Gods of Deception

by David Adams Cleveland

At age ninety-five, Judge Edward Dimock, patriarch of his family and the man who defended accused Soviet spy Alger Hiss in the famous 1950 Cold War “trial of the century,” is writing his memoir at his fabled Catskill retreat, Hermitage, with its glorious Italian Renaissance ceiling. Judge Dimock is consumed with doubts about the troubling secrets he’s kept to himself for over fifty years—secrets that might change both American history and the lives of his entire family. Was his client guilty of spying for Stalin or not? And if guilty, did Hiss’s crimes go far beyond his perjury conviction—a verdict that divided the country for a generation?

​Dimock enlists his grandson, George Altmann, a brilliant Princeton astrophysicist, in the quest for truth. Reluctantly, George finds himself drawn into the web of deceit that has ravaged his family, his curiosity sparked by a string of clues found in the Judge’s unpublished memoir and in nine pencil sketches of accused Soviet agents pinned to an old corkboard in his grandfather’s abandoned office. Even more dismaying, the drawings are by George’s paternal grandfather and namesake, a once-famous painter who covered the Hiss trial as a courtroom artist for the Herald Tribune, only to die in uncertain circumstances in a fall from Woodstock’s Fishkill Bridge on Christmas Eve 1949. Many of the suspected spies also died from ambiguous falls (a KGB specialty) or disappeared behind the Iron Curtain—and were conveniently unable to testify in the Hiss trial.

George begins to realize the immensity of what is at stake: deceptive entanglements that will indeed alter the accepted history of the Cold War—and how he understands his own unhappy Woodstock childhood, growing up in the shadow of a rumored suicide and the infidelities of an alcoholic father, a roadie with The Band.

In Gods of Deception, acclaimed novelist David Adams Cleveland has created a multiverse all its own: a thrilling tale of espionage, a family saga, a stirring love story, and a meditation on time and memory, astrophysics and art, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey into the troubled human heart as well as the past—a past that is ever present, where the gods of deception await our distant call.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Politics

928 pages, Hardcover

First published May 17, 2022

About the author

Writing to me is more than just telling great stories, it is a way of probing for the things that really matter to us as human beings. My characters, like all of us, are struggling to discover some kind of truth, to answer a fundamental question about themselves as they confront life’s dilemmas. Having been involved in the art world most of my life as an historian, connoisseur, and collector, I find that the visual arts inform my writing, both in terms of description, the physical setting(always a character in its own right), and the struggle artists endure to explore the world from every angle. Great art, like great literature, must never give up all its secrets: there must always be enough mystery and ambiguity to keep the thing fresh and alive. Whistler and Joseph Conrad understood this well, as do such modern greats as Richard Ford, Alice Munro, John Updike, and James Salter: the most profound art is all about conveying feeling and the sense of spiritual quest—the fluttering glimpse of the unseen at life’s ecstatic heart. As Proust knew: we exist in thrall to the spell of memory infused with the metamorphic glories of the visual world.

Reviews

[Maggie Rotter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's get the elephant in the room out of this way. This is a long book! Which is why it took me a long time to even start. It has all the ingredients that make reading a treat for me but the times have changed my reading habits and I have DNFed as many books as I've completed. But a return to work and a second look at the reviews made it irresistible. I decided to read it as if it were a serialized Dickensian tome and was so glad I did. Others have outlined the plot. I want to suggest that, depending on your familiarity with the time and setting, the historical and political issues, a look at Wikipedia would be valuable - see Cambridge Five.

[Paul]

Cleveland has written a wide ranging tale in his usual style. It's a good story. At times there's tension, at times the author is a bit verbose. But the writing is always excellent. This is probably best for serious readers.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

[R J Mckay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Goodreads in exchange for a review.

When George Altmann is recruited to assist his grandfather, Judge Edward Dimock, to review his memoirs, one thing is certain: there is more to his grandfather’s defense of Alger Hiss than was ever let on. Decades ago, Dimock was a last-minute selection to work on the Hiss defense. But just what did Dimock know about the circumstances surrounding Hiss’s spying for Russia? What did he cover-up? As George reads his grandfather’s accounts of that fateful time, clues pop up that he simply can’t ignore. He finds himself compelled to get to the truth of the events that left men dead, a family in ruin, and maybe one of America’s most notorious spy’s off with only a slap on the wrist as punishment.

I will admit to being overwhelmed when I first picked up this book (and why not, it’s over 900 pages). But when I started to read it, the prose captured me. Cleveland is like an artist, but instead of using paint and a brush he uses words to create a picture. He was able to bring forth a story so believable and detailed, that it felt real. He paced the story, allowing it to fall together, piece by piece, to build to the ultimate crescendo.

[Gina T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Greenleaf for providing this novel through a Goodreads Giveaway.

This is a DNF at page 231. The novel is a wordy, slow-moving story about spies and a troubled, mostly unlikeable family. I don't care enough about the characters or story to finish it. The author is a good writer and I would read his shorter works.

[Michael Hassel Shearer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gods of Deception by David Adams Cleveland I found this a very difficult book to rate. There is much I thoroughly enjoyed and other parts that just dragged on and on and on. Btw I just looked online and it is a real doorstopper at 928 pages. The novel is a historical fictional account of the before, during and afterwards of the Alger Hiss case of the early 1950’s. This case divided many Americans. On the Left, there were those who could not believe a handsome, Harvard educated lawyer, with an elegant wife could possibly have been a spy. The case took place during the Red Fear sweeping America with the rise of the Soviet Union, the loss of China and the beginnings of the HUAC McCarthy Hearings. The non-fiction part of the book is well told. I did think the fictional introduction of another Harvard educated lawyer- Judge Edward Demock, one year younger than Hiss who represents him in his perjury trial is a very good idea. Dimock too has a highly educated wife, a talented pianist and lover of the arts in general. They live in a house near Woodstock NY with its glorious Italian Renaissance ceiling wooden. The house with its ceiling but perhaps more importantly its bedrooms frozen in time for each of the family children now 50 years later serves to bring up their tormented memories of life growing up with these two elitist parents. Now in 2002, one year after 9/11, Dimock aged 95 his memoirs in draft form, enlists his grandson, George Altmann, a brilliant Princeton astrophysicist to edit and review the memoir. So far, so good. But then Mr. Cleveland needs to go back in time to add Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. whom he clerked for just out of Harvard to add in my opinion far over the top justification for his good and bad decision making in the Hiss defense and the raising of his children. At the same time, his own children and grandchildren take up many pages due to their dislike of their father/grandfather in his dominance of their lives. They do seem to have love for their dead mother- Annie even though she seems to only have loved them if they learned to play the piano at a concert level. The last character to add to this mix is Wendy, a world class mountain climbing person with an MFA from Yale in Art. She is the love interest and the one with spirit to pull George out of his arrested childhood. Fortunately, she has dead parents to at least eliminate pushing the page total over 1000. Sometimes ,it does get difficult to remember which of the Dimock’s are his children and which are grandchildren and who doesn’t know who their father was, who slept with what rock stars and how after twenty years away are willing to come back to the Dimock House for one last chance to torment their father/ grandfather. While all this is going on the puzzle of Hiss is being pieced together. I found the basic historical telling of the Whittaker Chamber, Alger Hiss saga very interesting. The addition of the Judge and his astrophysicist grandson and sinewy but creative love interest an interesting way to move the story along. But the back sad stories of the rest of the family was just to0 much. Take that part out and at 400 pages a very good read.

[Allen Peacock · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a spellbinding follow-up to his epic and enduring novel, Time’s Betrayal, author David Adams Cleveland employs the lens of the infamous Hiss-Chambers trial of 1950 to create a vast secret history of the American Century. Cold War espionage, serial political assassination, and a full chest of family secrets are braided together across multiple generations in a saga that is at once torn from the “red scare” headlines of the McCarthy era and spun from the febrile imagination of one of our most gifted storytellers. Riveting. Symphonic in its sweep. Unforgettable.

[Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this novel because of my interest in the Alger Hiss case, and it did not disappoint. It is a well-written and engrossing multigenerational family saga, with the lives of the fictional family members intersecting with that of Alger Hiss at various points. The protagonist unlocks mysteries about his own family and the spying of Hiss and his ring for the Russians simultaneously. The author captures the political atmosphere of the US at various points: flirtation with communism in the 1930s, McCarthyite backlash of the 50s, liberal recoil against anti-communism in the 60s. He imagines the likely mindset of Hiss and many other historical characters. I enjoyed this book. Yes, it is long, but worth it.

[PAMELA KYNKOR · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read 2 of this authors previous books. He’s an amazing writer. Absolutely loved this book.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2002, a former PHD candidate turned art gallery owner, is surprised by a request of his maternal grandfather to get his memoirs in shape for publication. His grandfather, George Dimock, was a well thought of Federal Circuit Judge, but is most famous or infamous for being one of Alger Hiss' many attorneys at his second trial. That was the trial at which Hiss was convicted of perjury, lying about being a Soviet spy. (The statute of limitations had passed for espionage.) His liberal friends consider him a failure as they believed that it was an unrebuttable assumption that Hiss was an innocent man, persecuted by the fascists J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon for the crime of being part of F.D.R.'s New Deal. His conservative friends considered him a traitor for defending a traitor.

As the grandson, George Altman, who was named after both of his grandfathers, delves into his task, he finds that Hiss case was more complicated than he suspected. Many persons associated with it died in mysterious ways (one man fell out of an open window on the 16th floor while putting on his galoshes) and the effect it had on the Dimock family was devasting. His Uncle Teddy, enlisted and died in the Korean War over his father's defense of a Communist. His Aunt Anne slandered and criticized her father for decades after the case. And only reluctantly admitted that Hiss "might" have been a spy after documents from the former Soviet Union came to light in 1990's. Then he learns that his paternal grandfather was involved in the Hiss case too.

A compelling story that would have been well served by editing it down by a third. There is a romance between the grandson and a fantastic woman by the name of Wendy, who is an accomplished artist and a mountain climbing instructor (reminded me of a Robert Heinlein heorine). The romance was nice but as another reviewer mentioned the sex scenes were "cringe worthy."

A couple of other quibbles. There were a lot of real historical persons who are interacted with fictional ones in this novel. That was a bit confusing. Cleveland is wrong about a couple of points of law. A defense attorney is not obligated to turn over evidence detrimental to his client to the prosecution and indeed a defense attorney can be call to testify against his client as long as the evidence being sought is not part of their professional relationship.

Still, I recommend this work.

[Val Lynam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm on page 188 of this book and I'm still waiting for it to take off. I understand the timespan is extensive, the societies in which the narratives are taking place are poles apart and the author wants us to understand the protagonists inside-out.

However it is dragging on and the few glimpses of excitement and exquisite narrative are too far and few between for my liking. I wish he'd just get on with it and stop the repeated ramblings of the same thoughts and facts over and over.

Those of you who have read it in it's entirety, is it worth persisting with?

[Grace Hoffmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not recommend this book. I pretty much made it through all 900 pages, with some skimming. I would say the only interesting part was actual history about Alger Hiss. Otherwise the dialog was ridiculous(ly bad) and the sex scenes were total cringe. HOW did this book get published?? Endlessly long. Original premise ok, but it could have been a good 300 page book instead of this ridiculous, grandiose, repetitive monstrosity.