I finished re-reading It last week, and i've started reading Two Brothers by Ben Elton.
Fitting enough, I was given it for xmas by my brother
I'm about half way through at the moment, but just for japes I thought i'd look up a couple of reviews.
One review said that "Ben Elton fails as a history teacher" while the next review says that there was too much history included which slowed the story and obscured the characters
So there's either too much history, or not enough.
I suppose when you've got people saying both at the same time you must be somewhere near the middle, which is pretty much the ballpark you want to be in.
I'm not finding it a bad read so far.
It's not the best book i've ever read, but the premise of the book is interesting enough.
In Berlin in 1920 a young woman gives birth to twins, but one in stillborn.
The doctor tells her of a child who has been born the same day, but whose mother died in delivery. The doctor asks if she would consider taking the other baby as one of her twins had died.
You mind find that a little shocking, but you've got to remember the state of Germany at the time. With the war, the flu epidemic, and the constant political fighting (we're talking gunfire in the streets here) practical solutions were much more sought after than what could be classed as sentimentality.
So the baby is born, and the boys are brought up as twins.
But one is Jewish, and one is a Gentile.
With the growth of the nazi party, and as Europe is once more plunged into war, the two brothers find themselves fighting on opposite sides.
But i'm halfway through, and they are not on opposite sides, they're still in Berlin, still brothers, and there's still no indication of anything changing in the near future.
Oh, they're both in love with the same girl.
That's caused a few fisticuffs, but no big split.
The story bounces a lot between the 20s/30s and 1956, where one of the brothers in embroilled in a cold war storyline, in which he receives a letter from the girl who both he and his brother were in love with, and who is now apparntly a member of the East German Secret Police.
It's also been revelaled that the other brother served with the Waffen SS and was killed in action in 1943 (or was it 41?)
So we've yet to get to the point where the brothers are forced apart, and there's still going to be a lot of things to be resolved in 1956.
The brothers being on opposite sides of the war "premise" is losing pages here, and i'm not sure there is going to be much room to tell this part the tale which is supposed to be the hook
I'm enjoying the book well enough, don't get me wrong, but there is some baggage that could have been lost without losing anything in the book.
For instance, there is a story at one point about how their musician father, Wolfgang, finds himself becoming attracted to a woman who used to date his boss. There is a lot of talk about Jazz in general that really could have been thrown overboard with no great loss.
He likes Jazz, we get it.
There is supposed to be a great friendship between the boys, Dagmar (She's the one they're both in love. She's the jewish daughter of a wealthy shop owner, and has been taking music lessons from Wolfgang), and Silke (her mother worked as the maid for Wolfgang and his wife, until her mum's new nazi boyfriend made her leave her employment because he didn't want her working for Jews).
But the common Silke is constantly jealous of upper class and aloof Dagmar because the boys like her better.
She doesn't seem to like Dagmar at all, and now she's gone off into the BDM (Bund der Deutcher Madel - Nazi orginization for girls) it seems that the friendship isn't going to get much closer in the forseeable future
As a group of faithful and devoted friends, it seems terribly flawed and conflicted (but perhaps that's the point?)
Some of the language seems a little flawed. The way that Ben writes the diolouge of the West Indies lover of one of the brothers is particularly out of place. Never would I have thought i'd read the words "reefer" and "mon" in a story of Jewish persecution
It seems very forced.
But the language of the Germans also sounds wrong to my mind. It sounds too American in it's form and use of slang. I've read enough books set during the war, and I can't say i've ever felt that way about how German characters speak.
It sounds like I don't like this book at all doesn't it?
I'm sticking with it though.
The tale in itself is interesting enough to hold attention, and even the unneccersary sub stories (like Wolfgg's infatuation with the Jazz babe) are not too offensive (as long as you don't expect them to add anything to the plot, or perhaps it will later).
I just hope the pay off is worth it.
Prediction................
Paulus, the brother in England, suspects that Dagmar really is dead, and that the letter was sent by the Stasi to get him to go back to Berlin. But the letter has been composed by someone who knows him well.
I think that's a good indicator that Otto was not killed in action, but instead either deserted to the Russians, or was captured.
How Otto found himself in the Waffen SS is something i've yet to see.
He's gone to work for the Russians, and his superiors have informed him that his brother is with the English foreighn office, and have ordered him to lure him back to Berlin for some devilish plot.