Alfred A. Knopf -- hcNew York -- 1988 -- 294pp
ISBN: 0-394-57047-2
A German SS soldier is in a sacrificial unit bound for, and meant to hold off the Americans at the Battle of the Bulge.
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I have greatly enjoyed the works of Paul Watkins that I've come upon, and looked forward to reaching back and checking out this, his first novel -- the novel which brought him some acclaim.
Fortunately this was not my first venture into the works of Paul Watkins or I likely never would have read more.
In the previous books of Paul Watkins that I've come across, his protagonists are all of the same ilk, rather dry, melancholic sorts, but they've all had goals ... something to strive for or something to discover. Sebastian Westland here seems lost. In all aspects of his life, he is lost. But more than that, he doesn't even seem to mind being lost. I was tempted to think that he was searching for a way to stay alive, but I don't know that this would be true.
With a character who is lost and doesn't care, and a setting and character background that is so incredibly foreign, what then is there to hold the reader to the story?
My recommendation is to pass on this and try one of Watkins' other books.
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