The Good German

It’s evident that Joseph Kanon is a big The Third Man fan; this book is like an extended version of the film. It’s set in the same time, just after the war, but in Berlin. There’s the innocent newsman just wanting to find out the truth, and the ugliness of what is really going on in the world - the black market, the Russians, the Nazis bobbing up once again. It’s a thriller rather than literary fiction, with car chases and gun fights and desperate escapes. At the same time, he’s asking questions about who turns out to be the good guy and who is the bad, in a time and a place like this?

It’s pretty well written, and flows well, without too much confusion or scene chopping. The women aren’t too stereotypical – Lena, Jake’s lover, is fairly annoying rather than the perfect woman, and Jake himself is not without blemish either. There’s no one in the story who is innocent apart from the children, and that’s the point of it all, that the dark’s so deep no one wants to see anyone implicated, because they too must therefore be guilty. No one dares throw the first stone; leaving the old Nazis free to declare themselves just under orders.

The conclusion isn’t easy, although he does try to make the last few paragraphs count – fails, but tries – and you’re left with the mess and a bunch of strangers flying away from it, which is something different at least. It’s a good novel, although the underlying idea of war excusing death, not crime, isn’t one I can swallow easily.