Friday, June 17, 2011

Besserwisser / Steve Anderson

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery/Humor/Thriller

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Availability
Kindle US:
YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: YES Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Portland, Oregon resident Steve Anderson has worked in a variety of areas, and most have involved working with words (marketing, advertising, journalism, and language instruction among others). Initially Anderson’s plans were to be a history professor. Working toward that goal, he spent time in Germany as a Fulbright Fellow. Both Germany and history figure into this book. Anderson has two other novels available for your favorite eReader, The Losing Role and False Refuge. For more, visit Anderson’s website.

Description:

The Berlin Wall has fallen and Gordy Ford, an American slacker, visits Germany with plans to write a book. Claiming to be a Fulbright Scholar researching Hitler to impress a girl, Gordy’s lie takes on a life of its own when he stumbles onto a shocking historical discovery.

Appraisal:

Will I sound like your grandpa if I say, “I can’t believe it’s been over twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall?”
I was afraid of that. Besserwisser takes place in 1990, at a time of political upheaval in Germany. Split into two countries, East Germany and West Germany, since World War II, this story takes place shortly after the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and immediately prior to the reunification of the two countries.

Gordy Ford is a slacker from America, temporarily living in Germany, ostensibly to write a book. What starts out as a lie to impress a girl turns into reality as Gordy claims he’s researching a revelation about Hitler that will be a bombshell. This attracts attention from several groups with their own agendas. A visiting friend, convinced that Gordy has stumbled onto something, convinces him to search for what some people apparently want left unrevealed. What makes this story unique is how Anderson integrated glimpses of the German culture and politics from this critical period along with American pop culture references into the story.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unconnected to this post. But have you seen some indie steampunk books around?

BooksAndPals said...

@Anon regarding Steampunk: They are out there although I haven't read any and it doesn't look like we've had any submitted for review. However, if you go to Smashwords and search on "steampunk" you'll find some. I have no idea how good any of them are.