The Runner
by Christopher Reich

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Book Reviews of The Runner

Book Review: Weak Beach Reading
Summary: 1 Stars

None of the characters rise veer from their basic motivation-they come across as clichés, despite Reich's attempt to provide a detailed backstory for each. Seyss's portrait as the lethally cunning Nazi machine is particularly weak. As noted elsewhere there are a number of minor gaffes in the details that cry out for more rigorous editorial attention, not to mention mangling of spelling and grammar in both German and English. Despite these flaws, Reich manages present a reasonably plausible portrayal of Germany just after surrender. Indeed, the novel's only somewhat intriguing theme is Reich's deliberate portrayal of the callousness of the average American occupier toward German civilians. However readers looking for a more sophisticated and well-written look at postwar Germany might try Philip Kerr's A German Requiem, the last volume in his "Berlin Noir" trilogy. Finally, it should be noted that while this is a work of fiction Reich's use of U.S. General George Patton and OSS chief "Wild" Bill Donovan would be completely libelous were they not dead and thus fair game for fictional reimagining. Those intrigued by Patton should check out Carlo D'este's biography, Patton: A Genius For War. For the story of Donovan and the origin of the OSS, check out Thomas Troy's book, Wild Bill and Intrepid.

Summary of The Runner

The Runner lacks the crackling tension of Numbered Account, Christopher Reich's first novel. Even the moments of crucial conflict, or of bloody disaster, seem wan and pallid. The novel is, paradoxically, handicapped by Reich's respect for historical detail: his interest in presenting the grim realities of postwar existence leads him into extensive descriptions of place and time that fail to merge with the story he spins. These "set pieces" stand awkwardly apart, like dour history professors coaxed into supervising the machinations of rambunctious students. Reich's general fidelity to detail also means that the moments in which he temporarily throws accuracy to the wind are painfully apparent: how on earth would Judge, a well-fed and well-dressed American, manage to look as if he belonged in a German work-group detail? And when would any three-star general ever tolerate the gum-cracking insouciance of Judge's driver Darren Honey, a sergeant with no regard for military hierarchy? Oddly enough, the authorial liberties Reich takes with General George Patton, saddling him with a megalomaniac's hatred of the Russians and a schemer's plot to redraw the boundaries of postwar Europe, are largely successful and add a welcome note of barely contained evil.

The Runner works best as a moving meditation on personal and social disjunction: Judge, Seyss, Patton, and the rest are desperately engaged in deciphering the proper place for prewar rules in the postwar chaos--and in confronting the uneasy suspicion that perhaps, after all, there is no place for them or for their beliefs. Judge must move past his easy assumption that the Allied victory was not "just a symbol of superior might but of superior morality": "Overnight, he'd become the hunted, not the hunter.... At some point during the last twenty-four hours, he'd crossed over an interior median into unknown waters. He'd abandoned the rigid structure of his previous life, renounced his worship of authority, and forsworn his devotion to rules and regulation. He'd tossed Hoyle to the wind, and he didn't care." --Kelly Flynn

Historical Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical
• War
• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue