Making Good Again

by Lionel Davidson

Book by Lionel Davidson

Genres: Thriller

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Aka David Line

Lionel Davidson was a three-times winner of the Gold Dagger Award (for The Night of Wenceslas, A Long Way to Shilo and The Chelsea Murders). His thrillers and adventure novels have won him enormous international acclaim. He also wrote children's books under the name of David Line.

See also Obituary at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitu...
[this reference added 12-Aug-2013].

Reviews

[David Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a confusing and sometimes opaque read concerning German reparations for the Jewish community following the Holocaust. A lawyer (from whom we learn the definition of his favourite legal term - estoppel) is sent from London to Munich to liaise with German counterparts and a German Jewish lawyer who has come from Israel to try and free up money from a Swiss bank account belonging to a man called Bamberg who may or may not be dead. What I learned - apart from an estoppel being a legal term that prevents you changing your mind once you’ve decided on a certain course of action - was that German antisemitic activity could be neatly and reasonably (self-deludingly) packaged as deeds performed by a previous and entirely different population of people (their body cells having been replenished entirely every seven years absolving personal responsibility) and that this coping mechanism is quite fragile. There’s a moving and devastating return to Dachau as well as a tense journey into the forests near the Czech border where unreconstructed Nazis still present a very real danger.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very classy novel looking at questions of guilt, reparation and 'making good' on micro and macro scales, centred on post-war Germany. Reflects the Sixties sensibility of its writing period (published 1968) in a really interesting way. A couple of unforgettable scenes, both comic (a Mrs Robinson type seduction) and tragic (a Nazi era humiliation). Reminiscent of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene.

[Brian Pearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Raison's wife is "quite mad".Perhaps a safe state to be in compared to the devious, sick, & alarming world our protagonist discovers representing a reparations claimant in Germany.

[Keith Currie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, thoughtful, often very funny, morality tale on the Jewish genocide in Nazi Germany and the attempts to make amends after the war. Highly recommended

[Justin Sarginson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lionel Davidson was a unique author. This book is no different, with a blend of adventure, exploration, a touch of romance and a ending which is pure Lionel.