Book review: The Boys from Brazil

The last of the classic Ira Levin books I got on a cheap kindle deal some while ago, The Boys from Brazil is another enjoyable thriller, that also serves as a sort of wish-fulfilment as it sees an elderly Nazi-hunter go after the Nazis' sadistic doctor, Josef Mengele (who in real life died before he could be captured.) It sees a mysterious plot hatched in Brazil to send assassins around the world to kill seemingly insignificant men, which will in ways not initially apparent ensure the rise of a Fourth Reich. Only a handful of people even believe in the plot's existence, but as the men do indeed start dying in "accidents" on the exact dates predicted, plans are uncovered that must make it one of the first thrillers to use cloning as a plot point. Though playing on one of the biggest fears of the 20th century it does it through an entertaining story.

Book review: The Stepford Wives

A while back there was a kindle offer for Ira Levin's first four, and most famous, books, and I've been occasionally making my way through them. Next up for me was The Stepford Wives, in which Joanna Eberhart and her husband arrive in the suburban town of Stepford and has trouble fitting in with the housework-obsessed, perfectly-proportioned women there. (She must have been lonely - the first appearance of her self-consciously "wacky" neighbour Bobbie would have had me heading for the hills, but Joanna embraces her eagerly just for having a personality.) But soon Bobbie also gets Stepfordised and Joanna starts to believe there's a conspiracy by the men of the town.

Of all the Levin books I've read this is perhaps most compromised by knowing what's going on beforehand, the title having even entered the language to describe a woman who seems a bit too "perfect." (And if you somehow went in not knowing, Chuck Palahniuk's introduction gives the twist away in the opening sentence, so even if like me you skip the introduction to books you haven't read yet, it's still hard not to get spoiled.) But I still enjoyed the satirical element of Levin's book, which imagines an extreme reaction to women's lib by threatened men, and it's fun putting the clues together about how they're doing what they're doing.