Book Review: In the Presence of Mine Enemies

a some what breif one...

Published on August 11, 2005 By ----- In Misc

In the Presence of Mine Enemies © 2003
Harry Turtledove
Published by New American Library
Copyright 2003

This book isn’t very intense. In my opinion it is delivered blandly. Any action is dulled. I mean; living your life always on watch; always afraid of those around you. That is something that should be very intense. With yourself being born something that is hated throughout the world. It adds new meaning to being paranoid. Turtledove does a good job with laying the background; the Reich is led by, once again, another ruthless fascist leader; with an iron grip over the world. The Japanese, one of the few empires still left standing; is checked, and only relies on its technology to sway the German populace. Through out this book; there is a constant ‘beckoning’ of reform; to ‘remember the first edition’. (Of Adolf Hitler’s; Mein Kampf. Link ) Apparently it has been “revised” three times) I feel that Turtledove has portrayed the feelings (other than a lack of intenseness) fairly well; and fairly accurate. The ending was slightly surprising; but not improbable.

The main characters in this novel were certainly lively; There is Heinrich and Lise; a match made in heaven. They live their life in fear; tempted by many things; but they remain strong. Heinrich is tempted by his best friends wife. But he remains loyal to lise. Then there is Erika and Willi Dorsche; a couple whose relationship is falling apart. Willi is having an affair with a secretary at his work; and as a result; through Erika’s suspicions, she (Erika) feels she is inadequate and attempts to seduce Heinrich; her ‘knight in shining armor’.

This book is long; it is 515 pages, written in small font. There is (in my copy) a few errors; misspelling of words, etc…

I would recommend this book to any one who wishes to understand what (some) the feelings of a Jew growing up in Germany was. But if you are wanting an action packed story; this is not the book for you. I would give it (on a one to ten scale); a five.

Comments

drmiler

on Aug 11, 2005

Careful now....Harry is one of my all time favorite authors.

-----

on Aug 11, 2005

He is good; i like Ruled Britannia, and Blood & Iron....but this book just was dull to me...unfortunatley....

drmiler

on Aug 11, 2005

He is good; i like Ruled Britannia, and Blood & Iron....but this book just was dull to me...unfortunatley....

I have 2 of his series (complete) the one where the south won the civil war and the one where the lizard aliens invaded in the middle of WW2. All total is 15 books.

-----

on Aug 11, 2005

yeah, he set up some of his series a little strange...

dharmagrl

on Aug 12, 2005

I have a separate blog site that you can post book reviews on, Lucas (when you get let out to play with the rest of us, that is). It's 'book-a-holics'; look it up in the blog index. Anyone is welcome to post a book review there. To get an idea of what constitutes a good review, I'd suggest that you go read some of the ones that are already posted there.

-----

on Aug 14, 2005

This wasn't really supposed to be a proper book review...I just called it that because i couldn't think of what else to call it at the time....and it seems i have been let out, i was reading an article by shadowWar, and i saw the comment box, so i then checked my profile and it said Citizen as rank...hmmm, didn't even notice it until then, i think it has been this way for a while...boy, i need to pay attention better....and thanks for the invite, will take a look at it...oh, and please check out my 9/11 article...if you wish to...

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