The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth

The Book Cover of one of the editions of The Odessa File

 The Odessa File By Frederick Forsyth: Book Review

Reading “The Odessa File” by Frederick Forsyth, a book published in the year 1972, showcases to the reader as to the depth of research that would have gone into the finer details of the storytelling during those years when there was no internet, no Google and no AI. There’s no doubt to the fact that the fictional story told through the events of World War II and post War Germany, had undergone thorough research and fact check by the author and also the publisher during those years. The result of a such a research and fictionalization of the post war elements is such that, when a reader reads the book in current times, everything seems so much real as if these events, would have occurred in some form or other in reality in the post War Germany.

Welcome to the world of Peter Miller, a freelance investigative journalist. It is 1963, Hamburg. The premise of the story starts exactly from the first chapter, when Peter follows a random ambulance in search of possible news through the streets of Hamburg to a fire event where an old man has committed suicide. As a result of the event, Peter through his acquaintance in the Hamburg Police comes across a personal dairy left behind the dead person named, Solomon Tauber and from there starts “The Diary of Solomon Tauber” that describes the deceased person’s life and the events that took place with him during the Second World War. It is this diary that would go on to change the course of not only the story but also give a new direction to Peter’s life, which would only be revealed in the last chapter to the absolute surprise of the reader. The book from here on follows the quest of Peter to track down a certain war criminal mentioned in the diary and get a fair trial against him.

The narrative of the story from there on jumps in between the sixties and the mid- forties era in Germany. The portion of narrative from the diary is completely based during the war. As Peter starts his journey to track down the war criminal, the actual thrill and revelations are revealed chapter after chapter.

In between all these, the reader is introduced to a whole bunch of new characters that contribute to the events in the storytelling. Forsyth follows a nuanced approach in the storytelling, putting one brick after the other. As Peter moves from one person to another in his quest to track his target, the author showcases real events that took place in the war-torn Germany and also showcases the impact that these events had on the population in the post War Germany.

Each character has a memory of the war and how it impacted their lives in the post war life. This fact contributes brilliantly in the overall space of the story.

As events unfold, the author shows in detail the infrastructures and offices that were started in the post war Germany for handling war crimes giving the readers an understanding of process, documentation and seriousness of the government to track down war criminals, though this has been shown in a fictionalized manner.

The pacing of the story is excellent given the complex nature of the subject. It would have been rather uncomplicated for the author to go off -track in all the type of moral aspects, right vs wrong, good vs evil scenarios to story. However, Forsyth concentrates on the central character of Peter Miller, and every emotion and point of view is narrated through his mind and motive, except for in the finale when the other side (War criminal) of emotion and point of view is also equally presented. Two contrasting world views of two Germans separated by almost two decades presented in the finale makes for a reading that makes the mind think about human nature and its purpose to live life.

There will be a time in the narrative, when in each chapter the reader will come across a new character through the research and tailing of Peter. The good thing is that these characters are not just mere passerby in the narration, rather majority of such characters have a backdrop in the war years and contribute to the events in the post War Germany.

The narrative also follows the Forsyth style trade mark of the cat and mouse chase and tailing by multiple characters, especially in the second half of the book where we come to a point, where in, everyone is chasing someone to the ultimate finale when surprises and twists are ultimately revealed.

There are names and there are codenames in the narratives, all making the world through which the reader is reading as something very confidential.  What binds the narrative and the story is the seriousness of the storytelling. This seriousness makes the reader fall for everything even if it would seem doubtful to a logical mind. Given that this is documentary type of fiction thriller, there are bound to be some events that may seem to have gone overboard but they are all entertaining to the reader’s mind.

Post War Germany has been beautifully showcased in the narrative. Be it- Hamburg, Berlin or the outskirts of the city and the country side. The description not only gives a good idea of what these cities and places would have been during the sixties, but it also showcases the development that country made post the war.

The reading will also give a good summarized understanding of the nature of the war crimes that had taken place during the Second World War to a reader who is not much in knowledge about the war crimes during that period. Though the description has been kept fairly general, but the understanding on the basic idea of these do come out as one reads them, especially during the narrative concentrating on the diary of Solomon Tauber.

The narrative also touches upon the geo-political relationship that Germany had during those years with certain countries. Though these have been handled in a truly fictional drama point of view, but the underlying understanding is present for the reader.

Out of all the characters including that of Peter Miller, readers will surely enjoy the story and events surrounding the character of Klaus Winzer who appears in the last quarter of the narrative. The story of Klaus Winzer is that of what one can conclude about life as to the ups and downs with drama and mystery.  Rather unconventionally, it is this character, which will turn the entire narrative and the readers will connect with the logic of the title” The Odessa File”. Only in this last quarter the readers will understand the significance of the title of the book. The events that take place with and around this character will ultimately lead Peter to his destination where in his actual motive of the entire hunt would be revealed.

Another important non- living character in the book is that of Peter Miller’s personal car, a Jaguar. This vehicle of his assumes an absolute importance in the proceedings as through more than half of the book, Peter is only identified through this vehicle of his to the people who hunting for him. There are some interesting events surrounding this vehicle once the cat and mouse game starts.

A motion picture by the same name of that of the novel was released in the year 1974 starring Jon Voight. Very interestingly, there were certain geo-political events with some war criminals from that era which had taken place post the release of the film, that would ultimately showcase that not everything that was fictionized in the book was fiction at all.

“The Odessa File” is a wonderfully narrated thriller from the 70’s that is highly recommended to the current generation of the readers.