An Officer and a Spy

This was a very intriguing book. I enjoyed it. However, no I did not enjoy it. The beginning was a little bit interesting and the middle was boring and only towards the end was my interest captivated. There were parts scattered throughout that I enjoyed or at least had a mild interest in, but those parts never continued elsewhere in the story. I do wish it were slightly easier to read because you have to pay attention to every name and that’s difficult to keep track of. Overall it was a good book and although I probably wouldn’t read it again, it was what I expected: a historical fiction novel with too many details. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a historical fiction read that’s soaked with historical details.

I really wish I had stuck to reading the Wikipedia page of the Dreyfus Affair instead of listening to a long-winded sixteen-hour audiobook about it. This would have been immensely more intriguing as a long-form, strictly non-fictional essay, and I believe that even the new Polanski movie that was made based on this, which is in fact written for the screen by Harris himself, must be much more adequate than the book, which was overlong and just plain boring.

I highly enjoyed this historically accurate fictional account of the Dreyfus affair. My first Robert Harris — thanks Jack Lenox for the recommendation — and first of many more I hope. The narrative style and rich descriptions bring this long-controversial period in European history to beautiful light. It's a page-turner.