Douglas Kennedy - The Moment - Short Revew

Kennedy's body of work, for this writer, is nothing less than astonishing: each of his novels transverse varied themes from post-natal depression to the strange and supernatural. In this novel the reader is taken on a journey to cold-war Berlin. The significance of the Wall itself, through the main characters eyes, conveys its steel-like coldness, its danger, and the utter oppression on the people it has affected.

Thomas Nesbitt is a born and bred middle-class New Yorker with a penchant for writing, art and classical music. As an only child, he experiences the loveless marriage of his parents, and this translates to all his future relationships as an adult. The book begins in present time; Nesbitt, a successful travel writer, receives a package from Berlin. Thus we are taken back in Nesbitt's memory to his time in cold-war Berlin as his current project then is a travel book, describing the atmosphere and array of complex characters he meets.

It should be noted that Kennedy is a master of characterization, revealing these people's habits and the deep torment of their inner psyche's...in all his novels.

To cut to the chase, "In the Moment", is about true love. The novel explores the possibilities that through happenstance or otherwise, it is certainly possible to meet someone, become somewhat obsessed and fall head over-heels in-love...that "moment", according to Nesbitt and his love interest, a beautiful woman from East Berlin, Petra Dussmann, who has managed to cross the great divide from an oppressive society to a somewhat free West Berlin, certainly believe it so. And this particular kind of very special love can and does last a lifetime.

When reading about their love affair, at first I found it mawkish and too sentimental. But in the end, without question, Kennedy pulls it off where "suspension of disbelief" is truly attained.