There is a quote from a review by the Chicago Tribune on the cover of Avenue of Spies that reads, "Classic...constructed and written like a thriller." Another quote on the back cover by Post and Courier states,
"A gripping, taut story that will keep readers turning pages long after
they should have turned out the light." All I can say is that we must
have read different books. I have read many thrilling, page-turning
books about World War II and the Resistance, but this is most definitely not one of them.
It's
not that I doubt the story of American doctor Sumner Jackson, his
French wife Toquette, and their son Phillip is true. I believe it and
it is an interesting story, worth noting and remembering. I salute
anyone who participated in the Resistance against the evil of Nazi
Germany. I firmly believe that stories such as theirs must be told so
that history never forgets. However, their story is just not written in
a way that was compelling to me. The author, Alex Kershaw, stretched
the story into a full novel by inserting facts and stories of other
historical characters into the tale of the Jacksons. He claims to have
spent hours interviewing Phillip Jackson and reading family letters,
yet I barely felt like I knew the family or sensed their emotions.
I
wish I could recommend this book, but honestly there are myriad other
books on this topic that I have read that were much more riveting and
worth my time. Quite the opposite of page-turning, I had to force
myself to finish it. I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in return for my honest review.
