CoffeeAndThorn reviewed Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Review of 'Robinson Crusoe' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Miles Watson may be just about the only writer who can get away with a story set in the polish ghetto, told from the perspective of German soldiers sent in to round up or otherwise “deal with” Jews, without either turning the Germans into monsters or undermining the awfulness of what was done there. With a surgical precision, he depicts the world view of the German Reich, instilled in soldiers’ thinking, whilst also allowing the readers to see that in the grip of a war that they neither control nor understand, these individual men are really no different from American soldiers or British soldiers. Actually – no matter the hideous truth behind what the German soldiers are required to do – at that moment of battle, kill or be killed, they are not even much different from the jewish resistance fighters whom they confront. War. They’re all of them doing …
Miles Watson may be just about the only writer who can get away with a story set in the polish ghetto, told from the perspective of German soldiers sent in to round up or otherwise “deal with” Jews, without either turning the Germans into monsters or undermining the awfulness of what was done there. With a surgical precision, he depicts the world view of the German Reich, instilled in soldiers’ thinking, whilst also allowing the readers to see that in the grip of a war that they neither control nor understand, these individual men are really no different from American soldiers or British soldiers. Actually – no matter the hideous truth behind what the German soldiers are required to do – at that moment of battle, kill or be killed, they are not even much different from the jewish resistance fighters whom they confront. War. They’re all of them doing what they’ve got to do, at risk of death any moment, the most delicate of them dehumanised. This is brave writing. Seriously.