Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Not really a Teaser Tuesday: more on If the Dead Rise Not

I'm about 2/3 of the way through If the Dead Rise Not and if I didn't have all sorts of silly work to do I would be reading it now. It's a good read, a noir mystery set during the rise of Nazi Germany and told from the point of view of Bernie Gunther, a former cop purged from the force when he wouldn't join the National Socialist party.

I'll be curious to see how it ends; the ending will make or break it, I think. At the moment, I have no idea how this is going to turn out. I have some suspicions, but I really don't know.

I did want to give you two sentences from the book, a la Teaser Tuesday, because I read these last night and thought they were too good not to share.

"It's the fate of every race to think itself chosen by God," I added. "But it's the fate of only a very few races that they're sufficiently stupid as to try to put that into practice."

One of the things I've enjoyed about this book is reading it through the lens both of history and also current events. There are no big signs and circles and arrows saying, "Look! Similarity!" or "See how different this is than that?" It's very true (as best I can tell) to the specific setting of its time and place, but that specificity allows for the echoes of our contemporary world to come through clearly. And all within the conventions of the hard-boiled detective novel.

I'll let you know when I finish it.

6 comments:

sablelexi said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I love that quote you posted. It is too true, and said beautifully.

Jennifer said...

This is going straight to the top of my list. My TT: http://www.rundpinne.com/2010/09/teaser-tuesdays-pretty-little-things.html

Escapist said...

Usually I stick to one genre, but this seems like something I might enjoy :D

Here's my teaser: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Aisle B said...

Pretty cool statement. Like the thought and will have to look up this book next on GoodReads.

E.J. Stevens said...

Great teaser! My TT from Paranormalcy is here.

xx,
E.J
From the Shadows

Precious said...

Thanks for stopping by! Great teaser, interesting.