(Hutchinson, $34.99)
Bestselling author Douglas Kennedy has an incredible knack for being able to write convincingly in the first person from any point of view. Such is his skill that novels he’s written from women’s points of view (A Special Relationship and State of the Union) have made me wonder if he had a female co-writer.
In his latest book The ooment he’s back to writing as a bloke, and tells the story as the main character Thomas Nesbitt. Unfortunately, this time it’s not a character I could warm to easily.
I found Thomas – an American writer who decamps to Berlin in the early 1980s – to be self-obsessed and pretentious. Because Thomas is the sort of person who uses language that reflects his superior intellect, so does Douglas Kennedy, using lots of big, fancy words when a couple of simple ones would do. There’s nothing wrong with this, but I wasn’t expecting it.
The first part of the book – which covers Thomas dealing with the end of his marriage, then goes back to his childhood and his first few weeks in Berlin – is a little tedious and drawn-out, and some of the dialogue doesn’t ring true.
But I persevered, and I’m glad I did. Because once Thomas meets translator Petra Dussman and falls head-over-heels in love, the pace picks up and Thomas becomes more likable – mostly.
The more information that came to light about life in East Berlin, the more I got hooked, and suddenly I was reading until 2am, desperate to know what happened to the ill-fated lovers.
The third party in Thomas and Petra’s tragic love story is Cold War Berlin and it is possibly the most compelling character.
Despite its shaky start, The ooment ends up being a riveting, bittersweet and thought-provoking tale.
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