by William Boyd
This novel has two very distinct parts, beginning with bohemian and sexy and ending with dangerous and thrilling. Neither of which were really what I was expecting, but the contrast worked well. This was my first Boyd and I will definitely be investigating his back catalogue.
Good first half, then deteriorating in a fast spinning spy novel where the hero has skills that would make James Bond blush. No the besr William Boyd book, but good fun to read.
Our “hero” Lysander Rief is an actor, and through out this well written spy story you are never quite sure what is true, what is illusion and when he is being himself. Set just before, and in the early part of World War One, this is a very good yarn, with many twists and turns, ensuring that you con...
A big disappointmentI stuck with this for 320 pages (of a total of 428) before waving the white flag, and reading the rest of the plot on Wikipedia. I read my first [a:William Boyd|8170|William Boyd|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1266355107p2/8170.jpg] novel, [b:Brazzaville Beach|77829|Brazzaville ...
Like Boyd's other recent and highly successful novels, Waiting For Sunrise is the story of a relatively ordinary individual caught up in extraordinary events. Opening in Vienna in nineteen fifteen, it begins with Lysander Rief, a not overly-successful English actor, sitting in the consulting room of...
Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, walks through the city to his first appointment with the eminent psychiatrist Dr Bensimon. Sitting in the waiting room he is anxiously pondering the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis when a young woman enters. She is clearly in distress,...
As usual, believable characters, great story and evocative settings.
When I write an honest review of a book I disliked, it often generates endless comments, mostly from people who want to argue with me. The net effect being that a book I didn't want to waste time on ends up stealing even more of my time as I try to respond to comments months and even years later. SO...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/19/digested-read-waiting-for-sunrise
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