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Restless William Boyd 9780747589372 Books

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Restless William Boyd 9780747589372 Books

RESTLESS by William Boyd is one of those novels with a parallel plot, there is the present-day told from the point-of-view of Ruth Gilmartin a 20-something PhD student at Oxford and a single Mum. Then there is the story of Eva Delectorskaya, a woman of Russian-English heritage, working as a spy for Britain in New York in 1940 and 1941. Her job was to pose as a journalist spreading disinformation about the progress of the war in an effort to encourage the United States to join the fight against the Nazis.

This may sound only moderately interesting, but in William Boyd’s hands it becomes completely gripping. Both POV characters, Ruth and Eva, are so real. While it is true that inevitably Ruth’s story is not that interesting, nevertheless, her story kept me glued to the page, partly because I’m old enough to remember the Baader-Meinhof gang, and I kept wondering if she were harboring some of the members in her apartment.

As for Eva, well she is completely compelling. Strikingly beautiful and breathtakingly smart she is astonishingly good at her job, and manages to wriggle out of a couple of very difficult situations. Most of the pleasure of this novel is in watching such a smart woman outsmart some pretty smart men.

I have never heard of William Boyd before, but I will certainly be reading more of his novels. Five stars.


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Restless William Boyd 9780747589372 Books Reviews

This is the first novel I have read by William Boyd and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is an espionage novel set in two distinct time periods World War II 1939 to 1941, and 1976. It follows the exploits of its main character, a woman recruited to the British intelligence services during the the war, with alternating chapters focusing on her daughter in 1976, as she unravels the mysteries of the mother's life 35 years earlier. The main characters are well developed, the pace is steady, the plot is plausible and there are some interesting surprises along the way. Although the activity is with British intelligence, much of the action revolves around efforts to draw the US into the war, which adds an intriguing historical context to the story. I recommend the book and will probably pursue other novels by Boyd.
There are plenty of reviews here that point out the book's merits. I want to rebut one of the common criticisms, well articulated by this review by the Washington Post

"Of course, there's little in daughter Ruth's life of comparable danger and magnitude. But this doesn't mean that the alternating chapters about her are dull. For one thing, Ruth is an engaging and nicely realized presence. She has her own full existence a young son, a messy romantic life, unwanted houseguests, a PhD dissertation to finish, a job teaching English as a second language that brings an interesting array of foreign nationals into her Oxford apartment. All these facets are rendered succinctly and skillfully. Perhaps more important, we recognize in Ruth a stubbornness and strength handed down from Eva, who, because of the veiled nature of her spy career, hasn't always been as tender or forthcoming a mother as Ruth would have liked."

What this critic misses is the fact that Ruth's life is full of people who might plausibly be considered spies or terrorists. Her primary suitor is an Iranian who might or might not be a member of the Iranian secret police. A scruffy visitor -- a friend of a friend -- might be a member of an underground German terrorist organization. These are not exactly routine occurrences in the life of a grad student. Yet danger and betrayal arise from an entirely unexpected source her mother. Ruth's not-so-quotidian life is intended to illustrate that trouble comes at you from any quarter it chooses.
British author William Boyd's novel of war and espionage, "Restless", is set as dual voiced. Part is written in the early days of WW2, while the other is written in mid-1970s Oxford. It's a tricky thing for a writer to do, but William Boyd's been writing for a while now, and he carries it off pretty well.

Boyd's story is one that's been written quite often. An obscure branch of British intelligence recruits a young woman as an agent. This one - Eva Delectorskaya - is the half-English/half Russian woman, living in Paris with her family. After her beloved younger brother is found murdered, the leader of the group he has been working for persuades Eva to take his place in fighting the up-coming German menace. She accepts and goes through training in Scotland. If you've read Simon Mawer's books on the female British agent, "Trapeze" and "Tightrope", then you've already read Boyd's work on agent-training. The only difference is that Mawer's Marion Sutro is being trained for covert operations in Nazi-occupied France, while Boyd's Eva Delectorskaya is working in the United States, trying to gin-up reasons for an American entry into the war.

Boyd's spies and spiettes are an interesting crew, trained in lying, how to catch bad guys, lying, how to tell if someone's following you, and more lying. In fact, everyone routinely lies so much that the reader is left with "what the hell" when trying to make sense of the story. As the second story - which is interspersed with the first - concerns Eva's daughter and grandson and how they come to realise that "Granny Sally" seems to have a far more interesting past than they had any idea of. And the secrets and sins of one generation are carried on to the second.

William Boyd's book isn't bad, in fact it's quite entertaining, but as you read it, you'll find yourself thinking about other WW2 books you've read. Boyd includes a little-known bit of history when he has Eva witness the real German capture of two British agents in a set up at Venlo, Holland. But, I'm not sure you'll remember the book in a couple of months.
RESTLESS by William Boyd is one of those novels with a parallel plot, there is the present-day told from the point-of-view of Ruth Gilmartin a 20-something PhD student at Oxford and a single Mum. Then there is the story of Eva Delectorskaya, a woman of Russian-English heritage, working as a spy for Britain in New York in 1940 and 1941. Her job was to pose as a journalist spreading disinformation about the progress of the war in an effort to encourage the United States to join the fight against the Nazis.

This may sound only moderately interesting, but in William Boyd’s hands it becomes completely gripping. Both POV characters, Ruth and Eva, are so real. While it is true that inevitably Ruth’s story is not that interesting, nevertheless, her story kept me glued to the page, partly because I’m old enough to remember the Baader-Meinhof gang, and I kept wondering if she were harboring some of the members in her apartment.

As for Eva, well she is completely compelling. Strikingly beautiful and breathtakingly smart she is astonishingly good at her job, and manages to wriggle out of a couple of very difficult situations. Most of the pleasure of this novel is in watching such a smart woman outsmart some pretty smart men.

I have never heard of William Boyd before, but I will certainly be reading more of his novels. Five stars.