The Night Of The Generals (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
It’s 1942 in Warsaw, and a Polish woman is found brutally murdered and mutilated; an eyewitness places a German general at the scene of the crime. A similar crime occurs in Paris in 1944. But which of the three generals who were present in both cities at the right times is the guilty party? Will the dedicated German Colonel Grau and his counterpart, the French Inspector Prévert be able to find out who the killer is, and once they do, will they be able to bring a German general to justice in Occupied Paris? That’s the hook for Hans Hellmut Kirst’s The Night of the Generals (which was later made into a film starring Peter O’Toole, and highly improbably, Omar Sharif as Colonel Grau).The problem is that The Night of the Generals can’t decide whether it wants to be a murder mystery about a serial-killer (whose identity is fairly obvious about 30 pages into the novel and is confirmed halfway through); or a satire of mid-century German attitudes towards war, generals, and the army; or an impassioned cry of anger about those same attitudes. And the novel suffers from this lack of a firm identiy; most of the characters are paper-thin stereotypes, rather than actual people and the plot is ridiculously full of holes (such as the motivation for the serial-killer, which is touched upon in one sentence and which is never referenced again.) If you’re interested in a near-contemporary German writers’ take on his country’s troubled history, and on the more mundane aspects of being a common soldier in the German army, then this is a fairly entertaining book. But my 1967 edition has blurbs that compare it to Crime and Punishment (hahahah!) and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, which are beyond ridiculous. (Although it's nice to know that over-inflated blurbing isn't just a recent phenomenon!!
The Night of the Generals takes place in occupied France during World War II, and is a deftly written, highly suspenseful detective story centered around one of the most fascinating of crimes: a murderer using war as a cover. The suspects are winnowed down to three high-ranking German generals, two of whom are involved in a conspiracy to dethrone Hitler. The interweaving of these two plots is handled masterfully, and the suspense is given substance by the burning ethical questions which inevitably loom: Was the dilemma of soldiers under Hitler as clear-cut as it seems from our vantage point? Would I have acted differently? Kirst was himself a Nazi soldier, and is very bitter about the deception perpetrated on the military by Hitler. He provides many trenchant observations and some very effective satire, making this a good historical novel as well.
What do You think about The Night Of The Generals (2002)?
I must say I'm not a great fan of military fiction - a portion of my brain shuts off when I hear military titles and the same goes for politics - but whilst such matters provide the background for this book the thrust is really the characterisation and the three murders. The book moves easily from character to character, including sections which are reports, recorded conversations, and other interludes; whilst there is a linear narrative, it also feels as though the reader is piecing together the plot at the same time as the author, which makes for an overall interesting read. Perhaps greater knowledge of the historical events of the time which are woven into the book might have enhanced my reading experience, but I'd recommend this book with reservations to those who enjoyed a crime but might not be too interested in political/miltary fiction.
—Andrew
The way the book starts, you might think it fits into the crime genre. And that's true, but the crime is on a much bigger scale than the murder of one person - except, of course, that's exactly the kind of moral accountancy that is used to justify turning a blind eye to the most monstrous acts.You can read it, then, as a straightforward whodunnit, a political thriller, or as a very black comedy indeed. The translation is stylish, with some a nice line in vivid metaphor, and at no point does it have that Yoda-speak feeling of a foreign language shunted word-for-word into English.Even before I finished it, I ordered all of Kirst's other novels. I might only read one a year but I can see them being keepers.
—Dave Morris
Subtitle: Les Miserbles/Inspector Javert meets Joachim Peiper/Rheinard Heydrich.An intriguing goodread of a mystery, the backdrop will appeal to WW2 fans of the European theater; a tale of war time Germany, where a police officer is compelled to resolve which German General is murdering prostitutes.The primary tale of the whodunit is contrasted with the pursuit of justice by thepoliceman; who would care about the murder of some forgottenprostitutes versus the scale of carnage going on each day; and the morality, can youjustify one death? if so, then why not a million?
—carl theaker
