Oh, I don't know, it's very solid for its genre, and the treachery comes from where you'd expect in a story like this. I'm not sad I read it, for Berlin and for an even treatment of a history that is important to remember. Although really I read it because pops gave me not one but two copies, so ingrained is it that his daughter loves Berlin. ( )

This novel is poorly written. It seems that Kanon, after being the president of Houghton Mifflin and E.P. Dutton, decided he could also be a novelist. And he does write action-packed spy novels that critics seem to gloat over. But in his seventh novel he demonstrates that he hasn’t learned very much after nine years; he could have taken some creative writing courses and gotten some non-biased feedback (i.e., it’s tricky to deliver a bad review of someone with powerful friends in the publishing industry).

In genre fiction, you don’t have to be a talented writer to sell books. I find it puzzling that Kanon could be compared to great writers like Graham Greene and John Le Carre, who wrote literary espionage-themed novels. There’s nothing literary about Leaving Berlin.

But let me get down to the specifics here about the poor writing. I’m not going to review its plot merits, but critique his bad habits, which could have been avoided with some instruction and dramatically improved this novel.

First off, he wrote the book in a staccato fashion that is reminiscent of hard-boiled detective novels. Although not a terrible idea, it’s not a very good one for a post-war spy story. He compounds the problem by having all his characters speak in exactly the same half-sentence oblique manner; they are almost one character who just changes masks. Then there are the narrative parts, often very brief, that are written in an identical manner that can confuse one into believing that the dialogue is still going. Once I noticed how many commas most sentences had, I couldn’t stop seeing them. I found the dialogue unrealistic in the preponderance of phrases and abrupt changes. One can get away with that with one character doing it, but not with everyone.

These might seem like minor quibbles, but I found his style awkward and unenjoyable. If you care about the quality of the writing, you might also. For me, it undermined my ability to get absorbed in its plot lines. Some of which were pretty absurd, by the way. ( )

Would’ve been a one star, except for descriptions of Berlin as devastated piles of bricks even 4 years after WWII. Also, it seems we are in East Berlin and the head Comminists are looking for the arts to help resurrect the city. What they have is a bunch of spies going around with too much dialogue and incomplete abrupt sentences. It’s too hard to get engaged while you’re trying to make complet thoughts. I gave up and DNF! ( )

I discovered Joseph Kanon last year during a big espionage binge and read both Istanbul Passage and Defectors. I enjoyed both of them and as I have a bit of an obsession with post WW2/Cold War era Berlin I just knew that I had to read this book. For some reason I have started the year slowly with regards to reading. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I want to aim for quality over quantity this year but it still took me much longer to read this than it should have. This is usually a bad reflection on a book but I can't say that applies in this case. I can't put my finger on the cause of this, it happens and I am sure it will pass soon.

Back to the book. I find Kanon a bit of an odd writer because I don't really care for his characters. It's not that he writes bad characters, in fact I would say the opposite but I never form an emotional connection with them. When one inevitably gets killed off or has something bad happen to them I don't feel the same gut punch that other writers can achieve. It may be just me but I would tend to lean towards it being intentional with his characters not being particularly likeable people. Even the 'good guys' have quite a dark streak and end up doing some questionable things. What Kanon does do though is write superbly well thought out and intricate plots with few flashy attention grabbing scenes. This book is more along the same lines and if I didn't know any better I would swear that Kanon was German as the book is so well researched, especially the geographical aspects of Berlin. Like his other books the tension slowly ratchets up over time until it ultimately comes to a head and something, or someone has to give. I did pick up a few of the plot twists along the way but I don't think that Kanon tried to hide them, they were there as a foreshadowing of what may come in the future.

This is another quality book from Kanon covering a small post war era which isn't covered that often. ( )

This is a terrific Cold War spy thriller in the style of John LeCarre and Alan Furst that takes place in divided Berlin during the Berlin Airlift.

Alex Meier is a German writer who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930’s for America, but then after the war fell afoul of Joseph McCarthy’s Committee on Unamerican Activities and had to flee the country. He’s invited to return to the East, and at the opening of the book finds himself being feted by the Kulterbund of Eastern Grmany.

All too soon, however, things start to go wrong. A Man is killed before his eyes, his old flame, Irene, is sleeping with a Russian agent, and a childhood acquaintance is in the East German secret service. Then his Irene’s brother shows up having escaped form the slave labor camp where the Soviets kept German prisoners of war, and Alex realizes that he has to try & help get him to the west.

There are twists and turns and switches on the switch that will keep you turning the pages until the very end. ( )