The Book of Kings

by James Thackara

Thackara brilliantly forges the stories of four men and the extraordinary women they love, whose lives frame the mural of world conflagration. Charged with a rich evocation of Hemingway's Paris and rivaling the scope of Dostoevsky and Melville, The Book of Kings traces Germany's drift toward Fascist tyranny from 1932, when a quartet of students at the Sorbonne - half-Venetian David and the philosopher Johannes, both Germans; Justin, a Franco-Arab scholarship student; and Duncan, a lost generation American with a weakness for "old Europe" - share an apartment on the Rue de Fleurus. A masterwork of literary vision in which history, politics, and philosophy are dissolved in powerful narrative, The Book of Kings tracks the fate of its characters to reveal enduring questions of absolute evil and human responsibility. In fully enacted scenes ranging from the rout of France's Grande Armée, the invasion of Stalinist Russia and the siege of Moscow, Silesia’s death camps, the burning of Berlin, to further ruin in Brazil's rainforest and Algeria's anti-colonial revolt, the novelist's terrestrial architecture emerges to reveal civilization strung between its deadliest ambition for total dominion and its genius to retreat from barbarism and find redemption. The title alludes to God's prophetic warning to Samuel about the rise of man-made kings. James Thackara, as John Walsh wrote in The New Yorker, "watches Hitler's rise from a dozen different at Wagner festivals; as reported in dinner table gossip; in close-up grand hotel and High Command appearances at the Führer's side; in letters and rumors of war; in the gradually thickening atmosphere of fright and inevitability, and the ultimately potent uprising of world resistance." A work of extraordinary vision and range, The Book of Kings magnificently fuses myth and the inexorable events of history. Praise for The Book of 'Great work' - The Economist '...the book everyone should be reading' - Seattle Times 'It is a really stunning experience' - John Zogby James Thackara was born in Los Angeles in 1944 to an already abandoned Shanghai mother descended from a Zürich cotton merchant; and a Franco-Argentine global banking father. He was educated in several languages at Buenos Aires, in Provence, California, Rome, Switzerland, and New England, graduating from Harvard in 1967, where he studied under Peter Taylor, Fredric Jameson, and Joseph Frank. Since then, he lived in London and has recently returned to New York. Thackara has two other published novels, America’s Children and Ahab’s Daughter.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Novels

786 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

James Thackara was born in California to Argentinean-born James Justin Thackara and Ellen Louise Schmid from Greenville, Texas. His parents' marriage broke down before Thackara's birth and thereafter, his mother travelled with her young son through Europe and the Americas. At the age of eleven, he was sent to the first of several boarding schools. While studying at Harvard University, Thackara was mentored by Peter Taylor, resulting in a close personal friendship that lasted till the end of Taylor's life.

Thackara explored the making of the first atomic bomb in his first published novel, America's Children . A lightly fictionalised biography of Robert Oppenheimer, it was purchased in 1984 by Chatto and Windus. The commercial success of The Book of Kings caused America's Children to be republished in Britain after 19 years, and for it to be published in the US for the first time in 2002. In one of the book's first reviews, The Economist praised the "trenchant novel" for "depicting the drama of Oppenheimer torn between lust for scientific achievement and horror of prospective success."

Ahab’s Daughter was published by Abacus in 1989.

The Book of Kings, published by Overlook Press in 1999, had taken Thackara more than 20 years to complete.

Reviews

[Marius van Blerck · Rating 2 out of 5]

“The time has come (the walrus said) to speak of many things … of ship, of shoes, of sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.” A rather strange book – a cross between a script for a mini-series and an attempt at a 20th century Tolstoy novel. The basic concept is intriguing, and there are elements of a good yarn here, but somehow there’s a hollowness that doesn’t ring true. It’s hard to put a finger on whether this is because of the dialogue, the emotional depth of the characters or the storyline – probably a combination of all three. Ultimately, the work is more a cabbage than a king.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was too much for me to even summarize in my typical review. I found the language and descriptions confusing. The relationships of the four roommates was at times tedious and convoluted. Thackara did a good job of describing WWII but I struggled to get that far in the book. Although I finished the book, it taxed my patience.
I want to thank NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Dick Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harold Robbins meets Leo Tolstoy.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't even really know how to leave a review for this book. The dialogue was strange. Couldn't connect to any characters which made it difficult to care about what happened to them. It sounded like a great premise - I love WW2 fiction. But this was so hard to get into. The language is dense, runs on endlessly at times. I often had to go back and read sections again after realizing I'd lost interest halfway through. Very thankful that the Google translate app has a camera function which came in handy. Other than that ... I don't have much to say about this one. Which is crazy since it took 674 years to finish.

Thanks to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for my maybe-too honest review.

[Frances · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ponderously written. Characters mostly unlikable. A slightly redeeming facet is the history of World War II from a European perspective.

[Mickey Solan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I normally would not read. It is totally out of my reading realm. Since it was long I was scared but glad I stuck with it. The characters were beautifully written. The backdrop of the war was so well written that I felt like I was part of it.
Everything about these characters made me want to find out what happens to them. I would truly recommend it and tell everyone to stick with it.

[Brian Donald William Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want EPIC this is it! Huge novel about four young men, one Algerian, 2 German and 1 American. The book follows these four rather brilliant characters (just their idle conversations turn philosophical) as their separate stories take them further away from each other both physically and morally. It really is an amazing novel with superb style and content. It is, however, large at 800 pages but in the end, very well worth the time!

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four men and different perspectives as you follow them into various countries across the globe and for some reason, it took me longer to read and fully appreciate the characters and story line.
However, I would still recommend it as a historical fiction.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

[Bonnye Reed]

Complimentary from MyNextRead

[Jeffrey Cavanaugh · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was the hint of a good story here but the atrocious writing and terrible pacing made reading this horrid novel a tremendous effort. A ruthless editor’s red pen was sorely needed.

[Elizabeth Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book kept me interested enough to make it through 700 plus pages, yet I have very mixed feelings about it.

Thackara's prose style often tried my patience. His words made up long strings that kept tangling. Sometimes I put forth the energy to go back and re-read and untangle the knotted words. Sometimes I threw up my hands and decided to just let it go. While I could make my way through the story without each sentence making sense, I did feel quite frustrated at times. I often like dense prose that makes my brain work hard. But the knots he created often didn't offer enough intellectual or emotional payoff to warrant the effort.

The large middle section that covered the World War II years was the most enjoyable. He writes well about war.

His characters drove me a little crazy. Many of the choices they made confounded me. The relationships between them (particularly romantic ones) seemed unbelievable at times.

Still, this book is thought provoking, especially philosophically. How should individuals fight collective evils? Something work thinking about.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite epic novels. The characters are engrossing and the settings and time frame have a grand and dramatic scale.

[James Kidd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as it should have been. Perhaps a work of genius, but more likely a life's work (25 years or something in the writing) that just was not as wonderful as Thackera intended.