in trepidazione!!! Non c’è che dire, il caro Folletto si riconferma uno dei show more miei scrittori preferiti!

http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodileggere/99 show less

Jackdaws is a stand alone novel of World War II, set in the days running up to the Battle of Normandy. Another fast paced jaunt through history, this time with a focus on female spies operating in France during WWII. It was a romp of a read but not going to win any literary awards. The characters were a bit flat and predictable and the plot operated on coincidences that were a bit far fetched. And, a warning, Follett does not shy away from detailed descriptions of torture, both physical and psychological.

A brilliant, gripping story of women SOE members. I was really involved and desperately hoping they would all survive. Some shocking moments as well, such as the Nazi treatment of the old lady whose house is used by the Resistance and the Resistance's execution of Stephanie.