Download Your Copy Field Gray (Bernard Gunther, #7) Written By Philip Kerr Available In Audiobook
Gray” by Philip Kerr is a fictional novel taking place alternatively between theand mid, mostly in Berlin, The book isth novel starring Bernie Gunther,
The past of Bernie Gunther catches up with inCuba while doing work for mobster boss Meyer Lansky.
Even though this antiNazi PI survived the Nazi régime and a soviet POW camp it seems his history wont leave him alone.
Landing in the US prison of Guantánamo and later in New York City, Bernie is interrogated by the FBI about his role as a member of an SS police battalion in WWII.
Transferred to Landsberg Prison in Germany Bernie is being questioned and tortured by several governments, Stringing them along, Bernie experiences flashbacks which bring back his war experiences, none of which are good,
I seem to have no luck with series of books I like, I usually find them after several books have been published and feel compelled to play catch up, “Field Gray” by Philip Kerr is no exception on this front,
The novel follows Bernie Gunther which has to be one of the most antiheroic antiheroes ever written, Joining Gunther are a bunch of offbeat characters none of which, it seems, have any redeeming qualities, Maybe thats what the “gray” in the title refers to besides the German armys uniforms made by Hugo Boss as there are no good or bad guys in this book they are all shades of gray.
Mr. Kerr writes with a sardonic, twisted and dark sense humor, This is just the kind of humor which my beloved wife finds adorable in her husband, . . wait, sorry, she cant stand it sometimes I get confused between the two,
The plot kept me going round and round with its twists, as well as thought provoking subjects, I had no idea what would happen until the last few pages, The writing is crisp, atmospheric and noir, Mr. Kerr pulls no punches he looks at history in the eye, sees all the ugliness which most people would rather forget and instead writes about it.
Bernie Gunther is an unusual creation he is cynical, tired, tough on himself and done many things none of us would be proud to do.
He is an insane man living in an insane world does that make him sane where the only way to survive is to look out for one self and that means screwing over everyone else who, by the way, are trying to screw you over.
I lose my mind when the cable company charges me a donothingbecausewecan fee, but Bernie lives everyday knowing that at any point in time someone can swoop in and destroy everything he built in an instant.
One of the things which the book, through my interpretation at least, touches is how ordinary people could justify participating in atrocities.
Think about it.
There werent only Nazis in Auschwitz, there were secretaries, cooks, and other administrative nobodies, They bore witness to one of the biggest, if not the biggest, crimes in history yet we have pictures of them enjoying a country side picnic.
Inadvertently or not, we get a glimpse into that kind of mentality with Bernie Gunther, He was forced into the SS and committed his own atrocities in his head they are justified,
We only get to read his side of it,
For more book reviews please visit sitelink ManOfLaBook. com Bernie starts in Cuba but finds his way back to Berlin with the help of the CIA, SDECE and other spies trying to make him do something he doesn't want to do.
I've read at leastin the series and this was a welcome addition to March Violets and A German Requiem.
Why haven't I read A Pale Criminal I shall soon, Philip Kerr's novels about Bernie Gunther are perfect for those of us who love thrillers about Germany, the leadup to WWII, the war itself and the aftermath.
Both sides of the story are revealed and Gunther is hardboiled, realistic and a goodish guy in the very best German tradition.
Never a Nazi, he does object to the postwar American assumption that the US have exclusive ownership of the high moral ground, especially when some of their methods of operation in occupied Germany in the mids are every bit as bad as those they defeated.
Read more about the series and background at:
sitelink com/BernieGunt Philip Kerr is a new addition to my list of favorite authors, The varied consensus speculates that one should read the "Bernie Gunther" series in order, Personally, I believe Field Grey unequivocally succeeds as a standalone fictional biography of its unconventional protagonist through multilayered flashbacks.
On the surface, Bernie Gunther appears a bit vapid, but quite emphatically he is a combustible, cunning and knowledgeable former Kripo homicide detective whose photographic memory unfailingly alters even the direst circumstances to his personal advantage.
Most compelling in this voluminous and mesmerizing thriller is Kerr's unerring impeccable research which leaves the reader enthralled not only by the intricately woven plot and its irreverent main character, but also pondering the comprehensively accurate historical tidbits peppered throughout.
Perhaps, the cover art of Kerr's books failed to entice me, a regrettable error as it is best not to judge a book by its cover.
Soberbia!
La séptima entrega de Bernie Gunther se asemeja más a un ensayo histórico que a una novela de espías.
Abarca desdehasta, y no por orden cronológico, sino con idas y venidas, concentrándose sobre todo en la vida en los campos de concentración tras la segunda guerra mundial y en las cárceles del periodo de la guerra fría.
Es una novela dura, muy dura, pero está escrita de forma tan magistral que, pese al pesimismo que rezuma, su lectura es un placer.
Los diálogos y las reflexiones están a un gran nivel,
El protagonista debería caer antipático, por sus contradicciones y su moral retorcida, Sin embargo, el lector se descubrirá admirando al personaje, y deseando que al final de su camino encuentre la paz que tanto anhela.
Una lectura más que recomendable,
'sitelinkField Gray' Bernie Günthercontinues immediately where 'sitelinkIf The Dead Rise Not finished, Bernie is still in Batistas Havana inliving under his false identity and both working for, and reluctantly spying on, Meyer Lansky for the secret police.
He decides to flee to Haiti, Sadly for him, his female companion has killed a police captain for Fidel Castro and, when they are stopped en route, Bernie is also arrested because hes still wanted for murder in Germany.
Soon hes in the custody of the CIA in New York, where he is questioned, none too gently, by gumchewing Cold War naval staff who think hes a war criminal.
Finally he ends up back in Germany where he is interrogated about his time on the Eastern Front and, especially, in Minsk.
That is just the start of a nightmarish few weeks for Bernie, with so many twists and turns, and so much intrigue.
Against a high benchmark, the dark cynicism in 'sitelinkField Gray' Bernie Güntherreaches new levels and makes this book unrelentingly but grimly fascinating.
Bernie is now enmeshed in Le Carre's twilight world of Cold War madness in which he appears forever trapped by the agenda of others, whilst being forced to relive the past again and again, whilst in the present remaining a consummate chess player to stay one step ahead of those seeking to use him.
The early Bernie Günther books are entertaining Chandleresque tales where jeopardy and tension drive the narrative along however, each new book seems to become more subtle and complex.
'sitelinkField Gray' takes the reader all over Europe to view life throughout WWand into the Cold War world of thes, and all over Europe, from occupied Paris to the Eastern Front, and life in a Soviet POW camp.
This is the horror of WWwrit about as large as it can get with poor old, battered Bernie somehow finding the motivation to keep going.
Often its his anger that sustains him and here its variously directed at the Nazis, the French, the Americans, the British, and the Bolsheviks.
Quite brilliant. One of the very best in the series, if not the best, Can sitelinkPhilip Kerr sustain this sky high level of quality with 'sitelinkPrague Fatale' Bernie GuntherI should have the answer to that question very soon.
/After getting very sick and tired of Bernie Gunther in the preceding book, this one was really excellent.
Field Gray is about the experiences of a Berlin police detective, Bernie Gunther, who becomes entangled in a web of espionage and deceit after being captured by the Red Army in, serving hard time in a Russian POW camp, deflecting back to Germany, escaping to Cuba, being captured by the CIA, and finally being forced to serve for French Intelligence, which ultimately lands him back to his original starting point in Berlin in.
Sound interesting Absolutely! And I felt this novel had such tremendous potential at the start, with Gunther hiding out in an exotic location Havana and being blackmailed into taking a mysterious woman an undercover assassin! on a boat to Haiti.
But quite literally, the action ends there, And that is page. The nextpages has Gunther in the hands of one set of interrogators or another, as he is captured before reaching Haiti.
So the reader learns his backstory fromthrough to the present which isas he answers questions from whichever holding cell he happens to be in at the time.
Therefore, most of the novel is a frame story in that sense, But the problem is, Gunther is just a leaf blowing in the wind, He makes no decisions regarding his own fate, and relates to his past experiences in such a way that there is very little room for the reader to feel emotionally connected to the character or his experiences.
At one point, I just stopped caring what happens to him anymore, The lastpages finally becomes interesting again as Gunther gets himself involved in a plot to help the French capture a wanted traitor while simultaneously tricking them into helping the Americans capture their wanted criminala ruthless Stasi communist who regularly appears throughout Gunthers backstory and actually existed in real life.
For the first time in the novel, Gunther finally does something, But to get there, you have to suffer through the rest, and that includes the introduction of countless names I counted overnames in the firstpages, ninety percent of which have absolutely nothing to do with the course of the novels events.
It just makes one feel disconnected to Gunther and his plight,
The good thing about this novel is that the author is actually an excellent writer, Lots of sharp humor, lots of wit, Gunther is a wisecracking gem, and his retorts often evoke an internal giggle, It is also an historical novel in the sense that Gunthers story takes place amidst events which seem to be depicted pretty accurately, from the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party through to the end of the War and the Nuremberg Trials.
That is definitely interesting, But I think this is also supposed to be a spy thriller, Only, where is the thrill The best Bernie Gunther novel I have read to date, Skillfully alternating between events ofto, I am presented with a section of life no one would envy,
Bravo Philip Kerr RIP After being arrested in Cuba Bernie Gunther gets extraded to the USA, first step in a long trip down memory lane.
The trip goes from the early's, a time when the german communist party still seems to be a force to be reckoned with, to Ukrain inwhen Bernie discovers the crimes of the infamous einsatzgruppen, to besieged Koenigsberg inand various russian camps where our hero is imprisoned as a POW.
Along this very interesting trip where we learn more of periods in Bernie's life only alluded to until now, a cold war spyvsspy game is engaged between the american CIA, french SDECE and eastgerman STASI, turning around the real life character of Erich Mielke.
A game where Bernie is a mere pawn, passed from player to player, a situation he quickly gets tired of.
If you're frenchI am, or american, try to keep your head cool, Kerr doesn't spare these two nations and exposes openly their arrogance, hypocrisy and other characteristics of the same nature during and after the war.
Not to say he's so far from
the truth, mind you,
It's not uninteresting to get an external perspective from time to time even if not always pleasant to hear.
Very well documented, to be read as a thriller, this book is a very good one in the Gunther series.
It's impossible not to like Bernie Gunther, In the resourceful, bad luckprone, ingenious, sharp witted, wisecracking, escape artist, he has created the absolute perfect character for Historical Fiction.
I can think of no flaws, no irritations at all, He's the guy you would hope could be there if you'd have been where he is, was,
Kerr uses him as a vehicle not just for his period jokes and wisecracks, but as a way of looking at many of the unsavoury aspects of the Germans before, during and after World War.
This one starts, as above, in, but we're soon back with Bernie in wartime Germany, as events inset off both memorise of and turn out to have had their roots in the earlier phases of Bernies life.
Even I can see that Field Grey a reference to the colours of the German Army officer's uniform at this time, is incredibly well plotted.
I'd say this is as I'm, here in the series, though have all the subsequent books in wait the best one so far.
It really is almost a work of art, Full of reflection, incident, and fine, fine writing,
And, as bonus for me, I'd say PK has read Private Schultz at some point,
The best book blog on the web: sitelinkSpeesh Reads
The best Page on the Facebook: sitelinkSpeesh Reads FIELD GRAY by Philip Kerr.
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Bernie Günther, the guy I describe as the German Philip Marlowe is back again in FIELD GRAY.
But this time Bernie isnt a prewar Kripo homicide detective or Berlin private eye, Hes been conscripted into the Waffen SS as an intelligence officer eventually sent to the Russian front,
The story begins with Bernie inHavana, working as head of casino security for the infamous Meyer Lansky and hobnobbing with another famous character, Graham Greene.
The goodnatured Bernie sets out on a holiday to Haiti with intentions of trading in his old boat for a newer and bigger one.
Bernie is flush with money and invites a local prostitute along for the ride, and coincidentally, to escape the Cuban secret police that are looking to question her about the murder of a policemanof which she is guilty.
The pleasant boat ride over the Caribbean turns to manure when US Coast Guardsmen out of Guantanamo Bay board Bernies boat.
The Cuban woman panics and shoots one of the petty officers, The officer in charge doesnt believe that Bernie is an innocent party, cuffs the pair and returns to the Gitmo detention center.
From there, Bernie embarks on a hapless journey of detention and questioning, At this point I thought FIELD GRAY might be what TV producers call A CLIP SHOW, meaning nothing more than a strung together series of vignettes from earlier episodesin this case a rehash of all Bernies times as a prisoner of war in Russia and the Ukraine during and after WW.
That was not the case, FIELD GRAY quickly became the quintessential backstory of Bernies life not previously covered in detail in the earlier books from the series.
We now recognize Bernie Günther as the all time greatest victim of circumstances and one of the most unlucky men of theth century.
From his being impressed into the SS by his former boss from the Kriminal Polizei to his captures and escapes during the war to his being captured and interrogated by everyone from the Soviets, the French, US Army military police and lawyers from the Allied Control Commission and then the CIA, to the East Germans in post war Europe.
Everyone wants to turn Bernie into an agent or double agent and have no problem hanging the threat of trying him as a war criminal over his head to obtain compliance.
In the world of intelligence nothing is what it seams and no one is straight up about anything.
Bernie is victim of double, triple and quadruple crosses, but he lays and springs a few traps of his own along the way to prove that like a feral cat dropped out of a fourth floor window, Günther always seems to land on his feet, albeit with a few bruises and maybe a permanent limp.
Most of these Kerr/Günther novels are called thrillers, I dont think the term fits FIELD GRAY, Its a biographical journey through a dark time in European history with a man who met all of the notable people and got involved in all the dirty business that made the Nazi war machine so hated throughout the world.
As with all Kerrs books, FIELD GRAY reads quickly, is entertaining, thoroughly researched and in this case, in the last few chapters you watch Bernie in action and say to yourself, “What the hell” I wasnt sure where it was heading, was surprised how it ended, and now need to read the next in the series to see what horrors will befall Bernhard Günther subsequent to this adventure which ends where it began in.
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