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Customer Reviews of The Statement

This book is a spine tingler that keeps you guessing!
Brian Moore does a superb job of giving his reader a feel for what it was like during the Nazi occupation of France. Pierre Brossard is the type of character who inspires mixed emotions. Early in the book you feel he has repented for his sins by embracing the Catholic Church. As the book continues you realize that Brossard has not really changed at all, and has convinced himself that his killing of the 14 Jews in WWII was justified. You really feel the suspense at the end of the book wondering if he will get away! Wonderful book! I would highly recommend it!

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Can crimes against humanity be forgiven?
Brian Moore has succeeded in writing a story regarding war crimes in France. The whole story is centered around the death of fourteen Jews at Dombey and their executioner named Brossard. This fugutive from justice has been protected at the highest levels of government and by the Catholic Church. All is done in the guise of some sort of false ideals of French nationalism. The story is an intriging one. There are the Chevaliers, Catholic clergy and monastic orders all protecting Brossard. In the end, it is surprising to see who actually brings this man to justice, unfortunately all for the wrong reasons, because you see Brossard's death masks the crimes of others. This book is a great one to read and I would recommend it to anyone

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Good God. Longest 250-page Book in History
How this managed to garner 21 reviews (at time of this writing) is beyond me; I can't believe 21 people actually finished the book.

I picked this up at the library last week and it has been used exclusively as a sleep aid ever since. Along with "The Statement," I picked up one of Dennis Lehane's pre-"Mystic River" novels. I should have just stuck with Lehane and read his book twice.

"The Statement" is slow. Ploddingly slow. "Pre-schooler reading aloud" slow. What's incredible is that the book (hardcover) is only 250 pages and uses the largest "regular" print I've ever seen. Moore clearly had to work to cross the 200-page mark, and it shows. I wonder if he was bored writing this, because that shows, too.

The story is confusing, fails to build appropriately, and is overall flat-out dull. Moore spends far too much time introducing new, uninteresting (and irrelevant) characters than developing what really could be an exhilarating topic.

To add to a reader's misery, the writing is plain horrid. I am a working screenwriter and have much respect for novelists -- but huge swaths of this book make me cringe: wholly unrealistic dialogue; random and uncomfortable cuts between the past and present-day; speeches by characters that begin "Everyone knows..." and then proceed to catch you up on major plot points that couldn't be successfully weaved into the story; the unexplainable disregard for tense and point-of-view (the book hops randomly between third- and first-person -- which theoretically could be used for dramatic effect, but here is simply bad, bad, bad).

The hunting down of war criminals is a concept ripe for a compelling thriller treatment. "The Statement" is simply ripe and, quite frankly, stinks.