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Title: The Pieces from Berlin by Michael Pye ISBN: 0-375-41436-3 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A lot to think about.
Comment: Michael Pye's book had the surprising ability to make me think about the Holocaust in some new ways. I say surprising because this moral ground has been well traveled in literature, theater and film. In the service of remembrance, we have all read or seen a vast litany of Nazi atrocities, with the unintended and unfortunate effect of making us numb to the horror.
But Pye does a remarkable job of showing us that there is still a lot to talk about.
The character Lucia morphs from textbook villain, to misunderstood mother, to even greater villain without ever becoming a cartoon. Her actions can make the reader alternately sympathize with and abhor her.
Even more interesting are the questions of national and religious identity. Just when you think you've figured out the books moral point of view, a revelation about one of the main characters gets you thinking all over again.
Rating: 3
Summary: Get to the Point
Comment: Michael Pye has managed to take a very interesting subject and a very charged part of world history (WWII, Nazi Germany, stolen art) and make it thoroughly boring and disinteresting. The pace of the novel is so slow that by the time he reveals pertinent aspects of the plot the reader doesn't care anymore (at least that's how I felt). This novel is inundated with sub-plots that are never developed (ie: Helen's relationship with her husband, her child, even her father Nicolas; one of the main characters) and the language eventually becomes tiresome and self-important. By the time the novel is finished you feel like you've pressed fast-forward through most of the book and don't have much to take away except fleeting images of clarity that are superceded by a mess of a plot with almost zero forward moving action. This book is at best: unsatisfactory.
Rating: 3
Summary: A missed chance on a very interesting theme
Comment: Lucia Müller-Rossi is a 90 year old antiques dealer in Zürich, Switzerland. She has a son, Nicholas, and a granddaughter, Helen, with whom she has a rather formal contact. This is due to the fact that the family has a secret: the antiques that Lucia is selling were not obtained honestly, but were given to her for storage by Berlin Jews. When one day one of her victims, Sarah Freeman, recognizes one of the tables in the antiques shop as her own, the family finally has to face the truth, which leads to a big domestic drama.
The facts on which this novel is built are of course fascinating: the trade in Jewish goods which "changed owner" illegally during the Nazi regime. Unfortunately, the story remains unclear for a long time and there are a number of story lines that have not been exploited properly: what is the role of Peter Clarke, why did Helen never before confront her grandmother with the truth and what happens in the end with the table that started it all? A missed chance, a pity.
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Title: The Coffee Trader : A Novel by David Liss ISBN: 0375508546 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Clara : A Novel by Janice Galloway ISBN: 0684844494 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 11 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Any Human Heart by William Boyd ISBN: 0375414932 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Great Fire: A Novel by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0374166447 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Piano Tuner : A Novel by DANIEL MASON ISBN: 1400030382 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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