Disappointing in the end | April in Paris

Intriguing | April in Paris | Michael Wallner

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	• April in Paris Michael Wallner Anchor, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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Evocative Novel of Wartime Paris

This is an interesting novel, written by a German but in an excellent translation, about a German corporal assigned to Paris during the Second War who is detailed to translate SS interrogations due to his excellent French. During the day he is a witness to unspeakable torture; at night, he dresses like a French civilian and explores the city, eventually meeting a captivating Frenchwoman who just happens to be deeply involved in the underground Resistance. The novel draws it narrative power from the precarious situation in which the corporal finds himself. As one can imagine, things do not go beautifully when the corporal's two worlds collide--so there is much sadness in the story. The author writes descriptively and skillfully so that the various scenes almost come alive--the reader can easily picture them. At 246 pages, the story moves along and while eventually very sad, I found it quite enjoyable, though not "War and Peace" certainly.

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Disappointing in the end

This book is a really fast read, partly because many of its plot twists are expected--you can see them coming pages ahead of actually reading them. The book is filled with close, exacting descriptions of torture; at first, these make for horrifying reading. After a while, however, they feel gratuitous and have virtually no impact, except to make this reader feel like the book has turned into one of those superhero films where some Hollywood megastar survives astoundingly awful beatings, shootings, falls, and... oh, wait. The writer is a screenwriter. That explains it!

The best thing that Mr. Wallner achieves here is his initial portrait of Corporal Roth. Defying expectations that a Third Reich soldier would be a monster, Corporal Roth is just a guy. He likes French culture and doesn't want to be sent to the front, and I found myself worrying about him as he went on his nighttime adventures. I wanted him to play it safe and just get by. He doesn't do so--he has more courage than that.

Unfortunately, the last third or so of the book is the part that reads like a "Diehard" movie, except that it's got a quasi-romance plot along with the violence. Maybe Mr. Wallner wrote the book quickly; if he'd put more thought into it, he might have been able to write a story that didn't have to rely on predictable plot twists and implausible events to wind itself up.

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Intriguing

I started to read this one evening and couldn't put it down until I finished it. I thought it was very well written and had believable characters and transported the reader to a different world.

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Not my favorite but still held my interest...

Our neighborhood book club chose this book. While I would not have chosen it personally, we all ended up admitting that it held our interest till the end. Some of the terms we used to describe it...greusome, depressing, historic, realistic, and informative. Not my favorite but still a good book and quick read.

Michael Wallner's thrilling first novel, set in occupied France during World War II, movingly recounts the impossible love affair between a German soldier and a French resistance fighter.

Roth, a young soldier in the SS and a fluent French translator, works as an interpreter during the interrogation of Resistance fighters. But while off-duty, he slips away from his fellow officers, changes into civilian clothes, and wanders aimlessly through Paris disguised as his alter ego "Antoine." One day he is drawn into an antiquarian bookshop and becomes enchanted with the bookseller's beautiful daughter, Chantal. The two begin to meet and fall in love before Roth has the courage to reveal his true identity, or the time to discover that Chantal is part of the Resistance. Written in an elegant and arresting style, April in Paris is an engrossing novel from a promising new talent.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3