markk's review
2.0
"Chameleon" is the word that best describes Chic Western, an operative or "budman" for an elite U.S. internal security organization known as the Ombudsman Commission. Fresh from his most recent assignment, Western is sent undercover to Germany to ferret out a staffer in the U.S. Embassy who is leaking secrets to the dying insurgency in the remnants of the Soviet Union. There he experiences the wonders of a dynamic Third Reich forty years after the Second World War, a land of vibrant people and great material comfort. Yet as Western explores further, he begins to encounter the dark side of this supposedly perfect world, leading him to consider disturbing questions that ultimately lead him to a determined conclusion.
David Dvorkin's novel offers an intriguing portrait of an alternate Third Reich. Positing a successful plot to eliminate Adolf Hitler in 1942, he goes on to depict an empire of success and progress, one in which the guilt over the Holocaust is assuaged by the creation of a Jewish state. Equally interesting is the comparisons his character continually makes of a grim, repressive America, where a police state keeps a tight lid on racial tensions. Yet the novel is marred by a rather clumsy plot. For a supposedly elite agent, his central character seems anything but, being all too causal with his cover identity and ignoring some obvious clues from the start. It is as if all Dvorkin's energy went into developing his premise and settings, with the actual story itself developed as an afterthought. This mars what is otherwise an enjoyable presentation of an alternate world that avoids the typical dystopian stereotypes in favor of a more subtle depiction of evil.
David Dvorkin's novel offers an intriguing portrait of an alternate Third Reich. Positing a successful plot to eliminate Adolf Hitler in 1942, he goes on to depict an empire of success and progress, one in which the guilt over the Holocaust is assuaged by the creation of a Jewish state. Equally interesting is the comparisons his character continually makes of a grim, repressive America, where a police state keeps a tight lid on racial tensions. Yet the novel is marred by a rather clumsy plot. For a supposedly elite agent, his central character seems anything but, being all too causal with his cover identity and ignoring some obvious clues from the start. It is as if all Dvorkin's energy went into developing his premise and settings, with the actual story itself developed as an afterthought. This mars what is otherwise an enjoyable presentation of an alternate world that avoids the typical dystopian stereotypes in favor of a more subtle depiction of evil.
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