paul_cornelius's review against another edition
3.0
A not altogether successful attempt by Eric Ambler to engage in a sort of modernist form. Multiple perspectives, differing mediums of reporting, and an unsure authorial voice are the result. It's still an interesting read, but once again I think Ambler was influenced by developments in feature filmmaking. This story seems to combine the surface imagery and technique of cinema verite with a final ambiguity that is frustrating--intentionally so. The Charles Latimer that has returned in 1969 is drastically different from the befuddled but well centered detailer of the narrative that was Latimer in 1939 in A Coffin for Dimitrios.
This book is indicative of its age, the late 1960s, even as Charles Latimer has himself aged into an old man. The moral certainties of the interwar years of the 1930s no longer exist. Cold War hijinks can be murderous. And they can yield comic results, even as they do result in killing and destruction.
This book is indicative of its age, the late 1960s, even as Charles Latimer has himself aged into an old man. The moral certainties of the interwar years of the 1930s no longer exist. Cold War hijinks can be murderous. And they can yield comic results, even as they do result in killing and destruction.
roberto's review
Clever and well-designed narrative, using fragments of taped conversations, interviews, letters etc.
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