Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7282 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Esquire
`Fast moving, densely plotted, beautifully observed and probably
one of the best things Boyd has done'

Independent on Sunday
`Boyd is English fiction's master storyteller ... Restless is that
rare thing: a spy thriller from a first-rate narrative intelligence'

Time Out
`Heart-stoppingly exciting ... a riveting tale of wartime
derring-do'

Customer Reviews

Entertaining - but don't think about it too much
I have not previously read any books by William Boyd and enjoyed "Restless", which combines the unfolding story of a spy in World War II with the less-than-thrilling life of her daughter some thirty years later. It would be fair to say that the most exciting thing to have happened to the younger woman is finding out about her mother's past, but the rather self-absorbed character herself might not agree. Some reviewers seem to dislike the sections containing the daughter, Ruth, but I felt that these passages meant Boyd brings out the differences between mother and daughter, and gave a real sense of context to the espionage storyline. Ruth's mother has survived the Second World War as a secret agent with ingenuity and cunning, whereas Ruth struggles to hold her comparatively straightforward life together in peacetime 1970s.

It is easy to get caught up in the pace and danger of the scenes set in the 1940s and turn the pages quickly to see what happens; later reflection throws up some problems with the plot and how far we need to suspend disbelief to appreciate the story, and a close read suggests a few inconsistencies and plot holes that Boyd perhaps skipped over here and there. Some aspects of the book are a little far-fetched, and one twist in particular is easy to guess in advance. I did wonder whether Boyd was trying to make us question the mother's story and how far we should believe everything that we are told about her wartime experiences. Ruth to me is a more realistic and believable character than her mother - her dead-end teaching career, awkward single-parent situation and so on do all seem very true-to-life, and I felt including this character gave the book a realistic grounding that it does not seem to find elsewhere.

All-in-all, "Restless" is not a work of fiction that stands up to a great deal of scrutiny when analysed too closely or considered on reflection once the final page has been turned. However, it is a fun read while it lasts, with genuinely thrilling moments in the spy scenes and a likeable central heroine.

A real page turner for me
I've just finished this as a holiday book and picked it up after reading one that I had really not enjoyed. I've never read Boyd's work before but I loved it. His use of language is a treat. I really enjoyed the two plots (the past and the present) because, for me, part of the story was the rapprochement between mother and daughter, and Ruth's discovery of her mother's past was part of that. There were sub plots that seemed bizarre but in the end it just seemed to illustrate the sense of paranoia that Eva's story was full of and its impact on Ruth's interpretation of events in her own life. It had me gripped until the final paragraph because I wasn't sure how he was going to end it and I had 3 possible endings lined up.
I don't know about computers in 1976 but he was at Oxford so maybe he had access to things mere mortals didn't! Also, whilst Jochen is not your average pre-schooler, and he was rather irritating, I have met children like him, sadly.

Shades of Greene...
I read an interview with Willian Boyd that sheds great light on this particular novel. Apparently, he was attempting in this book was something in the vein of Graham Greene: a story set during a War; spy-style thrills; moral ambivalence...and in some small ways, I suppose this book does succeed. As stated by previous reviewers, it doesn't fall short as a page-turner. But where it does fails to fly is in trying to capture those shades of grey which so fascinated Greene - the unfathomable shadows between goodness and perceived evil. The main problem is that there is next to nothing in the way of emotional subtlety here (witness the truly abysmal ending - a pathetic attempt to tie everything together thematically), and certainly none of the concise, beautiful language and crystalline emotional pain of a Greene novel.
What is worst though is that we are confronted by a main, contempory character (I was so disinterested in her I've forgotten her name)that is not so much unlikeable, as boring and unconvincing; so infintely hard to follow. NEVER did she convince me as anything above a collection of abstract observations and angsty character traits. One thing Boyd cannot do (on the basis of THIS novel as least), is sketch convincing female characters.
I had heard great things about William Boyd - the blurb alone testifies that he is "one of the greatest storytellers." From the evidence presented in Restless, I would say this is patently untrue.
For a truly GREAT thrilller - action, good writing, intrigue and colourful, nuanced characterisation - read Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.