en-US Sat, 03 May 2025 19:59:34 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7540898905 Sat, 03 May 2025 19:59:34 -0700 /review/show/7540898905 John gave 4 stars to 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia (Kindle Edition) by Philippe Sands
bookshelves: latin-america, politics
If you are fascinated by the story of Pinochet's arrest in London and its consequences, then this detailed exploration by someone with intimate knowledge of events will add to your understanding of them. The side story - about an escaped Nazi SS officer who was a mass murderer and was probably involved in assisting Pinochet's torture maachine - can get a little tedious, given that he seems to have had a marginal role. But the new details about the Pinochet case, and its aftermath when he returned to Chile, make the book a very worthwhile read. ]]> Review7540887535 Sat, 03 May 2025 19:54:26 -0700 /review/show/7540887535 John gave 4 stars to The Odessa File (Mass Market Paperback) by Frederick Forsyth
bookshelves: historical-fiction, espionage, eastern-europe
Having very much enjoyed The Day of the Jackal I turned to this, almost equally well-known, story. It is not quite as convincing but - except perhaps for a slightly weak ending - it is a great romp through post-war Germany in search of Nazi war criminals who are hiding in plain sight. ]]> Review7540880077 Sat, 03 May 2025 19:50:58 -0700 /review/show/7540880077 John gave 4 stars to The Strange Death of David Kelly (Paperback) by Norman Baker
bookshelves: crime, politics, middle-east
A readable and disturbing account of a crime covered up by the British establishment. Baker makes a convincing case for a fresh inquiry and offers a plausible explanation for Kelly having been murdered, and by whom. ]]> Review7540860121 Sat, 03 May 2025 19:41:42 -0700 /review/show/7540860121 John gave 4 stars to Real Americans (Hardcover) by Rachel Khong
bookshelves: contemporary
This novel has a nice take on how generations relate to each other and also on how different cultures (Chinese and North Amercian) relate to each other (or fail to do so), along with some well-worked-out social commentary. It is engaging, but unless read in one or two sittings can be quite confusing, not least because a key character resembles his father and - in the mind's eye - they can get mixed up with each other. There is also a scientific angle to the story which - in the end - somewhat stretches the reader's credibility. But, would I read another book by Rachel Khong? - probably, yes. ]]> Review7497544559 Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:22:04 -0700 /review/show/7497544559 John gave 5 stars to Flesh (Hardcover) by David Szalay
bookshelves: contemporary, eastern-europe
This story is compeling and immersive even though its protagonist is not an especially attractive character. Perhaps what he is, though, is a reflection of many characteristics that we all have, albeit that his circumstances change so radically in the course of the novel that in the end it is no ordinary life story.

In some ways it has a touch of Highsmith, in the way that Istvan reflects on his life and also in his fraught and sometimes violent relationship with his stepson. I will certainly look out for Szalay's other writing. ]]> Review7497211971 Thu, 17 Apr 2025 17:47:04 -0700 /review/show/7497211971 John gave 4 stars to You Dreamed of Empires (Hardcover) by Álvaro Enrigue
bookshelves: historical-fiction, latin-america
This is an intriguing and innovative novel, recreating the days after the arrival of Hernando Cortes in the capital of Moctezuma's empire in 1521. Enrigue convincingly, although often playfully, gets into the daily life of the emperor, his first concubine, a range of other characters and Cortes and his troops. Given the number of characters, the book (like the palace) is a sort of maze. Perhaps oddly, it is about the convoluted and confusing events immedaitely before Moctezuma's capture, rather than his actual fall from power. What it does well is to bring alive the characters on both sides, perhaps especially in the case of the Mexica and his depiction of their daily lives.
In reading the book, I was taken back to an exhibition of astonishing Mexica art that took place at the British Museum a few years ago. Having seen the exquisite artifacts of different kinds that they produced, I found the image that Enrique creates, of a sophisticated and cultured people, albeit accustomed to extreme cruelty to appease their gods, very convincing. My doubt about the book, perhaps, is whether someone unaware of the history of the conquest of Mexico would find it as entertaining, or whether they might get lost in the maze (as, at one point, Cortes's soldiers did). ]]> Review7460471399 Thu, 03 Apr 2025 17:30:07 -0700 /review/show/7460471399 John gave 3 stars to The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby (Hardcover) by Ellery Lloyd
bookshelves: crime, contemporary
This story is intriguing but - I found - rather too much so, as I found it difficult to follow the many twists and turns. These also stretch the reader's credibility, so one is left with the feeling of having finished a cleverly written book which doesn't quite hit the button in terms of being a satisfying read. ]]> Review7417953488 Wed, 19 Mar 2025 16:57:11 -0700 /review/show/7417953488 John gave 4 stars to Journey into Fear (Paperback) by Eric Ambler
bookshelves: espionage
Eric Ambler was so good at writing these stories, with their semi-innocent protagonists and their twisting plots, that one's only regret is that the supply of them is finite! ]]> Review7417899005 Wed, 19 Mar 2025 16:32:42 -0700 /review/show/7417899005 John gave 4 stars to What Strange Paradise (Hardcover) by Omar El Akkad
bookshelves: foreign-fiction, migration
Don't read this book if you're feeling depressed, but do read it if you want an authentic-seeming fictional account of what happens to migrants who try to cross the Mediterranean sea. The book has echoes of the sad story of Alan Kurdi, the two-year-old Syrian boy of Kurdish background whose body was found near the Turkish resort of Bodrum, in 2015. Here a rather older boy, Amir, is found in a similar way, but has survived the capsize of the boat that brought him from Egypt, and is assisted by a teenager girl, Vanna, towards an uncertain but dramatic conclusion.

El Akkad's writing brilliantly captures the conflicting emotions of those involved, including even those of the colonel whose detachment of young soldiers must try to track Amir down. He has given us a fitting reminder of the Alan Kurdis who continue their perilous journeys. ]]> Review7146187629 Wed, 19 Mar 2025 16:31:12 -0700 /review/show/7146187629 John gave 4 stars to The Hundred Years�� War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917��2017 (Hardcover) by Rashid Khalidi
bookshelves: middle-east, history, politics
Before writing this short review I was interested to see from his Goodread's entry that Rashid Khalidi and I are the same age, but (as he makes clear in his book) he has far more distinguished immediate ancestors, several of whom were either key players in the history of Palestine or (in his father's case) had a close view from the sidelines of the United Nations Security Council.

This personal connection is vital to the book's appeal, because while we are all too well aware of the persecution of Palestinians by the Zionist regime, and their betrayal by their Arab cousins in neighbouring states, and indeed by the Western powers (notably Britain), Khalidi is well placed to explain how Palestinians were let down by their own leaders, too. This clearly happened from the beginning, when those who might have ably represented the Palestine cause failed to do so.

Khalidi's history finishes in 2017, but the tragedy continues, with heartbreaking images appearing daily on the web. Palestine may have been let down, frequently, by its leaders, but it is not short of heroes. I write this only a day or two after the pictures began to appear of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, leaving the ruins of the last remaining hospital in Gaza, walking towards capitivity and, very likely, a painful death. He is one such hero.

Khalidi has written the history of one of the most appalling examples of settler-colonialism, made worse by its occurring in the present day. A genocide is taking place before our eyes, we struggle to work out what to do in response, but we can at least be informed about how it came about. ]]>