A riveting novel with important moral implications
359026
The title of this novel, "This is How It Begins", is a statement that implies a moral question, is this how it begins - again? Because the story is so timely in it's theme, it would make a dynamic read for a book club.
Compelling, with well-drawn characters, my fav is Ludka Zeilonka, an 85-year-old art professor, the matriarch of the family. The story includes a mystery informed by flashbacks from her teen years in Warsaw during the Second World War. Ludka was part of the resistance and her parents hide Jewish children, one of whom eventually becomes her husband Izaac. In America Izaac becomes a lawyer and serves as Attorney General of the state of Massachusetts. Primary to the story is a group of Christian clergy and an influential talk radio figure that plan a 'righteous' war of words and legal attempts to remove homosexual teachers from schools, identifying them as a danger to religious freedom. One of the targets is Ludka's grandson. "This is How It Begins" is engaging and thought provoking, a 'can't put it down' read. Because the story is so relevant for today and the characters so interesting and believable, I would love to see it on the big screen.
243041
This is one of those novels that stay with you. Apart from its many humane and empathetic messages, this is a deeply existentialist work. Although it is a gripping and tragic story, the main issues are not what meet the eye. It poses many fundamental questions simply and directly, yet it cleverly leaves you thinking rather than providing answers. This novel can easily be made into a film, though a very sad one. I strongly recommend it to readers.
1687922
This is an interesting parable, as appropriate for today's financial scandals as for the aftermath of the Nazi era which it depicts, with its focus on the consequences of tacitly "going along to get along" instead of making moral choices.
 It begins with a 15-year-old boy who has a tempestuous affair with a 36-year-old woman  -- two people at the height of their sexuality who are mutually exploitative.  But, they also have a sense of responsibility for each other;  Hanna Schmitz insists that Michael Berg apply himself to his schoolwork, in return, he reads a variety of books to her (her shortcoming is illiteracy).
 Now, think of this in terms of some recently failed businesses;  where the chief executive is obsessed with showing profits or making his company the dominant one in its field.  So, the books are cooked to show desirable results  --  and, the employees who must "go along to get along."
 Hanna's story is of an illiterate peasant girl swept into the Nazi SS during the war, ending the war guarding some concentration camp inmates who die brutally.  She had many opportunities to spare them, but refused on the grounds of loyalty to what she saw as duty rather than an ethical issue of humanity by doing what was right.  Think of her in terms of employees of companies who remain silent in the face of wrong doing rather than "betray" a greater loyalty to the business.
 In brief, it's a parable about the price of doing right in contrast to the expediency of "going along to get along."  Hanna is eventually brought to trial for her wartime actions and sent to prison;  Michael becomes a lawyer, with a career that is haunted by Hanna and their relationship.  Both used each other, and as a result both hurt each other.
 Sound familiar ?  Of course, it's the age-old story of the consequences of taking ethical shortcuts for personal profit or pleasure.  How many Europeans made similar choices in World War II ?  How many business executives made similar choices in recent years to enhance their reputations or profit ?
 "Ah, you want to understand why people can do such terrible things," a motorist asks Michael when he at last decides to visit a concentration camp to try to understand what Hanna did during the war.  Hanna's whole life was a lie, her complicity with evil had a devastating impact on others  --  not because she was inherently bad  --  but because of her tendency of "going along to get along" rather than facing any risk or hardship.
 Even after her conviction, Hanna had "A proud, wounded, lost, and infinitely tired look.  A look that wished to see nothing and no one."  Think of contemporary executives who destroy their companies by endorsing expediency rather than ethics, and proudly refuse to say as much as "I'm sorry" for the harm they cause.
 Schlink used a horrific example to make his point;  he is a law professor, skilled in dealing with the aftermath of cases where expediency overrules ethics and morals.  But, to a much lesser degree, it is a choice we all face  --  using an expedient "white lie" rather than upset a friend or colleague with some honest advice.
 Do we ever escape the consequences of such actions ?
 A few sentences from the end of his parable, Schlink writes: "The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on the top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as a matter that has been fully formed an pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive."
 Think of it the next time you tell a white lie, or decide "going along to get along" is better than being honest to yourself and others.
2130747
This novel has action, desire, betrayal, conspiracy, deception, and more.  Set in war-torn China in the early 1940s, two individuals on different journeys for forgiveness, driven by guilt, join forces and overcome adversity despite heavy odds against them.  Along the way, we want to know if they fall in love and find redemption.

Subterfuge is a major theme.  Whether and when pretense is uncovered provides the reader with suspense and intrigue.  The characters are well-developed.  Subsequent to the dramatic opening event, the characters move with purpose throughout the story.

This tale can be appreciated on multiple levels:  as an adventuresome read, as an introduction to Chinese philosophy and symbolism, and as a jumping off point in understanding this era of the Chinese-Japanese conflict and its victims.  I can recommend this novel.
3996417
This is a well-crafted story with universal themes:
 -The necessity and the costs of moral compromise.
 -The ambiguities that cloud the atmosphere on both sides of our political lines-in-the-sand (even the Berlin Wall).
 -The manipulation and/or supression of human sentiment by liberal societies and authoritarian regimes alike.
 -The modern complexities that ultimately overwhelm personal choice.
Because of the transcendent themes and the expertise of the narration, this book will be read for many years to come.
Time, however, has eroded some of the plot devices which were employed once so perfectly by this redoubtable book.
 1.  The use of the tribunal as a device of discovery now seems quaint and naive, if not actually medieval. Today we see "trials" as spin contests or campaigns of persuasion based on known sets of evidence.  Our trials are dramatic only for the jury; the rest of us already know everything about the case. Unfortunately, LeCarre relies heavily on the tribunal to unfold his plot.  Consequently, this thriller resonates today primarily as a courtroom drama plus aftermath.
 2.  The Author's Message of moral skepticism is no longer thrillingly provocative as it must have been for the mass market in 1963.  The characters have lost some of their facination as representatives of "the way we live" and their fates don't hold us in as  much suspense as they once must have. The heavy-duty Author's Message passage runs two or three pages and is integrated into one of the  most dramatic scenes of the plot.
All novels are affected by time and this one, already, seems old.  Yet we still admire the  novel's ambitions and execution--and yes, discerning readers will enjoy its patina.
LeCarre's next book, A Looking Glass War, is more artfully made, I think, so I value it more highly, even if the story is not so gripping.  I look forward to reading some of LeCarre's more recent books.
4441739
This ambitious novel by first-time author, Jay Greenfield, is highly readable.
The underlying theme is one that is hardly ever explored in "Holocaust literature".  What of the "spoils" of the extermination camps, valuables of mostly unknowable originwho has rightful claim to them?  The moral and ethical choices inherent propel this narrative. The author handles it and his characters in a most credible and sensitive way.
Throughout the book there are wonderful descriptions of the Rockaways, a seaside area which the author describes with loving nostalgia (To those who remember this neighborhood as it was, his rendering of the "Beach" is right-on).
The most powerful and touching part of the book comes in the final part with the introduction of a father/daughter relationship.  Caution:  Read with a tissue box, nearby.
All told, "Max's Diamonds" is an engrossing novel..
473672
The Picture of Dorian Gray is an extraordinary story of one man's internal struggle with the morals that society forces upon him. The novel depicts the influence of others and the fascination with the forbidden. The antagonist of the novel, Lord Henry, opens Dorian's eyes to the world of sin. He teaches Dorian that obtaining beauty surpasses intelligence. He looks down on any original thought that contradicts his own philosophies. This novel spreads the message that an ugly soul will show through if given time, and that people can see through deceiving actions. Many times, I found the focus on materialism and conceit to be irksome. However, a book provoking thought and emotion is a book worth reading.
1057144
In this immensely engaging novel, author Sara Baker has created a fictional world rich in character and moral complexity.  Although the setting is contemporary, the novel's theme about the human need for connection and forgiveness is timeless.  Set in the small fictional town of Milledge, Georgia, "The Timekeeper's Son" focuses on two families who are unknown to each other at first but whose lives become interconnected as a result of a tragic accident.  Meg and David Masters are a liberal, idealistic couple: he is a lawyer turned community activist, with plans to run for Congress, and she is a second-grade teacher in a Title I school.  Helen and Hal Lovejoy are a more reclusive couple.  He spends his days working alone at his job repairing old clocks, while she, a semi-retired nurse, devotes her time to homemaking and mothering their son Josh, a sensitive high school student and an aspiring filmmaker.  The quiet of the Lovejoys' life and the idealism of the Masters' life are rocked when the car Josh is driving home from a film rehearsal late one night hits David, out for a moonlight jog, sending him into a prolonged coma and changing the course of the characters' lives in ways that will bring anguish but also, ultimately, grace.
  Although the plot is riveting, it is the deft, at times lyrical, writing and the exploration of characters' inner lives that I found most interesting about the book.  Ms. Baker describes so compellingly the dreams, disappointments, and yearnings each character secretly harbors that the reader gains a deep understanding of each.  For example, the reader can feel Helen's excited sensation of her life suddenly expanding when she rediscovers her long-slumbering love of painting, and Meg's painful reminder of her own childlessness when she perceives the deep maternal love Helen has for Josh, and Josh's crushing sense of never doing anything right in his father's eyes.  The following passage, in which Hal laments the decline of the use of analog clocks, reveals both Ms. Baker's lyrical style and her ability to convey the deep satisfactions characters find in their work or their hobbies: "Was there anything more comforting than the ticking of a clock, the slow majestic ringing of the hours?  The sense of order imposed on the day as it unfurled?  Let the rest of the world have their clock radios, their cheap plastic digital watches.  Here in this shop, there would be order, the stately progression of hours marked properly by the singular tickings and strikings, each one as identifiable as birdsong."
  This novel does not have a pat, happy ending.  The characters are left with a big question mark about their futures.  But it is a positive ending because the characters have all been touched by moments of grace and have learned to forgive themselves and others.  They have all moved from a sense of isolation to a sense of connectedness.
4750688
This is a murder mystery with a fascinating twist.  The question is not only who the murderer is, but who is being murdered.  The answer lies in who's philosophic premises you agree with.  The book brilliantly explores the psychology of the murderer and the murderer's motivation.  The author provides ample clues and psychological insights, and as it builds to a climax, interruptions to reading cannot be permitted.  I think the book would make a riveting movie.  I look forward to Ms Peikoff's next novel.
1201185
This is a fascinating and suspenseful novel with believable and compelling characters that the reader cannot help becoming involved with.  Interwoven throughout the book are questions involving faith and belief which the author addresses in a respectful as well as thoughtful way~ with an open mind and heart.
1905696
In "The Cider House Rules", author John Irving weaves an engrossing and thought-provoking story of morality, choice, and responsibility. Using the story of orphan Homer Wells (a true  "stranger in a  strange land") to illustrate personal choice  versus public responsibility (focused mostly on the issue of abortion),  Irving introduces us to complex, three dimensional characters whose choices  may not be the best, but are understandable and realistic.  Well-balanced  in the controversial areas, this is an uplifting novel that intertwines  Dickens, "Jane Eyre", and medical terminology to illustrate the  impact one individual -- or in this case, two: Homer Wells and Dr. Larch --  can have on countless people.  I cried several times, because I came to  care for these characters, even if I didn't always agree with them.  The  use of real historical events only adds to the imaginary world that Irving  masterfully creates.  I highly recommend it!
3097804
"The Brothers Karamazov" is an ethical compendium and certainly one of the greatest novels ever written. Other reviewers have done a better job than I  could of summarizing the complexly layered plot and symbolic nature of the  characters. I might depart from them a bit by suggesting that each of the  brothers is confined to a specific role and might be viewed as a prisoner  of sorts.
The radical, revolutionary brother Ivan is a prisoner of his  intellect. His essay on "The Grand Inquisitor" is the second of his  two-part assault on his brother Aleosha's belief in Christ. Dimity, the  lover of women and eruptive speaker is a prisoner of his passion. Aleosha,  who worships his spiritual mentor, Father Zosima is a prisoner of his  faith, while Smerdyakov, the ill begotten son of Fyodor Karamazov and a  street woman is a prisoner of his circumstances. Each brother is a unique  and integral component of the human condition.
But a novel cannot work  through symbolism and personification alone. Like Tolstoi's `War and Peace"  this book is also a series of essays. The chapter in which Father Zosima  discovers his faith on the evening before his is supposed fight a duel is  an essay of courage and integrity that far outstrips any thing written by  "macho" authors such as Hemingway and Camus. In this chapter, Zosima is a  carousing young military officer who discovers his faith in God on the  evening before he is to fight a duel. This puts Zosima in a quandary since  his faith now prevents him from killing another human being but he still  does not want to appear a coward. Zosima solves this problem by offering  his opponent the first shot. When his opponent misses, Zosima declines to  take his shot. Instead he throws away his pistol and asks "am I worth it?"  Zosima has transcended his ego and followed his conscience while still  preserving his honor. This brief, action packed chapter summarizes the  complexity of spiritual evolution. Zosima's faith does not give him an easy  way out or solve all of his problems. He must still deal with the  consequences of his previous actions even after discovering God. Faith in  his case is hardly a narcotic.
The Grand Inquisitor chapter on the other  hand clearly separates the sort of faith experienced by Father Zosima from  the more cynical manifestations of organized religion. In this chapter Ivan  tells Aleosha a story about Christ returning to Earth during the height of  the Spanish Inquisition. Christ is arrested and brought before the Grand  Inquisitor who clearly recognizes Him for who and what He is. Far from  fearing or rejoicing in Christ's presence, the Grand Inquisitor threatens  to try him for heresy and burn him.  Since the Grand Inquisitor is  primarily interested in the power and authority he derives from his  position, the last thing he wants is a true believer let alone Christ  himself to appear on the scene. The Grand Inquisitor tries to bate Christ  into rebutting him, but Christ's silence frustrates him and eventually the  Grand Inquisitor releases him.
From these brief descriptions, one can  hopefully grasp the range of this work as a novel of ideas and a panoramic  essay on the nature of faith and the human condition. In illuminating the  struggles born by every human being in their physical and spiritual lives,  Dostoevsky offers no easy solution. Dostoevsky's emphasis on the silent,  invisible nature of courage and the folly of institutionalized belief make  him the spiritual father of thinkers such as Nietze and Sartre. The ideas  this book illuminates and questions it raises are universal and relevant to  this day.
4776720
This profound and haunting novel features Murdoch's unique blend of religious preoccupations, sexual politics, and philosophy (or, as she more accurately referred to it elsewhere, "moral psychology")--but, in spite of its many-layered symbolism, it still manages to be surprisingly suspenseful. If you've never read a book by Iris Murdoch and are interested in finding a good place to start, read "The Bell."
A sort of psychological detective novel, the story is told through the eyes a leader of a lay religious community who is haunted by secrets from his past and also from the perspective of two visitors: a carefree woman returning to her boorish husband who is studying at a nearby convent and an innocent youth hoping to be inspired by the community's spiritual atmosphere before he goes to Oxford. The plot revolves around a bell missing for centuries and the community's plans to replace it with a new one, but I will say nothing else that might give it away.
The first half of the book is a very British comedy of manners (and it is at times very funny), but then things get out of hand when the two visitors, both knowingly and unwittingly, set into motion a series of tragic events that shatter the faith and foundations of the group. Although I was constantly surprised by the book's twists and turns, when I finished the novel I felt that all the events were very nearly pre-ordained by the actions and ethics of its characters.
Murdoch's genius is her ability to pose many complicated questions and provide just enough for readers to decide for themselves. Are the visitors responsible for destroying the community's equanimity or were they simply the catalyst that exposed the hypocrisies and self-centeredness of the commune's members? Must a person transcend selfishness in order to influence others for the better? Does it take tragedy to bring out the best in people? Is it ever really possible to wall oneself away from the rest of the world?
It seems almost incidental in this day and age to acknowledge that the novel portrays two gay men in a sympathetic manner astonishing for a book published in 1958--yet another aspect that displays the power and forwardness of Murdoch's thinking.
811961
This well structured and eminently readable novel delves into the meaning of self-imposed guilt by a young man who has (at least at first) nothing to feel guilty about.  Greenfield's take on the Holocaust is unusual -- indeed unique in my opinion -- in that it focuses more on the effect of the Nazi genocide (and its perpetrators as well as victims) on people who did not experience it themselves but nonetheless feel affected.  The story also reveals a perceptive understanding of Jewish attitudes and moral standards as applied to particular circumstances.  In addition, it is a damned good page turner.  Highly recommended.
1480544
Don't let the negative reviews dissuade you from reading this remarkable novel -- especially if you are looking for a more complex and nuanced understanding of police work in another country. While not a traditional crime / detective novel (this is one of the key reasons some are giving such harsh reviews), Six Four offers up lots of mystery and a cold kidnapping/murder case that is at the heart of the narrative. However, instead of focusing on a detective who is trying to solve the cold case, Hideo Yokoyama's protagonist is a former detective who once tried to solve the case but who is now working in the police department's media relations office. Throughout the novel, he is torn between his loyalty to his fellow detectives and his new administrative colleagues. While at times this "inside baseball" of office politics can feel a bit overwrought, I still found it fascinating. The depiction of office politics is also key to fleshing out the author's many multi-dimensional characters. And by "many" I mean "many". Rarely have I read a contemporary novel with such interesting and well-rounded characters. I will definitely be reading the next of Hideo Yokoyama's novels to be translated into English.
3215232
This is perhaps one of the most intriguing novels I have read in a long time.  It is the coming of age story of a young, you guessed it, Jerusalem maiden.  She's one of the daughters in an ultra-orthodox Jewish family who approaches her bat mitzvah in a most unorthodox way, by testing her faith's limits and questioning God.

Tragedy seems to follow this young woman and her family, partially due to the repercussions of an expensive war in which the Ottoman Empire is involved during the early 1900s, but also due to the unwillingness of Esther's community to alter their way of life and find new ways to support themselves.  The hardship she faces continues to confound her.  In Jerusalem, the holiest place on earth, Esther questions why they, the Chosen Ones who will save the future of Jewish people worldwide, must suffer so terribly.  Several times as I was reading, I had flashbacks of another novel, Angela's Ashes, especially when it seems that bad luck is a neverending stream flowing through Esther Kaminsky's life.  The reality of growing up in extreme poverty is harsh, affecting every aspect of living.  At the crux of the novel, however, stands the question, to whom must Esther be true, to God, or to herself?

The novel follows Esther from childhood through womanhood and shows how one person, no matter how inconsequential their actions may seem, can create a great impact on what is to come.

The author has written this book in such an engaging manner that it is difficult to put down.  Scattered throughout are Yiddish expressions.  Some are translated, others are not.  Even so, many of the decrees that the community are expected to follow are explained, making it comprehensible to readers of virtually any religious or non-religious background.
4168230
It's difficult to do justice to this excellent novel in a short review. The first half mixes the action-packed adventure of Con Niemand, former soldier turned mercenary, with the slower, more complex unfolding of the character of 'corporate risk manager' John Anselm and his equally complicated world of conspiracies and double-dealing. The link between their stories doesn't become clear until about halfway through the novel, but this isn't the end of the plot twists; there are plenty of surprises still to come.

The style of Identity Theory (originally published as In The Evil Day) is often spare, even terse; while there are some richly detailed passages to establish character and setting, some chapters consist of nothing more than dialogue between two unidentified speakers. This befits the shadowy world Anselm and Niemand inhabit, where knowing who you're working for may be difficult, dangerous, or hard to reconcile with your conscience... and while trust may be rare and larger loyalties obsolete in that environment of `plausible deniability', where the interests of nations have become secondary to those of political parties and the corporations who finance them, Niemand, Anselm and Wishard do have consciences.

Temple shows his mercenaries, deadly as they may be, as more honorable than the people who employ them in the hope of being able to disavow responsibility. Niemand is first and foremost a survivor, acting on instinct when threatened, but he protects his friends as best he can, is capable of gentleness, and has no tolerance for those who enjoy killing. Anselm is equally efficient, to the point of being workaholic, but he is loyal to his boss and colleagues, able to empathize with those he hunts, and loves his family.

The women in this novel may sometimes seem too good to be true, and their civilizing influence almost miraculous, but they are a necessary part of Temple's world - proof that it is worth living in, and preserving.