Discuss/Review A MAN WITHOUT BREATH

edited April 2013 in Root
Here at BGHQ we are just now getting to read A MAN WITHOUT BREATH. So far so great!

Who has read it already? What did you think?

Comments

  • I'll be starting it myself tomorrow. Can't wait!
  • I have just finished reading A MAN WITHOUT BREATH and I thought it was the best of the Bernie Gunther novels so far. I like the way the historical facts / names are mixed in with the fiction.
  • Got my review up at Berlin Noir. I loved the book. Only one misstep I for this reader but it was a minor part of the book. Otherwise it was a great entry into the Gunther canon. Enjoyed the heck out of it.
  • My review will be in the Historical Novel Society's July issue. Super read. The setting & characters were outstanding - not to mention the multi-level plots.
  • My first post here, but a loyal Gunther reader. Just finished A Man Without Breath. Now I will be Jonesing until the next installment. I have a couple quibbles about this one, but will say nothing for fear of giving anything away. Yet, despite one or two moments, it was another enjoyable read. In fact, I had re-read the preceding books again, in order, before tackling "Man....", so now I need a mental sorbet from all of the grime and gloom.
  • Just finished the audiobook. Enjoyed the historical realness of it, although I thought it got awfully complicated, especially for an audiobook. For many authors, just investigating the Katyn Woods Massacre would have been enough, but no - Mr. Kerr had to throw in 4 or 5 different, seemingly unrelated, murders. And too many Vons for me to keep track of! But otherwise, a solid, enjoyable read.
  • I did not like this book as much as the others. Not quite sure why. It took me much longer to read it, an indication that it just did not quite grab me as some of its predecessors had done. Without giving too much away, I found there to be no real likeable characters. Nor interesting ones. I think more could have been made with some of the relationships. Characters just sort of dip in and out of the story line. Nevertheless, even a "bad" Bernie Gunther novel is still much better than a good one from just about anyone else.
  • Thought it was excellent - filling in missing bits of the BG canon, developing BG further as a character, but most of all in evoking the dread of the German grunt in Russia after Stalingrad. The irony of the propaganda exercise over Katyn, with so many Russian massacre victims around (in particular at Babi Yar) is well worked out. But I liked the fine delineation of the wariness of the Prussian Junkers and Canaris' Abwehr, with their innate superiority complex, of their Nemesis - the Nazi military and paramilitary institutions (SS and SD) which were going to overtake and eventually terminate them, best of all. BG's comment that the "von and zus" simply had too many scruples to do the necessary sounds very true. Didn't know either that Hitler had succeeded in stuffing so many key Junkers' mouths at crucial moments with something as profane as money ...
    Keep up the good work, PK.
  • I would like to know when will the french version be available? I can't wait to read it but my husband reads only french!

    Thanks!
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