I think reading a classic Len Deighton must be like watching one of the old master painters in action. There's the preparation, the background, the deft brushstrokes, building up layer on layer of colours and nuance in perfect harmony. And then you finally take a step back, reveals a masterpiece.Or maybe it's like watching a master magician? There's slight of hand, deception, concealment and finally slapping of the forehead 'oh, you got me!'That apart...SS-GB is set in 1941 and the book opens with a 'copy' of an 'official' German document. OK so far. It's just that it is in fact 'the instrument of surrender…of all English armed forces in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland including all islands.' This happened in February 1941. It's now November. Churchill has been executed. King George VI is in the Tower of London - and not as a visitor. The SS are now running the province of England. And to make matters worse…there's suddenly a murder case for Superintendent Douglas Archer of Scotland Yard to solve. A routine one, a black-marketeer murdered in London, of the open and shut kind, it would seem. But if the case is so routine, why have the Germans, Himmler himself no less, sent an SS Standartenführer Huth over from Berlin to take control? Huth is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, confident to arrogance and especially irritating if you're the nice General Kellerman, with a taste for all the trappings of the English aristocracy and are trying to run Scotland Yard as your own little fiefdom. But as the story progresses, one begins to wonder who is outmanoeuvring who here. It all boils down to a trial of strength between the German Army and the up-starts, as they see them, at the SS and SD. And Archer, a thoroughly able and professional Policeman, gets caught in the middle. His professionalism means he will solve the case, no matter who does or doesn't want him to. And the 'doesn't' doesn't always come from where you might expect it to.SS-GB builds up with matter of fact, nothing unusual about this, description of how things are in the wrong kind of post-war Britain. Deighton has created a thoroughly believable world here, with all the sights and sounds - and smells - brought vividly to alternate life. He describes a horrendously war-torn Britain, its population bombed and blitzed into submission and run (rings round) by the Germans. As it would have been, had it been that way. But, look under the surface, as Archer with the help of his rather more typical, flat-footed colleague Harry Woods is forced to do as the investigation progresses, and we find that perhaps not everyone has actually surrendered. What Len Deighton has created here is not just a look at how things might have been, a simple description of the situation - as he imagines it - would suffice there. He has created a rather more subtle, layered and nuanced look at both the German's inner power struggles and the British attitude to 'getting on with it' no matter what. It is a world that I found myself so taken in by, that I sometimes had to almost tell myself it didn't really happen this way.If I had to try really hard and pick a nit (and it really feels like telling Leonardo Ms Lisa's smile should be a little brighter), it would be that the main man Douglas Archer does seem to have got used to working for Germans and integrated into all things German, very quickly, given that this novel takes place only a matter of nine months after their victory. I could well have missed the bit that said he was (previous to being a Policeman) a German scholar or spent his formative years in Germany, but it was one little thing that bugged me (see the link with 'nit' there?)Other than that, SS-GB is a classic partly because it is a great idea well executed and partly because (published first in 1980) I think you could probably argue, that this one kicked off the whole range of 'what if…' novels of the 'what if the Germans HADN'T lost?' variety. I stand to be corrected on that one of course, but even if SS-GB wasn't the first, in my opinion it's certainly the best.
1035 - 2014Aku suka berandai-andai.Karena itu, aku termasuk yang menyukai cerita dengan setting What-If, atau alternate history.Serial TV Sliders (1995-2000) yang bercerita tentang parallel universes, di mana sejarah di dunia-dunia lain berjalan ke arah yang berbeda-beda dengan dunia kita, juga salah satu serial TV favoritku. Untuk komik, serial Elseworlds-nya DC atau manga Zipang juga jadi bacaan favoritku.Bagaimana dengan novel?Sejauh ini Fatherland-nya Robert Harris, yang bersetting di Jerman setelah usai Perang Dunia II di mana Jerman menjadi pemenangnya, masih berada di kelompok teratas novel kesukaanku. Tapi, ternyata konon Robert Harris sendiri mendapatkan inspirasi dari novel Len Deighton yang satu ini.SS-GB bersetting di Inggris pada bulan November 1941, sembilan bulan setelah invasi Jerman yang kemudian menaklukkan dan menduduki Inggris.Tokoh utamanya adalah Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer, detektif pembunuhan Scotland Yard yang terkenal dengan julukan Archer of the Yard, atau Sherlock Holmes tahun 1940an. Sebagai polisi, ia tetap bersikap profesional, tanpa mempedulikan siapapun yang berkuasa di Inggris.Ceritanya sendiri dimulai dari penyelidikan pembunuhan di sebuah toko barang antik, yang entah kenapa menimbulkan perhatian pemerintah pusat di Jerman. SS Standartenfuhrer Huth diutus untuk memimpin penyelidikan, dan mengusik ketenangan Gruppenfuhrer Kellerman, yang menjabat sebagai kepala kepolisian di Inggris.Penyelidikan pembunuhan itu membawa Archer pada kelompok bawah tanah Inggris yang ingin membebaskan sang Raja yang ditahan di Menara London serta penelitian bom atom yang dilakukan secara diam-diam oleh militer Jerman di Inggris. Bukan hanya itu, Archer juga terjebak di tengah-tegah perebutan kekuasaan antara militer Jerman dengan SS, bahkan dalam tubuh SS sendiri, karena Kellerman ingin menyingkirkan Huth yang berpotensi mengambil alih "kerajaan"-nya, sedangkan Huth ingin membersihkan kepolisian Inggris dari pejabat yang korup sekaligus berusaha mencegah militer Jerman mengambil alih kekuasaan di Inggris dari tangan sipil.Archer yang semula hanya berprinsip menunaikan tugas sebagai detektif dengan sebaik-baiknya pun harus memilih untuk berada di pihak yang mana untuk tetap survive tanpa mengorbankan integritasnya. Membantu kelompok bawah tanah yang pernah berusaha membunuhnya karena profesinya sebagai polisi membuatnya dianggap anjing pemburu Jerman? Membantu Huth membersihkan kepolisian Inggris yang korup? Atau cukup jadi polisi yang lurus dan jujur tanpa peduli apapun yang terjadi di sekitarnya?Dalam novel ini, karakter yang paling kusukai bukan tokoh utamanya, melainkan Standartenfuhrer Huth. Meskipun ia memilih masuk SS karena prinsip memilih pihak yang menang, dan termasuk jenis atasan yang mementingkan hasil tanpa mau tahu prosesnya, ia adalah gambaran polisi yang efektif, efisien, dan yang paling penting: bersih. Kemampuannya memahami karakter manusia dengan sangat baik membuatnya sanggup membaca strategi dan arah permainan lawan. Pada akhir novel, Huth-lah, dan bukan Archer, yang mengungkap dan menguraikan apa yang sebenarnya terjadi dan apa yang akan terjadi, dalam kaitannya dengan benang kusut konspirasi dan tragedi yang melibatkan Archer.Omong-omong, kalau membaca tentang Raja Inggris di kurun waktu ini, mau tak mau yang kubayangkan adalah Colin Firth, sebagaimana penampilannya di film The King's Speech. Sayangnya, nasib Raja Inggris di kisah sejarah alternatif ini kurang menguntungkan. Sudah kalah perang, invalid, ditawan di Menara London, lalu masih juga harus... *spoiler alert*
What do You think about SS-GB (1980)?
A very nice thriller, set in a Britain occupied by the Nazis. Len Deighton is not only good at building a sharp plot -a murder investigation linked to one of the most crucial scientific discovery of the time- he also displays a great understanding of how was the Nazi system, using the rivalries between Wehrmacht, SD and SS to fit them all like magic in his very clever story. The puzzle thus being built is a thrilling achievement that, his constant play with human psychology and motivations in such a context makes even more remarkable. I am not usually keen on detective nor spy story but, such an intelligent and intricate plot truly deserves a hat off.
—Aurelien
I first read SS GB thirty years ago and couldn't remember much about it. It belongs in the genre what if ... the Nazis won, rather like Robert Harris' Fatherland and CJ Sansom's Dominion but is not a good as either. Len Deighton, who is a terrific writer, lets the plotting slip so that the ending is neither altogether clear and less than satisfactory. Otherwise the atmosphere is menacing and depressing as it should be in a book of this nature. The characters too are varied and interesting but, somehow, it doesn't quite work.David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil (thebluepencil.co.uk)
—David Lowther
It is a scary thought for anyone who cares for the free world: what would have happened if Germany had successfully invaded Britain in 1940? This book was originally published in 1978, but it has lost nothing of its power to scare the reader. Len Deighton’s hero is Douglas Archer, known by the press as ‘Archer of the Yard’, a successful detective based in Scotland Yard. He manages to square working with the occupying German army by rationalising that the population must be protected from crime even in a time of war. Unfortunately the reality of a Nazi occupation intrudes upon his work when a man is found murdered, with what he surmises must be important papers burnt in the fireplace. What follows is a thriller read of resistance and collaboration, greed, treachery and patriotism. In true Len Deighton style, no one is pure and blameless. At least, no one who lives. You can sense what is going to happen as you approach the end, but it is still a page turner all the way. It deserves its five stars!
—Neil Jopson
