Brandenburg Gate

A great book set mostly in East Germany in 1989 as the Cold War was coming to an end.

This novel is a cut above the usual Cold War spy vs. spy derring-do: an intricate plot based on actual historical events, complicated characters with shifting motives, multiple intelligence services getting involved- it's good stuff. The author weaves his own obviously considerable knowledge of the Stasi into the story, painting a convincing picture of the GDR as a suffocating, Orwellian state.

Excellent spy potboiler set in the waning days of European communism. Author Henry Porter interweaves the East German secret police (STASI), British intelligence, the CIA and the KGB into this story of a world-weary East German academic who is blackmailed into serving the GDR in a dubious espionage plot. That first caper, lasting no more than the first several pages of this lengthy book, opens the door to what is the vast rat's nest of the main story line here. The best part of this novel, in my opinion, is its detailed description of the gradual public uprising against the GDR regime as the Soviet Block begins to visibly disintegrate. The author conveys a highly credible understanding of how the citizens of East Germany finally reached the end of their patience with the desperate living that was inflicted on them by their government through the STASI. As good as this book is, it could have used some adept editing in places to tighten it up some. For example, there are a number of oft-repeated lines coming from the antagonist about his imprisoned brother that become tiresome by the middle of the book. Despite a few flaws, this is an excellent read that reaches its best and most credible moments at the end of the book.

I think Henry Porter is a superb author. I always look for his latest work. I almost bought Brandenburg Gate as I thought it was a new opus. Fortunately I checked excerpts before purchasing. This is his book Brandenburg with Gate added! If you have read Brandenburg, don't buy this one... On the upside, I hope he comes out with a real new book quickly.

Porter makes an interesting linkage between the closing of the Cold War and the current war on terrorism. En route, he also supplies us with an indepth view of what life was like in East Germany, under the scrutiny of the Stasi. The book is fairly mild, as far as its depictions of mayhem. Also piquant is how the Soviet Union and the KGB come off as relatively benign, compared to the Stasi. Vladimir Putin makes a fictional cameo appearance as a KGB representative in East Germany in 1989, and is portrayed as a decent bloke. Porter also reminds us of how innovative the Web really is. Something too easily taken for granted now. But in 1989, it was cutting edge stuff, that really did presage a cultural revolution. He found a neat way to tie the political events of 1989 with the murmurings coming out of CERN about a global hyperlinked network.