The Mean Streets

Sunday, September 2, 2007

 

Victory Square

by Olen Steinhauer

St. Martin’s  August 2007

 

Full Review to Follow ...

 

Victory Square is the fifth novel and the concluding chapter in Olen Steinhauer’s Byzantine series tracing the tumultuous history of an unnamed Eastern Bloc country from the 1940’s to the “velvet” revolution which brings democracy to that land in 1989. This time around the spotlight falls on Emil Brod, the policeman who was the protagonist in The Bridge of Sighs (2003). Days from retirement as chief of the People’s Militia, the case that began Brod’s career forty-one years ago comes back to haunt him and to threaten the people that he loves.

 

Victory Square is a mesmerizing novel set against the chaotic and often murky backdrop of revolutionary politics. Readers will be reminded of John LeCarré, Eric Ambler, Arthur Koestler and Graham Greene. At the same time Steinhauer manages to craft a voice and a vision that is uniquely his own. Through the aging, brooding eyes of Emil Brod we learn the degree to all of our actions no matter how “private” ultimately have “political” implications. And the converse is also true; broader social forces impinge upon even the most intimate dimensions of our lives.

 

This is a rich and rewarding novel as well as a compelling finale to one of the most remarkable series of novels written in the last decade. Truth may indeed be stranger than fiction but what makes Steinhauer’s vision so disturbing is the conclusion that, in the last analysis, truth is itself little more than a species of fiction.

 

 

Also by Olen Steinhauer:

 

The Bridge of Sighs (2003)

The Confession (2004)

36 Yalta Boulevard (2005) ... Review

Liberation Movements (2006) ... Review

 

jcc55883 at 7:40:00 PM EDT Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

This entry has 0 comments: (Add your own)