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Waiting for Sunrise

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 1,919 ratings · 406 reviews

Vienna. 1913. It is a fine day in August when Lysander Rief, a young English actor, walks through the city to his first appointment with the eminent psychiatrist, Dr. Bensimon. Sitting in the waiting room he is anxiously pondering the nature of his problem when an extraordinary woman enters. She is clearly in distress, but Lysander is immediately drawn to her strange, haze...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published April 17th 2012 by Harper

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Mar 23, 2013 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like Boyd's other recent and highly successful novels, Waiting For Sunrise is the story of a relatively ordinary individual caught up in extraordinary events. Opening in Vienna in nineteen fifteen, it begins with Lysander Rief, a not overly-successful English actor, sitting in the consulting room of Dr Bensimon, a psycho-analyst, to whom he has come for help with sexual problems that originate in a childhood burdened with confusion and deception.

A chance acquaintance with Hetty, a young Englishw...more Like Boyd's other recent and highly successful novels, Waiting For Sunrise is the story of a relatively ordinary individual caught up in extraordinary events. Opening in Vienna in nineteen fifteen, it begins with Lysander Rief, a not overly-successful English actor, sitting in the consulting room of Dr Bensimon, a psycho-analyst, to whom he has come for help with sexual problems that originate in a childhood burdened with confusion and deception.

A chance acquaintance with Hetty, a young Englishwoman, in the psycho-analyst's waiting room, precipitates a passionate affair that will profoundly alter the course of Lysander's life. In his childhood, as he confesses to Dr Bensimon, he was the cause of an innocent young man losing his livelihood and being falsely accused of sexually molesting him. So there's a certain justice when some months later he himself is falsely accused of sexual assault by Hetty, and is obliged to flee Vienna in disguise.

His escape is facilitated by Monroe, a military attaché at the British embassy. Later, when Boyd has returned to London and believes he has put the incident behind him, Monroe resurfaces, requiring a service from Boyd in repayment of his debt. The First World War is now in full swing and someone is revealing details of the British Army's plans to the enemy. Monroe wants Lysander to unmask a traitor in the highest echelons of the British Army

Like all good spy stories Waiting For Sunrise presents the reader with a a hall of mirrors. The psycho-analyst's strategy for curing Lysander is the construction of an imaginary parallel world in which he must learn to believe in a different past. A similar process is now required by Lysander's new career in espionage with its assumed identities and false trails. In addition, there's also a complex web of literary allusions that adds yet another teasing layer of meaning and commentary.

It's an highly entertaining story with some wonderful description, both of character and setting. But, for me, it's a little bit too much of a game. It's extremely well-researched and well-constructed but it didn't move me in any way, or leave me feeling that I've witnessed anything other than a formidable display of craftsmanship. From many other authors that would be enough. I just think that Boyd is capable of a great deal more.
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Sep 12, 2012 ·Karen· rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brits, f2f-book-group-reads

Intriguing. Boyd sets up the Bergsonian idea of the Fonction Fabulatrice so very thoroughly, our protagonist is an actor and a confirmed liar, so how much are we to trust his version of events? I have no idea. It all sounds plausible, coherent, but there are some rather odd elements. I think a re-read might be in order.

Done! I get it now. I was reading it all the wrong way, overthinking it. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and a thriller is just a thriller, and not a po-mo deconstruction of the...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is no accident that William Boyd names his key character “Lysander” – the name of the iconic lover of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the victim of misapplied magic.

Lysander Rief is a British actor of some renown on the world stage of life, as the rumblings of World War I become more and more pronounced. We meet him in Vienna where he is “taking the talking cure” with a disciple of Sigmund Freud’s as a result of a personal problem. While in his psychotherapist’s antechamber, he m...more It is no accident that William Boyd names his key character “Lysander” – the name of the iconic lover of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the victim of misapplied magic.

Lysander Rief is a British actor of some renown on the world stage of life, as the rumblings of World War I become more and more pronounced. We meet him in Vienna where he is “taking the talking cure” with a disciple of Sigmund Freud’s as a result of a personal problem. While in his psychotherapist’s antechamber, he meets up with two others who will ultimately have a profound effect on his life. He falls under a magical love spell of sorts with the woman, Hettie (think: Hermia from the Shakespeare play). And, as Shakespeare’s own Lysander famously said, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

As in the play, Lysander will be forced to literally and figuratively enter a forest, a place of confusion, passion, heartache. And he will ultimately realize that “We’re all acting, aren’t we? Almost all the time—each and every one of us.”

All of this is ensconced within a gripping espionage story as Rief, back in London during war time, is thrust into the world of underground intelligence, where his superiors are eager to use him to flesh out a traitor who is undermining the war efforts. Rief will be forced to rely on his improvisational acting skills to reveal that traitor’s identity. He will not know whom to trust and who will betray him. Gradually, he begins to inhabit a world “where it’s hard to make things out clearly, hard to tell exactly what is what and who is whom.”

If all this sounds intriguing – it is. I am not typically a fan of the espionage story, but this one had me compulsively turning pages. The characterizations are well fleshed-out, the sense of place is finely-drawn, and the depiction of what is real and what can be trusted is palpable. From the antechambers of Vienna to the battlegrounds of London to the elusive streets of Geneva, this book captured my attention and kept me reading on as more and more is revealed. It is the first book I’ve read by William Boyd and it will not be the last.

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May 11, 2013 Tony Mac rated it 2 of 5 stars

Oh dear, all a bit disappointing in the end. One of those books which for most of its length threatens to be clever and brilliant but ultimately fails to deliver the goods. It's a decent enough read while it goes on, with well observed characters and a clear sense of place and time, but its one of those high wire act thrillers that needs to deliver on the ingenuousness it constantly implies if it is going to pull it off, and it simply fails to do it.

I don't mind a bit of ambiguity and I get all...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Miles rated it 3 of 5 stars

The first book that I've read by Boyd. He's a gifted writer, with some lovely turns of phrase and imagery, and intriguing characters. This was a pretty quick read, with a fast moving plot (except for a letdown in the middle of the book). I enjoyed the sense of early 1900's Vienna during the early years of Freud and psychoanalysis and bohemian actors with a new found sense of provocation and sexual liberty, the drama surrounding the start of World War I, and the mysteries that needed to be unrave...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Waiting for Sunrise" is a literate, stylish thriller set at the time of World War I, and featuring as its hero a dashing young actor and reluctant spy named Lysander Rief. Arriving in Vienna the summer before the war to consult with a psychoanalyst about a mysterious sexual problem, Rief is ensnared by an enigmatic and highly eccentric beauty who, after the two have pursued a torrid affair, accuses him of raping her; he only escapes trial (and worse) when diplomats at the British embassy help t...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Sanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hey, I read a "real" novel--by a man who has won lots of awards and gets rave reviews from respectable sources. Admittedly because it looked like a lot of fun, with some of my favorite ingredients: spies, artistis, psychoanalysis, Vienna, early 20th century. Yes, it was very well written, researched, interestingly ambiguous. But as a reader of usually more "trashy" books, the "juiciness" seemed drained to make it more "literary." Besides that, I did not understand the main character Lysander. He...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Helena Halme rated it 5 of 5 stars

The only negative about this new William Boyd book is that it takes no time at all to read and then you have another two years or so to wait for another one.

Waiting for Sunrise, which took me about a week to consume, is vintage Boyd and doesn't disappoint. It's a thrilling spy thriller with a human story, which starts in Vienna before the outbreak of the First World War in late 1913, and ends in London about two years later.

The main protagonist is a handsome actor, Lysander Rief, who decides to...more The only negative about this new William Boyd book is that it takes no time at all to read and then you have another two years or so to wait for another one.

Waiting for Sunrise, which took me about a week to consume, is vintage Boyd and doesn't disappoint. It's a thrilling spy thriller with a human story, which starts in Vienna before the outbreak of the First World War in late 1913, and ends in London about two years later.

The main protagonist is a handsome actor, Lysander Rief, who decides to go to Vienna to seek a cure for a complaint which is preventing him from marrying his actress fiance, Blanche. But as the weeks turn into months, the young Englishman gets entangled in much more than The River of Sex, which one of his newly found friends at the guest house tells him runs below the surface of the respectable Viennese society; or parallelism, the cure his doctor has prescribed to Lysander.

Having escaped back to London, in 1914 as war breaks out Lysander, in a moment of madness, enlists and briefly becomes a private in the army. He serves at an interment camp near Swansea, where the army makes use of his German language skills. But he's soon transferred to another department for some more interesting duties, a dangerous commission he is unable to refuse.

With his new duties, Lysander Rief's life becomes increasingly unpredictable and dangerous. He feels like a puppet controlled by strings, held by unknown people. He's sent to Geneva on a mission, and barely surviving it, begins to mistrust everyone around him.

As the story weaves between Vienna, Geneva and London, the reader, just as Lysander, is unsure who's speaking the truth and who's lying. Who is sincere and who is acting. 'We all act all the time', Blanche says at one point.

In spite of its impeccable credentials as a fast moving, well plotted spy thriller, Boyd's latest novel is also a study into the human condition. (He just can't help himself) At the very beginning of the book Lysander consults a psychiatrist; as a result throughout the book he reflects on his own emotions through a diary he has titled, 'Autobiographical Investigations'. This is a very fine tool for a writer - as well as telling the story from a third person point of view, Boyd is also able to let his reader into the innermost thoughts of the protagonist, without it seeming forced. The diary also makes the frequent sex scenes more realistic than a third person narrative would have done. Brilliant.

Another of William Boyd's many talents as a writer lies in his ability to immerse the reader into the world he has created so completely, that the world outside - the real world the readers resides in - doesn't seem to matter. He takes you into a turn-of-the-century cesspit of espionage. He places his protagonist in unreal, wonderful situations with - say - a femme fatale, or a passionate madwoman. He eggs the reader on, not letting you rest until the story is finished.

Boyd's characters in Waiting for Sunrise are so skilfully drawn, that you feel as if you've lost a couple of friends, few enemies and several unpleasant acquaintances when the book comes to an end.

Yes, I'm in mourning for the world in Waiting for Sunrise. Let's hope Boyd is working hard on a new story...(less)

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Dec 01, 2012 Cmorice rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

En cette fin d?été 1913, le jeune comédien anglais Lysander Rief est r Vienne pour tenter de résoudre ? grâce r cette nouvelle science des âmes qu?est la psychanalyse ? un problcme d?ordre intime. Dans le cabinet de son médecin, il croise une jeune femme hystérique d?une étrange beauté qui lui prouvera trcs vite qu?il est guéri, avant de l?entraîner dans une histoire invraisemblable dont il ne sortira qu?en fuyant le pays grâce r deux diplomates britanniques, et ce au prix d?un marché peu banal....more

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Nov 28, 2012 Book Reader rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, walks through the city to his first appointment with the eminent psychiatrist Dr Bensimon. Sitting in the waiting room he is anxiously pondering the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis when a young woman enters. She is clearly in distress, but Lysander is immediately drawn to her intense beauty. Back in London, 1914. War is imminent, and events in Vienna have caught up with Lysander in the most damaging way. Unable to live an ordinary...more Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, walks through the city to his first appointment with the eminent psychiatrist Dr Bensimon. Sitting in the waiting room he is anxiously pondering the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis when a young woman enters. She is clearly in distress, but Lysander is immediately drawn to her intense beauty. Back in London, 1914. War is imminent, and events in Vienna have caught up with Lysander in the most damaging way. Unable to live an ordinary life, he is plunged into the dangerous theatre of wartime intelligence – where lines of truth and deception blur with every waking day. Lysander must now discover the key to a secret code which is threatening Britain’s safety, and use all his skills to keep the murky world of suspicion and betrayal from invading every corner of his life. Moving from Vienna to London’s West End, from the battlefields of France to hotel rooms in Geneva, Waiting for Sunrise is a plot-twisting thriller and a literary tour de force.

Not my words. I first read a short story collection by William Boyd. A friend lent it to me on holiday and all I could tell you now is that it featured a lot of sex. I really enjoyed Any Human Heart and Restless very much. Stories that have stuck with me and which struck a chord somewhere. I also read Ordinary Thunderstorms a while ago but couldn’t tell you anything about it now. A nothing of a book.

And that is kind of how I feel about Waiting for Sunrise. I know I won’t remember much about it in a few weeks’ time. Yes, it sets a nice scene but that’s about it. It’s not a bad book, but nor is it a good one. Africa, Vienna and spy type activity seem to be Boyd’s main interests, but few times does he mange to get things exactly right.

What is it this story meant to be? Is it a spy novel? If it is, it needs an editor to chop about a third of it and speed things up. The Vienna section is ponderous and slow. You could get to the point and introduce the necessary elements in much quicker time than Boyd does, introducing us to characters and situations that don’t need to be here. If it’s a ‘literary tour de force’ you could remove a load of the second half of the novel and just set the thing in a Vienna on the brink of war. Referencing Freud (an unnecessary meeting), obscure operas and the streets Rief walks without needing a spy by numbers story

If we wish to follow the blurbs focus, it doesn’t work. Things he could touch on, he lingers over. Things he could linger over, he touches upon. Many characters come and go, most of them not needed. The main ‘romance’ really adds nothing. The spy element is muddled and too much is crammed in for my liking. Was he under pressure to deliver a novel to the publishers?

It isn’t a bad story. The places and period are vivid and well imagined. But this is a tale that one cannot really warm to. One that feels unfinished and rushed.

I can’t say I liked it. Nor can I say I hated it. Again, like Ordinary Thunderstorms it’s a story I’m sure I’ll forget the details of quite quickly. Still, it passed the time well enough.(less)

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Nov 20, 2012 Jez Fielder rated it 4 of 5 stars

For a man who once listed 'idleness' as his guiltiest pleasure, the novelist, screenwriter, journalist and viticulturalist William Boyd doesn't half get stuff done.

Fresh from a Bafta-winning adaptation of his 2002 novel Any Human Heart, and midway through adapting his 2006 novel Restless for the BBC, the Boyd factory fabricates another tale, which will, no doubt in time, add to his growing list of adaptations for the screen.

His latest work, Waiting For Sunrise, is, like many of Boyd's novels,...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Samantha rated it 4 of 5 stars

A World War I spy novel with a psychological twist, "Waiting for Sunrise" was fun to read. We meet half-Austrian London actor Lysander Rief as he is seeking a cure in Vienna for a problem "of a sexual nature." This is an understatement, as all his problems ultimately stem from his sexual desire, and the women he is drawn to. He meets a beautiful and unstable fellow patient and begins an affair, only to abruptly and confusingly accuse him of rape and cause him to flee the country with the aid of...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Waiting for Sunrise is a discursive (meaning: wandering) psychological novel that evolves into a mystery thriller set in the World War I era.

Our hero, Lysander Rief, a young Englishman, has traveled to Vienna for a cure: he can attain an erection and have sex but not experience an orgasm.

From start to finish, whether in the third person or through Lysander’s notebooks in the first person, the prose is vivid and engaging. Of course there’s a psychoanalyst involved, but he quickly gives way to Lys...more

Waiting for Sunrise is a discursive (meaning: wandering) psychological novel that evolves into a mystery thriller set in the World War I era.

Our hero, Lysander Rief, a young Englishman, has traveled to Vienna for a cure: he can attain an erection and have sex but not experience an orgasm.

From start to finish, whether in the third person or through Lysander’s notebooks in the first person, the prose is vivid and engaging. Of course there’s a psychoanalyst involved, but he quickly gives way to Lysander’s interest in another patient (met in the waiting room) who is better at providing orgasms than the psychoanalyst.

The novel then succumbs to one of a series of unexpected breaks or leaps in the action. These include Lysander suddenly being accused of raping the other patient (not true); Lysander effecting a nifty escape from captivity in Vienna (not plausible); Lysander being drawn into an effort to identify a traitor in Britain’s WWI war machine (ah...we now see that Lysander the man of feelings and private issues isn’t quite the object of the novel...not very plausibly); Lysander being shot several times point blank and surviving; Lysander discovering that somehow his mother has been drawn into the traitor’s plot; Lysander solving the mystery; Lysander being saved in the nick of time by his uncle’s marksmanship; and Lysander settling on a marriage to the woman he once was engaged to and now finds, all things considered, a safer domestic bet than some of his other flings.

So...it’s fun to read; it exhibits something of what we have come to call “dry wit;” it sacrifices depth of character exploration to quick moving events and unusual figures who slip quickly before our eyes...and sure, I’d recommend it. Boyd is good at creating scenes in specific locations; he is unsteady but forgivable in his wait-a-minute-there switchbacks in plotting; and Lysander somehow becomes tougher and more mature and practical without Boyd really demonstrating why he ought to have grown as much as he seems to have by novel’s end.

I’d give this novel a B. A publisher would probably give it an A-. It’s sort of TV on the page, but good TV on the page.
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Sep 01, 2012 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Typical William Boyd. Born of an Englisg father and Austrian mother a small lie on his part loses two of his father's servants their jobs. He seems to put his 1960's/1970's sexual freedom into past times when they seem less authentic. After visiting an early psychiatrist in Vienna (1913) to overcome impotence, diagnosed as being guilt from the small lie, he has a brief fling with one of the other patients (cured of his problem now), gets accused of rape (as she's married and becomes pregnant) an...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Mac rated it 3 of 5 stars

Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, the actor and sometimes narrator, is drawn into an ever more complicated web of intrigue. As the war commences, his story moves from Vienna to London to Geneva and back to London. I followed his adventures with interest and enthusiasm (Boyd does know how to tell a story), and I enjoyed the book with its blend of suspense, adventure, romance, and history.

But a lot about the book bothered me as well. Take the romances, which seem haphazard. Blanche, his fiancé, is so s...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Elizabeth K. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-new-reads

I like William Boyd and this was enjoyable, although not outstanding. It's what you expect, WWI setting, London, Vienna, intrigue, love and passion. I think there's actually a decent conspiracy drama in here -- I'm not entirely sure because at some point I couldn't follow it anymore. I got a little lost at which things were supposed to be coincidences that later turn out to be clues in the conspiracy, and which things were supposed to be plain old coincidences. I think there's a little snicker t...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Jack Erickson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Boyd starts out with a beguiling plot. Lysander Rief, a young British actor travels to Vienna to consult a famous psychiatrist (no, not one) to help with a little problem of not being able to perform in bed with Blanche, his talented actress fiancé. In the waiting room, Rief encounters a beautiful Austrian woman, Hettie, who is also a patient of the psychiatrist.
Hettie happens to be married, but that doesn't stop them from having a torrid affair. Rief is quickly and convincingly cured of his 'b...more Boyd starts out with a beguiling plot. Lysander Rief, a young British actor travels to Vienna to consult a famous psychiatrist (no, not one) to help with a little problem of not being able to perform in bed with Blanche, his talented actress fiancé. In the waiting room, Rief encounters a beautiful Austrian woman, Hettie, who is also a patient of the psychiatrist.
Hettie happens to be married, but that doesn't stop them from having a torrid affair. Rief is quickly and convincingly cured of his 'bedroom performance' anxiety.
At about this point, Boyd starts throwing distractions -- or complications -- into the plot that stretch the imagination. There are many ahead.
Rief is charged with rape and to escape from a trial and prison, shady British officials show up with a plan to rescue him. A bit of a stretch again in how Boyd pulls this off.
When World War I begins in August 1914, Rief ends up in a menial military job in Wales until the shady British agents come calling for a payback on rescuing him. Someone in the War Office is leaking sensitive war information about troop shipments, deployments, and logistic. Rief ends up in Geneva where he identifies the recipient of the sensitive information and kills the agent.
But his payback is incomplete; the British secret agents want him to go undercover to identify the British spies in the war administration department. Rief's sleuthing is ingenious, successful, and well told.
But Boyd's plot is riddled with distractions. When Rief returns to London, he receives a letter from Hettie informing him he is the father of a son born after he escaped. Implausibly, Hettie reenters his life, this time in London, and tantalizes him with tales of their son who she left with her husband in Austria.
Despite the plot distractions, Boyd has wonderful techniques of plotting and setting scenes.
Particularly enjoyable was following Rief around pre-war Vienna where he encounters Sigmund Freud and possibly Adolf Hitler trying to make it as an art student.
A scene of Rief crawling through barbed wire and under machine gun fire at night in no man's land in wartime France is harrowing.
And of all things, Boyd does a masterful job detailing the workings of the British war time office. It was fascinating to read how the war was planned and administered.
Not many could handle bureaucracy as well as Boyd.
If you want to read more compelling story telling by Boyd, pick up "Any Human Heart," "Restless," or any of his earlier African books.
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Jul 31, 2012 Timothy Hallinan rated it 3 of 5 stars

William Boyd has been one of my favorite contemporary writers since I read Brazzaville Beach ten or twelve years ago. since then, I've read practically everything he's written, usually with enormous enjoyment. Thus, I was very surprised to find myself distinctly lukewarm about this book.

It's essentially an espionage novel, and like all good espionage novels, the issue of identity is at its core. The hero (in the absence of anyone more agreeable) is an actor named Lysander Rief, who in the book's...more William Boyd has been one of my favorite contemporary writers since I read Brazzaville Beach ten or twelve years ago. since then, I've read practically everything he's written, usually with enormous enjoyment. Thus, I was very surprised to find myself distinctly lukewarm about this book.

It's essentially an espionage novel, and like all good espionage novels, the issue of identity is at its core. The hero (in the absence of anyone more agreeable) is an actor named Lysander Rief, who in the book's opening movement visits Vienna in part for some (then-new) psychotherapy and falls in love and in lust with a young English woman who lives with an angry and apparently dangerous painter. One thing leads to another, and she charges him with rape, even though the sex was enthusiastically consensual. Rief flees Vienna with the help of two young men in the British consulate.

Year later, at the outbreak of World War I those same men approach Rief to work with them as a spy, with the goal of catching a traitor who is endangering the entire war effort. At this point (for me) the book begins to fall apart. Rief has no obvious qualifications to be a spy other than some acting experience, and yet he acquits himself brilliantly, even improvising one of the worst (and freshest) tortures I've read in years. He returns home in triumph, if wounded, and is drafted to go undercover in the war office to find the Englishman who's been leaking the secrets. He finds him almost accidentally, finds that there's a massively coincidental (and I mean MASSIVELY) connection between them that could endanger Lysander and his family. Along the way, his inamorata from Vienna shows up, and he immediately falls for her again, despite the fact that she was quite happy to lie him into a Viennese prison so her boyfriend wouldn't know she was a willing partner in the affair, and ALSO despite the fact that she has, without an apparent thought, abandoned the son she bore as a result of the affair.

It pains me not to like this book, but it seems to me to be a paradigm of plot-driven writing, in which the characters do whatever is dictated by the story because--well, because the story demands it. I hate that this is a William Boyd book. I really wanted to love it.(less)

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Jul 23, 2012 Andrea Mullarkey rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is 1912 and Lysander Rief is an English actor taking a sabbatical in Vienna. He is there to get psychoanalytical help with sexual difficulties which are standing in the way of him marrying his fiance, the actress Blanche Blondel. But his life is changed in unexpected ways when he encounters Hettie Bull in his analyst’s waiting room. Boyd takes us through the following years in Rief’s life filled with romantic liaisons, opening nights of plays, incarcerations, daring escapes, the trenches of W...more

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May 20, 2012 Alexander McNabb rated it 3 of 5 stars

I hate to do this. I have long been an admirer of William Boyd's stuff, but this book was one I had to force myself through, often finding myself skimming. The main character, Lysander Rief, struck me as being all over the place - I often found myself drawn up to ponder why on earth would he do that or say this? I suppose part of that is because little personality shines through that isn't self-obsessed and obnoxious. A sexual predator with little love for women, Rief is half Austrian but not in...more

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May 13, 2012 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

WAITING FOR SUNRISE. (2012). William Boyd. *****.
Mr. Boyd is a consistently excellent storyteller and writer. This, his latest, is a mystery novel, an espionage novel, a romance (several) novel, and a historical novel. The protagonist, Lysander Rief, is a young man from London who has travelled to Vienna to seek treatment from a psychiatrist there for a very personal problem – one that was sexual in nature. Using techniques derived from the teachings of Dr. Freud – although Freud later disparag...more WAITING FOR SUNRISE. (2012). William Boyd. *****.
Mr. Boyd is a consistently excellent storyteller and writer. This, his latest, is a mystery novel, an espionage novel, a romance (several) novel, and a historical novel. The protagonist, Lysander Rief, is a young man from London who has travelled to Vienna to seek treatment from a psychiatrist there for a very personal problem – one that was sexual in nature. Using techniques derived from the teachings of Dr. Freud – although Freud later disparaged the techniques as unproven therapies – Lysander is cured. But maybe the cure wasn’t all caused by his doctor. He met a strange woman, Hettie Bull, who was able to free him from his sex problem independently of his doctor. He fell madly in love with Hettie, but cannot really understand her. She circulated in the art world of Vienna, and was the model for the cover for the libretto of a new opera and was an accomplished sculptor in her own right. After a period of several months of intense sexual relations with Hettie, the police appear at the door of his lodging house and place him under arrest. When asked what the charge was, they told him that he had been accused of rape by a Miss Bull. After being placed in jail, he learns that Hettie came up with the rape charge because she learned that she was pregnant with his charge. The use of ‘rape’ was a way out for her to avoid a terrible retribution from her current husband. Learning this, Lysander decides that the only way to solve the problem without exposing Hettie as a liar – thus avoiding a long prison term himself, but exposing her real situation to her husband – was to escape. He is aided in this by members of the British Embassy, who offer to pay his bond with the stipulation that he be held under house arrest at the embassy. Again with their surreptitios help, he manages to escape and ultimately makes his way back to London. Later, the next year, 1914, war breaks out and he enlists. It is then that he is approached by the embassy members that he met earlier in Vienna and offered a special assignment. The assignment is to find out where the leak is in their War Office that is providing information to the enemy. Now we get to his job as a counter-espionage agent. The bare bones of the plot are masterfully embellished by Boyd’s skill in describing both people and places, such that we ultimately feel that we know his characters very well and the places they are working in as well. This is one of those one-nighters where you stay up well past your normal bedtime to race to the end. There aren’t many books like this out there anymore. This is one of them. Highly recommended.
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May 01, 2012 Lorretta rated it 4 of 5 stars

I received this book through the GoodReads Giveaway. This is my first book that I have read by William Boyd. I will definitely be looking to read others!

The author has such a smooth, effortless writing style; it is truly as if he is painting with words.

In this book, we meet Lysander who is an actor of some acclaim. His father was a much more famous actor. Lysander is in Vienna to meet with a doctor who is hopefully going to help him with a sexual matter. During one of his sessions, we learn that...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Jakey Gee rated it 2 of 5 stars

All a bit bloodless.

With such a giant glut of historical fiction out there at the moment, my first thought was ‘here we go again’ (Pat Barker’s done it, Sebastian Faulks has done it, Alan Hollinghurst’s just done it).

The main issue though was that I just didn’t believe in the main character, Lysander. He felt shallow and rushed. His ‘war’ was barely a daytrip, (almost as if Boyd looks over the parapet and decides it’s best to avoid throwing himself into that quagmire). He then finds himself ap...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: english, war, spy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Lysander Rief is an English actor, in Vienna looking for a cure for his particular sexual problem, the inability to consummate a relationship, the result of being discovered by his mother after masturbating as a child. The cure is a success, as is proved by Lysander's affair with Hettie Bull, an English sculptor who is living with another artist. When she discovers that she is pregnant with Lysander's child, she accuses him of rape to escape the blame from her artist lover. Lysander is forced to...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars

William Boyd's latest novel, Waiting for Sunrise, is unlike anything I've read in a long while.

The story begins in 1913 when a 28 year-old English actor by the name of Lysander Reif has taken all of his money and headed to Vienna. It seems the handsome, educated man has a bit of a sexual dysfunction issue. In Vienna, Dr. Bensimon, a highly regarded psychoanalyst, considered an expert in the field, and a former student of Freud, is the man Reif is confident can help him overcome his sexual perfor...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crimepieces

Waiting for Sunrise is the story of Lysander Rief, an actor and son of a famous British stage legend and an Austrian mother. Engaged to be married, he travels to 1913 Vienna to seek help for an embarrassing sexual problem and is treated by psychologist Dr Bensimon. On his visit to the clinic he encounters the beautiful cocaine addicted Hettie Bull and embarks on a passionate affair. Convinced he is cured of his sexual dysfunction, Hettie then accuses him of rape and with the help of the British...more Waiting for Sunrise is the story of Lysander Rief, an actor and son of a famous British stage legend and an Austrian mother. Engaged to be married, he travels to 1913 Vienna to seek help for an embarrassing sexual problem and is treated by psychologist Dr Bensimon. On his visit to the clinic he encounters the beautiful cocaine addicted Hettie Bull and embarks on a passionate affair. Convinced he is cured of his sexual dysfunction, Hettie then accuses him of rape and with the help of the British Embassy in Vienna he escapes to England.

As war breaks out, his experiences leave him open to blackmail and manipulation and he is recruited by the original people who helped him flee his accusers to find a traitor in the high echelons on the British War Office given the codename Andromeda.

Boyd is an excellent writer who uses differences in tone and narrative voice to separate passages of his book. It gives the book a strange distracted air, which works well given the subject matter dealing with the secrets of espionage and the mental travels of psychoanalysis. Boyd is also a writer who is able to take the reader into the heart of the world he creates. 1913 Vienna, 1914 London, 1915 Geneva, the period comes alive as the Austro-Hungarian empire disintegrates and a new world emerges.

As a spy novel I found it less satisfactory. Like Restless there is a hunt for a traitor but I cared less about the identity of mole in this book. As perhaps befitting a novel with psychoanalysis as its theme, Lysander’s mother plays a significant role in the book but I found it difficult to untangle her involvement in the espionage. There are also some plot lines left unresolved, including the fate of Lysander’s son with Hettie Bull and the true causes of his original sexual problem.

It was, as I would expect from William Boyd, a good quality book but it read better as a historical thriller than a period spy novel. For that I would have to go back to Alan Furst and I have second book, Dark Star, waiting on my shelves to read.(less)

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Feb 18, 2012 Adrian White rated it 3 of 5 stars

In my younger and more vulnerable years, William Boyd gave me some advice I've been I've been turning over in my mind ever since . . .

Well, actually, what happened was that I wrote to him after having read An Ice-Cream War and told him how much I enjoyed his writing and that it reminded me of E.M. Forster. I also asked if he would agree to read some of my own work. He did agree - which was particularly nice of him - and he even replied with a few kind words of encouragement. He told me to 'keep...more In my younger and more vulnerable years, William Boyd gave me some advice I've been I've been turning over in my mind ever since . . .

Well, actually, what happened was that I wrote to him after having read An Ice-Cream War and told him how much I enjoyed his writing and that it reminded me of E.M. Forster. I also asked if he would agree to read some of my own work. He did agree - which was particularly nice of him - and he even replied with a few kind words of encouragement. He told me to 'keep writing'. In my youthful naivety and enthusiasm, I thought at first he meant for us to keep in touch but then I grew up a little and realised that he was telling me I should keep trying to be a writer.

So you can probably understand how I've always felt well-disposed towards William Boyd, considering him to be both a great writer and a fine human being. He was listed amongst the first Granta Best of Young British Novelists in 1983, along with the likes of Ian McEwan, Graham Swift, Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie etc. - all of whom I've followed with interest over the years, given the impression they made on me as a young wannabe writer. They all represented something to aspire to but for some reason William Boyd seemed to not quite belong to the same literary club - as though he already knew his own unique path and was determined to follow it come what may.

William Boyd is first and foremost a storyteller, a teller of stories. He writes in clear sentences, builds his characters into substantial entities, and he creates engrossing scenarios that drive a narrative. The 'only connect' failure to communicate awkwardness that characterised An Ice-Cream War - beaten to the Booker Prize in 1982 by Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark - was merely a taste of what was to come. Boyd produced a remarkable run of novels that included The New Confessions, Brazzaville Beach, The Blue Afternoon, and Any Human Heart and each of these books showed off his ability to tackle big themes over an extended time period. Often concentrating on a single protagonist, his stories never failed to reflect the bigger picture surrounding a person's life. I'd say the single most impressive achievement is that you want to know what happens next; not as a mystery to be solved but simply as a matter of interest in the outcome of the story, the resolution of a character's life. And, believe me, that is some achievement.

In 2006, Restless was published by Bloomsbury, Boyd having moved from Penguin Books, and it marked something of a new departure. Almost unashamedly populist, the book won a Costa Book Award and - more tellingly - was on the shortlist for the Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year for the British Book Awards. This resulted in the kind of commercial success writers can only dream of and - given how fondly I think of William Boyd - you'd imagine I'd be pleased for him. And I am, only . . .

In switching to an espionage plot with Restless and attempting an almost orthodox thriller with his next book Ordinary Thunderstorms, William Boyd has lost me. I'm not a snob - honest - it's just that he isn't as good at this as are many other writers. What prompted me to sit down and write this piece was my reading of his next book, Waiting for Sunrise, due to be published in early 2012. A literary agent once said to me: 'I enjoyed your book - but not that much.' I did enjoy Waiting for Sunrise - but not that much. There's more subterfuge; there's a return to the trenches of the First World War; there's a fascinating lead character with a story to tell; the problem is I just don't care. By the time I get to the denouement, it doesn't seem to matter who did what to whom and when.

Graham Greene knew how to spin a ripping yarn and William Boyd does too. Greene used to differentiate between his novels and what he called his 'entertainments' and I suspect these later William Boyd books should be categorised as entertainments. What they lack, and what I miss, is that insight into the human heart - the human factor, as Greene would have put it - that so captured my own heart all those years ago.

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Feb 01, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you’re a casualty of fate, luck matters most
Lysander Rief, the heroic espionage agent engulfed by WWI intrigue in William Boyd’s latest historical thriller is at times as much caught up in events, entangled by circumstance and besotted with a woman as his namesake in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare made things happen in the woods by sprinkling fairy dust. Boyd lets the randomness of fate take control.

Young, innocent Rief has traveled to Vienna in 1913 to consult with an es...more If you’re a casualty of fate, luck matters most
Lysander Rief, the heroic espionage agent engulfed by WWI intrigue in William Boyd’s latest historical thriller is at times as much caught up in events, entangled by circumstance and besotted with a woman as his namesake in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare made things happen in the woods by sprinkling fairy dust. Boyd lets the randomness of fate take control.

Young, innocent Rief has traveled to Vienna in 1913 to consult with an esteemed Freudian psychoanalyst about his problem that is sexual in nature. There he ends up in the same room with Hettie Bull, the first of two sirens who will profoundly alter the course of his life.

Rief, like Adam Kindred in “Ordinary Thunderstorms, even more so like Sally Gilmartin in Boyd’s WWII historical thriller “Reckless” and Logan Monstuart in “Any Human Heart,” becomes a casualty of circumstance, a victim of fate. He meets Hettie. She kites two cigarettes. His life pivots.

After he’s accused of sexual assault, Rief is forced to flee Vienna. Helped by the British war office, Rief is then enlisted to take part in two dangerous espionage missions that will pitch him into no-man’s-land on the French front and take him to Geneva and London in search of the British agent “Andromeda” who is trading secret information to the Germans. He’s caught in circumstances where it becomes continuously more difficult to tell truth from lies and where luck increasingly matters.

For all his ability to create characters that come to life, Boyd is even better at being a storyteller. I think “Waiting for Sunrise” is among his best. With more mastery than almost anyone, he also has the knack to make sex sound like fun. Here the two lovers try to emulate the sexual positions depicted in a book of erotic Japanese prints:

“Your leg is meant to be over my shoulder not under my armpit.”
“I’ll break my leg if I put it there.”
“Are you inside me? I can’t feel you.”
“I’m about three inches away. I can’t reach, it’s impossible.”

Boyd describes the WWI world as a place where “everything is unbelievably complicated. Everything.” He recreates the atmosphere, renders complex themes such as trust and betrayal precisely and tells a harrowing story in a straightforward manner that is all the more amazing because it is a complicated tale told in a way that is totally unaffected in its simplicity. A whole other way of looking at “Waiting for Sunrise” is as an absorbing spy story with some spirited sex. Either way, it’s a romp of a good read.
[4.5 stars]
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Jan 31, 2012 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Where’s the Sun?

The main character in “Waiting for Sunrise”, Lysander, is an actor. He’s in his late twenties and decides to go to Vienna in 1913 to be psychoanalyzed in order to hopefully cure a sexual malady. Throughout the book there are references to plays, mostly by Shakespeare but notably one by Strindberg called ‘Miss Julie’ however since it takes place on Midsummer’s Night it evokes Shakespeare as well. “Measure for Measure” is the most often mentioned but Hamlet and Lear come up as well...more Where’s the Sun?

The main character in “Waiting for Sunrise”, Lysander, is an actor. He’s in his late twenties and decides to go to Vienna in 1913 to be psychoanalyzed in order to hopefully cure a sexual malady. Throughout the book there are references to plays, mostly by Shakespeare but notably one by Strindberg called ‘Miss Julie’ however since it takes place on Midsummer’s Night it evokes Shakespeare as well. “Measure for Measure” is the most often mentioned but Hamlet and Lear come up as well. This leads me to wonder if Lysander was thinking of his life as a mean spirited comedy (Measure) or a tragedy, specifically a tragedy where the main character becomes lost and deluded…..or is just frolicking.

Lysander’s central tragedy takes place when he’s fourteen and he betrays some innocent people changing their lives drastically for the worse. Instead of forgiving himself and making amends by being honest he’s encouraged to re-imagine the incidents. Of course, as an actor, re-writing his life is second nature and it’s a time and place where Freudian ideas are rampant as well as the new method of acting invented by Stanislavsky, both rely on creating or using motivations whether consciously or unconsciously.

This book is part love story, part mystery and part espionage thriller. Lysander gets caught up in all of these yet what they have in common is there’s always a woman who may or may not be what she seems. For that matter Lysander seldom seems to have a center either. The men in his life are either absent, dead father, uncle away from home, step father much older, or outright controlling such as his spy handlers. Unfortunately his worst enemy might be himself. Boyd writes an excellent book that will hold your interest. I was let down by the ending though it was clear that’s exactly what the writer was trying to do…..leave things ambiguous. The “Sun” never does show itself. I’m not sure how Boyd made me love this book so much even as I felt let down. Here are a few reasons: excellent writing, an exciting era, intriguing literary references and many fascinating ideas to contemplate.

4.5/5
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Apr 13, 2013 Nigeyb rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A big disappointment

I stuck with this for 320 pages (of a total of 428) before waving the white flag, and reading the rest of the plot on Wikipedia. I read my first William Boyd novel, Brazzaville Beach, in the 1990s, having been reliably informed that it was wonderful. It wasn't. It was competent and perfectly fine but not the masterpiece I was expecting. I was inspired to read "Waiting for Sunrise" as, once again, I'd read a plethora of positive reviews, and because the story is set in an era...more

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About William Boyd

Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.

At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland an...more Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.

At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.

Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.

Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
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“She's half mad and three parts drunk.” — 3 people liked it

“Sitting in this small pub with its cool flagged floor, listening to the murmuring voices of the haymakers and the click of dominoes falling, drinking beer here in the midle of summer in England in 1914, he suddenly felt a stillness creep up on him as if he were suffering from a form of mental palsy -- as if time had stopped and the world's turning, also. It was a strange sensation -- that he would be for ever stuck in this late June day in 1914 like a fly in amber -- the past as irrelevant to him as the future. A perfect statis; the most alluring inertia.” — 2 people liked it

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