Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Kim Hill interview with Robert Harris
This is well worth a listen if you missed it last Saturday:
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Kim's interview; I enjoyed listening to Harris' views. I've read the book, picking it up at the same time as I Am Pilgrim (which you recommended), and found it rich and insightful. The story reeks of the debilitating bigotry that hampered any insightful investigation of the famous bordereau during the original trial of Dreyfus, and Harris is to be commended for bringing the omnipresent anti-Semitic atmosphere of late-19th-century Paris to life. He's obviously done a lot of research to deliver authenticity, but I got half way through the book feeling that too much superfluous detail had made it on to the page. Although the story picked up its pace towards the end I was left wondering: could it have been cut down by a quarter and lost nothing – possibly.
Also a bit of creative license, to paint the picture in the other (German) camp, would have revved up the geo-political background. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall as the Germans revelled in French discomfort while planning European-wide domination. Unfortunately the limitations of seeing the story through Picquart's eye's prevented an appreciation of the strategic chess game surrounding Dreyfus, as Europe's great powers stumbled towards the First World War.
1 comment:
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Kim's interview; I enjoyed listening to Harris' views. I've read the book, picking it up at the same time as I Am Pilgrim (which you recommended), and found it rich and insightful. The story reeks of the debilitating bigotry that hampered any insightful investigation of the famous bordereau during the original trial of Dreyfus, and Harris is to be commended for bringing the omnipresent anti-Semitic atmosphere of late-19th-century Paris to life. He's obviously done a lot of research to deliver authenticity, but I got half way through the book feeling that too much superfluous detail had made it on to the page. Although the story picked up its pace towards the end I was left wondering: could it have been cut down by a quarter and lost nothing – possibly.
Also a bit of creative license, to paint the picture in the other (German) camp, would have revved up the geo-political background. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall as the Germans revelled in French discomfort while planning European-wide domination. Unfortunately the limitations of seeing the story through Picquart's eye's prevented an appreciation of the strategic chess game surrounding Dreyfus, as Europe's great powers stumbled towards the First World War.
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