Paul West (1)Critiques

Beautiful, elegiac, brutal. Reading the second half of the book, which reveals the consequences of the failure of the plot to assassinate Hitler, is like being pounded to death with a velvet hammer.

Though beautifully written, the subject matter is largely squalid and depressing. West has an incredible ability to seamlessly shift the narrative from the point of view of one character to another and to wholly and convincingly inhabit each character's head; whether male or female, high or low. I found it fascinating but some may find it confusing.

This book will disappoint readers expecting a Ripper thriller. It will not disappoint readers in search of literary fiction that deals in subject matter other than coming of age stories, tales of professors and students at colleges or accounts of couples or families under stress.

I was very disappointed with this book. It is historical fiction, with a psychological bent, having to do with the murders of Jack the Ripper (JTR). I am interested JTR books, and this seemed to have some depth and was not just a sensationalistic treatment.

This was also my first Paul West book, so perhaps its how he writes. The problem is that is was very slow and rather repetitive and boring. I kept looking at the page numbers hoping for it to end.

The focus of the story is an artist, Walter Sickert. He flits with respectability, but loves to wallow in the dregs of lower class London. Through his art and his slumming he meets/knows/entraps the women who are murdered.

West was obviously more interested in the question of what is art, how does making art impact the artist, and what does the artist owe to mundane life. These themes are the repetitive part and frankly Walter bored me. The book also looks at someone who gets sucked into something bad, due to satisfying an illicit itch, and how that association leads to further degradation and even participation. In for a penny, in for a pound; the road to hell is paved with good intentions - though to be clear Walter was more the type to clothe his titillation as 'good intentions'.

The book also looks at the women and the horrible lives they are trying to survive in the East End of London. The appalling condition of the poor, and the lack of opportunity for a safe decent life. The twin oppression of poverty and sexism made them invisible and unimportant, until they were sliced open, publicly. The study of the women and their context in poor London was very worthwhile.

Interestingly enough West's premise of who the Ripper was, and how and why it happened is not something West made up. It is one of the Ripper theories from the 70s, having to do with the Royal Conspiracy Theory. It seems not to be accepted as the answer but there are several others who have also championed it.

If there had been less Walter, and a good bit of cutting it would have been a much better book.

I've skimmed this book and it looks interesting. It is a list of words with comments about their origins and use. And in his explanations of the first and last words (abacus and zymurgist), he goes from dust to dust.

This is a very rich book with such lush, dense writing that this reader often sat bemused. The narrative moves from Claus von Stauffenberg's service in Africa where he was horribly wounded through his rising determination to kill Hitler, taking its time over the assassination attempt, and finally relentlessly documenting the aftermath for the conspirators and their families. West moves seamlessly from interior monologue to action and back. Readers would do well to have the events of July, 1944 well in mind. For those of us who are not well-versed, an appendix of names and places is very helpful. Whether West accurately records the feelings of Stauffenberg I couldn't say, but I will say that it feels right to me, and I found the book well worth the effort.½

This is a short elegant novel. Paul West's best I've encountered.

An Englishman living in the Ithaca NY area West is a writer who seems to feel at home writing fiction situated from just about anywhere on the planet. He's not always the most easy to read--the points of view often posited by his characters are ones they often leave unexpressed in the world about them but are made available to the reader so one gets their thoughts and feelings even if those closest to the character in the book don't. In 'The very rich hours of Count von Stauffenberg' we eventually come to realize that the narrative voice is that of Stauffenberg after his execution by firing squad. For those a little short on history Claus von Stauffenberg was the man--the war cripple--who walked into the 'Wolf's Lair' with a brief case full of explosives and very nearly assassinated Adolph Hitler. He was a major part of the plot including many prominent german civilians, civil administrators and military officers to kill the fuhrer and to take over the country and try to reach an agreement with Britain and the United States to end the war. In the aftermath of the failure Stauffenberg was almost immediately executed by order of General Fromm (himself a plotter attempting to cover his tracks--not that it will do him any good in the end). It is here where the human dimension of the book truly comes to the foreground as some like Fromm try to save themselves by turning on others and some run for cover and some kill themselves and a very few stand up unapologetically--and it is here also where the book turns into one long lament for those left behind and left to suffer for the failure as Stauffenberg's family including his children are visited very shortly by the Gestapo and as West describes the horrific scenes of torture and execution presided over by an enraged Hitler who sits in his own private movie theatre playing the scenes of these filmed executions over and over.