Secret Father : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Berlin is divided in this sensational cold war thriller
Review: From the outset there is so much tension and distrust in this involving and truly remarkable literary thriller. It's 1961 and the Berlin blockade is about to take place - where thousands of East Berliners will be forever cut off from their fellow countrymen in the West. The cold war is at its height and espionage is the name of the game. As the story opens an unexplained assassination of a foreign dignitary takes place, and as the story unravels, the pieces of the puzzle fall into place: there's a mysterious piece of film, dangerous border crossings, and an atmosphere of nervousness where no one appears quite as they seem.

The story is told in first person from the perspective of two people: Paul Montgomery, a banker who is stationed in West Germany, and is helping to bring foreign investment into the country; and Michael, his son, rebellious, almost crippled with polio, who together with his friends Kat and Ulrich, make a dangerous crossing behind the "iron curtain" into East Berlin to watch the annual May Day Parade. Just as Michael has been physically challenged by polio, so has East Germany been "crippled" by the Soviet regime.

The author does a fabulous, almost cinema graphic job of recreating the conditions of life in East Germany during the Soviet era. The juxtaposition between the relative newfound wealth of West Germany - fuelled by American style capitalism- and the poverty of the East is startling. Carroll compares the neon signs, the sidewalk cafes, the salubrious hotels, the affluent people of West Berlin with the poverty and dissolution of the East - the burnt out shacks and huts of the East German country side which are relics of World War 2, the drabness, the lack of colour in East Berlin, the old wooden elevated trains clacking along on sub-standard rail lines, the prefab Soviet style apartment housing, the militaristic border patrol guards, and the dehumanizing aspects of the East German "Vopos."

Carroll also sets the story against the wider background of world affairs and the standoff that existed between Kennedy and Khrushchev, Carroll hypothesizes that perhaps at the time the building of the Berlin Wall was a necessary evil. The irony is that this gigantic symbol of Soviet demarcation, segregation and isolation was in fact what preserved the peace; and by ending the mass outflow of refugees from East to West, the Wall took the pressure off Berlin and therefore Khrushchev and also therefore Kennedy.

Yet the novel is also about the personal and one young man's search for political and emotional meaning in life. Estranged from his father, and blaming his father for his mother's death because "his father just wasn't there for him"; Michael embarks on a journey that forces him to confront the truth of his feelings for his father. Both father and son, during the course of the story realize that in the face of tremendous adversity, their love for each other ultimately holds true; it's a journey of self-discovery for both. The Secret Father is an illuminating and enlightening novel, and a testament to an important era in twentieth century history. This novel will haunt you long after you have finished it.

Michael

Rating:
Summary: SECRET FATHER
Review: I absolutely loved this book. It has a slow pace in the beginning but builds both the characters and the plot in a richly detailed and satisfying manner. Since my husband was an American Army Brat high school student in Berlin during the timeframe of this book, it was especially informative and interesting. I learned some things about the history of that time period which even my husband didnt realize living in the city of Berlin as an oblivious teenager. This is a book I still find myself thinking about a month after I read it. It would make a spellbinding movie as it has everything - romance, suspense, poignancy, surprises, and an insightful, rich exploration of family and interpersonal dynamics.

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Summary: Spies, fathers and sons
Review: James Carroll has made a career of stories in which the grand sweep of history is summarized in the infinite choices of fallible and flawed people, and his first novel in nine years now becomes part of his intensely intricate oeuvre.

"Secret Father" blends the grandest drama of our time -- the Cold War -- with a journey by three idealistic and rebellious teenagers into the belly of the beast: Berlin at the height of the nuclear standoff and on the verge of building an insidious Wall.

The Berlin schism is both real and metaphoric as they revolt against their own families and the inevitable script of their lives. The strained relations between East and West become a perfect simulacrum for the ruptures between men and women, husbands and wives, sons and fathers.

It might be a story set more than 40 years ago, but it illustrates how differently -- and why -- Americans and Europeans see our world, and is published at a time when discussions of nation-building and America's role in the world are being debated.

"Secret Father" succeeds on many levels, some that the ardent anti-war activist Carroll intended, and some which hark back to earlier themes about the necessary relationships between fathers and sons. It is not a book for the casual espionage-lit buff who delights in Clancy-esque Cold War intrigues between cold-blooded Soviet agents and world-saving rogue CIA operatives. It's deeper and more meaningful.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping!
Review: James Carroll tells gripping stories that invariably invite us beneath the compelling events unfolding before us into the heart of his characters, encouraging us to join with them as they grapple with what it means to be a human being in a world filled with conflict and emotional complexity.

The setting is Berlin before the Iron Curtain was constructed with a focus on events unfolding within the world of espionage. Yet it is the relationships between the characters of this ensemble that lie at the center of this story. Where does one's sense of responsibility for the people we love begin and end? What motivates us to expressions of concern? When do we step back and allow our loved ones to grapple for themselves with what life brings them? We have fathers and sons, mothers and sons, friends and lovers doing their best to make their lives together work. Sometimes they simply don't.

The circumstances confronting these characters, both in the present and within their pasts, are worth considering. Mr. Carroll does a fine job of drawing the reader into both the intriguing story and the characters, to the point that what happens to each of them really matters. There are no cookie cutters being applied here folks, just damn good writing, which is precisely what I've come to expect from this fine author.

Rating:
Summary: A Modern Masterpiece
Review: James Carroll's Secret Father is set in Germany at the height of Cold War tensions. The Berlin Wall is about to go up, but three teenagers, all students at the American high school in Weisbaden, West Germany, take off for the May Day parade in East Berlin. This is no ordinary class cut-the trip is more rebellion than adventure and it's `way more dangerous than they imagine.

All three have complicated issues with their parents. Ulrich is the adopted son of Major General Healy, head of US intelligence in West Germany. His natural mother, Charlotte, is of the German nobility. She survived the postwar nightmare clearing rubble in Berlin, fighting for scraps to feed her young son until she met Healy. Ulrich, harboring a primeval attraction to his native Germany and drawn to neo-Marxist philosophy, is at war with his stepfather-a cold customer with a hot job. Michael, the son of Frankfurt-based Chase Manhattan banker Paul Montgomery, has reason to be at war with his father, too. A victim of polio who wears leg braces and uses a cane, Michael's mother was killed in a car crash for which Michael blames his father. Existing on the fringes of high school life, Ulrich is his only friend and Michael idolizes him. The third outcast is Katherine (Kit) Carson, Ulrich's girlfriend. Kit's father, based a long way away in Turkey, is a beast to both his wife and daughter, but he is scarcely in the picture.

The storyline is driven by Paul Montgomery's and Charlotte Healy's efforts to rescue their children from East German detention. This is complicated by General Healy's position and Charlotte's mysterious past in wartime Germany that makes her trip to Berlin an act of monumental courage.

This is an exceptionally well-crafted story, the risk to Ulrich, Michael and Kit only the most visible of the tensions suffusing the air that Berliners breathe. The complicated conflicts between all the characters is handled insightfully by telling the story in first person from Paul's point of view and from Michael's. Indeed, while this story will be memorable to readers long after they put down the book, Carroll's exquisite writing, its high standard maintained page by page from the first line to the last, is what will endure for me.

Rating:
Summary: above average
Review: Mr. Carroll has devised a clever plot although the writing style leaves something to be desired, in my opinion.

I tired of the frequent and repetitive references to the various characters emotional issues. Also, I found the several of the characters' actions and statements to be inconsistent and lacking in believability. One minute a character is mousy, the next he is taking charge. One such episode on the part of one of the characters would have been OK, but not several times on the parts of several characters.

Rating:
Summary: not just a spy thriller
Review: SECRET FATHER is really two novels in one. First is an espionage thriller set in early 1960s Berlin, just before the Berlin Wall went up. Also, and more importantly, SECRET FATHER is a moving meditation on fathers and sons, and the things that make meaningful communication between them difficult.
The story concerns three teenagers:Michael Montgomery, Kit, and Ulrich (a German). They journey to East Berlin to see a May Day parade, flush with youthful energy. Michael and his father, an American banker, split narrative duties. Carroll cuts between the kids (betrayed and arrested) and Mr. Montgomery's alliance with Ulrich's mother to try to win their sons' freedom. Complicating matters are the fact that Ulrich's mother is now married to an American spy and that Ulrich now possesses a mysterious film cannister everyone seems to want.
The idea of fathers and sons knowing each other recurs throughout. The identity of Ulrich's real father is important, as is Michael's strained relationship with Mr. Montgomery. In a moving coda set just after the Wall falls in the '80s, Ulrich makes sure HIS son will know his father, even if he may not be around. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: not just a spy thriller
Review: SECRET FATHER is really two novels in one. First is an espionage thriller set in early 1960s Berlin, just before the Berlin Wall went up. Also, and more importantly, SECRET FATHER is a moving meditation on fathers and sons, and the things that make meaningful communication between them difficult.
The story concerns three teenagers:Michael Montgomery, Kit, and Ulrich (a German). They journey to East Berlin to see a May Day parade, flush with youthful energy. Michael and his father, an American banker, split narrative duties. Carroll cuts between the kids (betrayed and arrested) and Mr. Montgomery's alliance with Ulrich's mother to try to win their sons' freedom. Complicating matters are the fact that Ulrich's mother is now married to an American spy and that Ulrich now possesses a mysterious film cannister everyone seems to want.
The idea of fathers and sons knowing each other recurs throughout. The identity of Ulrich's real father is important, as is Michael's strained relationship with Mr. Montgomery. In a moving coda set just after the Wall falls in the '80s, Ulrich makes sure HIS son will know his father, even if he may not be around. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Effort
Review: Secret Father, James Carroll's newest novel, provides challenges to its readers. Most of the characters are not very likeable; others are remote - existing only in the memories of other characters; the plot is slower than those of the thrillers it resembles (it is not a thriller, at least in the technical sense). It is nonethless an engaging read and a welcome return to fiction by Mr. Carroll.

Carroll's novels usually focus on unusual and talented people caught up in significant 20th century events. In his best novels, such as Mortal Friends, the characters are so rich that readers can't wait to find out how the characters end their stories. The plots zoom, with time passing quickly for both the characters and the readers. Lack of attention for a page can result in losing command of time, place, and machination. There is usually a full measure of sadness, often related to a lost or poisoned love.

Secret Father revisits these usual elements, but with a different and less satisfying rhythm. Almost the entire book takes place over a three day span. Even with flashbacks and forwards, the epic scale common to most of Carroll's work is absent. Several fascinating backstories are truncated. Still, the sense of place and presence - 1961 Berlin and the post WWII blame and spy games - are up with Carroll's best. He also captures the dynamics of American military and business people.

Reading Secret Father is like listening to a new album by a favorite jazz artist who is trying to do things a little differently. Here they are intimacy and focus on a very few days in several people's lives rather than a big broadstroke about significant issues. He could probably have written another "big book" about the period, and it might have been more fun to read, this book was his real love right now rather than our fantasy love, and Secret Father will tell you what that means. It's better than a "greatest hits" album because it's new and different, but you can still listen carefully for familiar chord changes and smile.

Rating:
Summary: Fathers, sons, and the iron curtain between them.
Review: Two families, two sons, and the devastating complications that engulf their lives during one weekend in April, 1961, provide a unique perspective on international gamesmanship in Berlin during the Cold War. These are tense times, border incidents are frequent, and the Berlin Wall is only days away from construction. At age seventeen, Michael Montgomery and Rick Healy are less concerned with the complications of the Cold War than they are with their rebellions against their fathers. Both are "trying on" new political ideas--in Rick's case, the idealistic goals of socialism and the philosophy of Marcuse.

In alternating sections, Paul Montgomery, the father, and Michael Montgomery, the son, each reveal their thoughts and hopes for the future, and as the story unfolds, Carroll creates two entirely separate worlds, each fully drawn and presented as truth. The reader, moving back and forth between the generations, has the advantage both of hindsight regarding the Berlin crisis and insight into all the characters, and the story comes alive in the best narrative tradition. When Michael, Rick, and their friend Katharine Carson decide to skip school and go to East Berlin for the May Day parade and weekend festivities, Rick takes his stepfather's duffle bag, which, unbeknownst to him, contains some important film. The ensuing turmoil, which traps them in the eastern sector, involves both families as they try to avoid a potential international cataclysm.

Through his focus on families affected by the Cold War, Carroll achieves more universality than one usually expects of the thriller genre. The emotional context he creates for the international intrigue leads the reader to identify with both the adults and the young people and to observe the "wall" existing between them. The title, suggesting a "secret father" lurking in the background, tantalizes the reader with infinite possibilities and plot complications throughout the novel, but exactly how this person affects the conclusion may come as a surprise. Though the book is sometimes a bit melodramatic, it is a thoughtful thriller, full of betrayals, threats, murder, and international skullduggery, and it brings the traditional Cold War espionage story to new life. Mary Whipple