Douglas Kennedy on the Cold War and passion

Douglas Kennedy is an author who can portray female characters unusually well.  One of my all time best reads to recommend is The Pursuit of Happiness which came out a few years ago.  It is set in New York during the McCarthy era, and is about love, loss, grief and forgiveness.  I stayed in bed one Easter and ripped through it.  His latest book is called The Moment and is about Thomas Nesbitt, a travel writer who when a younger man, spent some time in Berlin when it was a divided city.  There he met and fell in love with the enigmatic and troubled Petra.  Petra’s past is a tragic one, and Thomas finds himself  drawn into the clandestine and dangerous world of Cold War politics.  While he grapples with his passion for her, and the building doubts about her past, he has conflicted feelings about the city he is in, and Petra.  Years later, back in Maine, he is forced to look at the past again when a box, postmarked Berlin arrives on his doorstep.

Douglas Kennedy writes about relationships really well, and this story has the added interest of the situation in Berlin at the time.  Recommended.  $32.95

Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy

If you are looking for a good read, you could try Douglas Kennedy.  His main characters are usually women, and he writes with a woman’s voice very convincingly.  My favourite of his is The Pursuit of Happiness, which is a few years old.  It’s about love, loss and passion and set in New York in the fifties.  There is a background of McCarthyism going on, but really it’s about relationships.   He won’t win any big literary prizes, but if you are after a good read, you could give him a try.   Other good titles of his are Temptation and State of the Union.  I didn’t like Women of the fifth or A Special Relationship, but you might…..

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