THE GOOD GERMAN: JOSEPH KANON

Another thriller by Kanon, set this time in post WW II Berlin, a period I have been interested in lately.  I really liked this novel, more than his others.  It's set in a devastated, bombed out Berlin, the few inhabitants, wondering how they survived the Allied bombings, the Russian takeover, and now the post war world of power struggles, between the Brits, Russians and Americans, with little care about the Germans.  The question the novel tries to answer, who is a good German, is ultimately never answered as the role of the survivors, both Nazi and the average Joe, is complicated, not an easy answer as Kanon makes clear.  American Jake Geismar, a journalist before the war in Berlin, returns to the remnants of a city at the end of the war when the city is divided into three zones, British, American, and Russian.  He's ostensibly there to write an article for Colliers Magazine in the States but really, he's looking for his pre war love, Lena Brandt.  Miraculously, she survives both the bombings and the pillaging of Berlin by the Russians (though she is raped, like most German women, by the Russian soldiers).  Things are complicated by the fact that her husband, Emil, is still alive, and is coveted by the Americans because he, along with Werner Von Braun, are responsible for the German rocket research.  The Americans want to smuggle these scientists out of Germany before they are taken up by the Russians and sent to Moscow.  So this is the back story to the relationship between Jake and Lena.  Along the way, we see how hypocritical the Americans are, as they overlook the Nazi crimes of those they deem important to our security, like Lena's husband.  But nothing compares with the 'steel' of the Russians, who will stop at nothing to get what they want.  Stalingrad was a good example of this as they threw every able bodied individual in defense of the city, knowing they would die. Individuals are disposable in the name of mother Russia.  To me, this implacable will of the Russians was frightening, their lack of concern for human life, just victory.  And we see this in Kanon's novel, the Russian brutality as well as the American hypocrisy, and the German sense of guilt. Kanon, however, suggests everyone was guilty, British, Americans, Russians...just not as guilty as the Germans.  Another plot line revolves around the death of an American soldier.  As Jake seeks to find answers, he is stonewalled by the Americans, led astray by the Russians, and he uncovers a black market, involving both Russians and Americans, out for the buck but also for information.

This novel was made into a mediocre movie starring George Clooney.  I remember watching it and being bored but now I want to go back and see it again.  The novel did not get great reviews but I liked it mostly because I have become well versed in post WW II novels set in Berlin.  In fact, I would love to visit Berlin because of these books.  One can hope.