The Man Who Played God

by Robert St. John

by Robert St John a story of serious issues from Hungary and Isreal.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

471 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Robert William St. John was an American writer, broadcaster, and journalist.

Reviews

[Wiseask · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike the immensely popular 1958 historical novel "Exodus" by Leon Uris, made into a star-studded motion picture in 1960, I had never heard of the 1962 historical novel "The Man Who Played God" by Robert St. John until I recently came across an old paper-back copy. St. John's fictional protagonist, Andor Horvath, is based on the actual case of Rudolf Kastner, a Hungarian Jew accused of collaborating with the Nazis.

In reviewing "The Man Who Played God," Virginia Kirkus very generously claims that St. John's book "will be compared with 'Exodus'" — but in the past 50 years I never heard anyone comparing these two very different stories about two entirely different subjects, one ending in triumph and the other in tragedy.

As for the tragedy, I confess that after slogging through nearly 600 pages of Andor Horvath's trials and tribulations, his fate at the end left me sadly unmoved.

[Bea Elwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Say it was 3 and a half stars, I did enjoy it but it was tedious at times. I realize it was written in 1961 but the sexism was blatant. There are a few stand out female characters but they were all reduced to breast size, very male perspective of women. Still this was a recommendation from my brother who bought it for a dollar at Goodwill, his comment when he gave it to me was that he hadn't realized a lot of this had taken place - not so much the Holocaust but the trails that were still going on ten years later. Well written and intense.