The Weather in Berlin

Papa hasn't been well served. There are probably more lines of Hemingway parody in the world than actual Hemingway. In fact, changing tastes, feminist criticism, and -- it has to be admitted -- some really bad writing by the Nobel Prize winner himself have conspired to overshadow his work with memor......more

I originally read this in print in October, 2004, but after I read Robert Hellenga's Love, Death, and Rare Books, I realized that his writing reminded me of Just's, so I came back for a re-reading. Here, the protagonist is a film maker and this is a book about story and his skill as a raconteur. His......more

This thoughtful, meditative book crept up on me in turns (as meditative books should) so that by the time I hit my stride I was at least half way through, utterly glad that I'd persevered and not abandoned it during the long, quiet establishing sections. It's a beautiful book in which detail and nua......more

Now I can't remember how I "found" Ward Just. But I am so glad I did. Every sentence is perfect (imho). Lots and lots of detail, but nothing extraneous, and under it is so much intelligence, perception, idea...and a lot of it is (in this book notably, maybe because the main character is a film direc......more

Hollywood, Berlin in the 50's, East Germany... It's not a spy novel - just a nice story about relationships, time, history and change.......more