Writes like a British writer. Very crisp, terse style. Economic, punchy characterization. Manages to convey a lot with very little.
Is very good at setting the scene whether it’s a dreary London street, a remote British village, or the grandeur of Hitler’s residence, or building devastated by bombs.
Characterization:
Anna – childhood trauma turns her into chilling assassin? Narcissist by nature, entirely self-serving, lacking a moral center – a perfect assassin. Comes out sounding like something out of a hyperactive male imagination – too intelligent, too infallible, too irresistibly beautiful, too much to be realistic. No human vulnerabilities.
Discussion Points:
· Germans are known for their precision and competence. So many assassination attempts (seventeen planned attempts, from 1939 to 1945) on Hitler, yet none were successful.
· Why was Peter Jordan on the boat in the end? To die a tragic hero? Flimsy.
· Vicary, a man who prides himself on being a master manipulator and the cleverest boy in the room, finds that he’s been a dupe of much cleverer, more ruthless men than him. He’s been inducted into military intelligence, but as far as Project Mulberry was concerned, he was chasing a red herring. He was still luckier than those who died for it – casualties of war.
+ The best part about this book is it made me read up and learn more about World War 2. I feel so much more educated about it after that.
+ It was fun reading up about the different deception techniques used. About 30 different kinds.. Mind boggling.
+Read a book that I would not picked up by myself and read.. So I was able to tread into a completely new territory.
+ Made me think about the War in general.
Questions:
1. I think Vicary's work was important.. He carried on the whole imaginary spy network deception.. 2. Peter Jordan being an agent was a surprise. So was he feeding wrong documents from the very beginning? It was strange that Catherine got up every night and stole the documents and he did not suspect anything.. That should have raised flags for Catherine even if she was that good..
Ans: In the discussion, I learned that Peter was being fed the wrong information all along..
3. I also felt it strange that they both fell in love so fast.. So did he know Catherine was the agent? 4. Was WWII justified? When is a war justified. 5. Is winning war more important than the people ? 6.We also had a spiritual discussion on righteous and unrighteous wars. War Heros and karma’s afflicted due to war..
Negatives:
1. Too much fluff in the book.. Lots of the sex and violence were unnecessary. Could have been half the size. 2. Did not give that feeling of satisfaction after reading a book.. Eg. Deathly Hallows was huge yet completely satisfying.
Ans: Maheshwari explained that it could be due to the fact that were too many loose ends..
3. There wasn’t any WOW factor! Nothing extra ordinarily intelligent or breath taking suspense.
4. The ending was like, the author’s disclaimer to distorting any facts about the war.. We could just peel the whole book and throw and it away.. Its like a dream .. a deception!! :))
Some facts about WW2 Deception by Allies
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Cross_System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bodyguard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Quicksilver_%28WWII%29
Style and Language:
ReplyDeleteWrites like a British writer. Very crisp, terse style.
Economic, punchy characterization.
Manages to convey a lot with very little.
Is very good at setting the scene whether it’s a dreary London street, a remote British village, or the grandeur of Hitler’s residence, or building devastated by bombs.
Characterization:
Anna – childhood trauma turns her into chilling assassin? Narcissist by nature, entirely self-serving, lacking a moral center – a perfect assassin. Comes out sounding like something out of a hyperactive male imagination – too intelligent, too infallible, too irresistibly beautiful, too much to be realistic. No human vulnerabilities.
Discussion Points:
· Germans are known for their precision and competence. So many assassination attempts (seventeen planned attempts, from 1939 to 1945) on Hitler, yet none were successful.
· Why was Peter Jordan on the boat in the end? To die a tragic hero? Flimsy.
· Broome is Brendan Evans – Unnecessary twist, doesn’t really work.
· Vicary, a man who prides himself on being a master manipulator and the cleverest boy in the room, finds that he’s been a dupe of much cleverer, more ruthless men than him. He’s been inducted into military intelligence, but as far as Project Mulberry was concerned, he was chasing a red herring. He was still luckier than those who died for it – casualties of war.
+ The best part about this book is it made me read up and learn more about World War 2. I feel so much more educated about it after that.
ReplyDelete+ It was fun reading up about the different deception techniques used. About 30 different kinds.. Mind boggling.
+Read a book that I would not picked up by myself and read.. So I was able to tread into a completely new territory.
+ Made me think about the War in general.
Questions:
1. I think Vicary's work was important.. He carried on the whole imaginary spy network deception..
2. Peter Jordan being an agent was a surprise. So was he feeding wrong documents from the very beginning? It was strange that Catherine got up every night and stole the documents and he did not suspect anything.. That should have raised flags for Catherine even if she was that good..
Ans: In the discussion, I learned that Peter was being fed the wrong information all along..
3. I also felt it strange that they both fell in love so fast.. So did he know Catherine was the agent?
4. Was WWII justified? When is a war justified.
5. Is winning war more important than the people ?
6.We also had a spiritual discussion on righteous and unrighteous wars. War Heros and karma’s afflicted due to war..
Negatives:
1. Too much fluff in the book.. Lots of the sex and violence were unnecessary. Could have been half the size.
2. Did not give that feeling of satisfaction after reading a book.. Eg. Deathly Hallows was huge yet completely satisfying.
Ans: Maheshwari explained that it could be due to the fact that were too many loose ends..
3. There wasn’t any WOW factor! Nothing extra ordinarily intelligent or breath taking suspense.
4. The ending was like, the author’s disclaimer to distorting any facts about the war.. We could just peel the whole book and throw and it away.. Its like a dream .. a deception!! :))