The Cobbler of Normandy

Otto A. Berliner
BookSurge (2007)
ISBN 9781419668401
Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (9/07)


Don’t judge a book by its cover would be a good way to describe this book. The cover depicts an elderly man working as a cobbler making or repairing shoes. This cobbler is Marceau, and the novel’s back cover describes him as “venerable” and a “well trusted member of the Resistance” but also trusted by the Germans. The plot of “The Cobbler of Normandy” is about the French Resistance’s efforts to aid and prepare for the Allies invasion of Normandy during World War II. Marceau’s role, although he begins as the central character, repairing boots for Germans and aiding spies, becomes overshadowed by the characters of Parker and Shaw, a U.S. and a British spy, disguised as German painters, who are trying to get information to aid the invasion of Normandy. Parker and Shaw go on so many little missions and adventures in the book that at times the book reads like a plot summary rather than the actual novel. The most interesting parts of their missions are their working with female resistance members who use sex-play to get information out of German officers. Also involved is Bridget, the adopted daughter of Marceau, and Michael, a young man she loves and convinces to join the Resistance.

I can’t really say much more about the characters because character development is non-existent in this book. Michael and Bridget seem to do nothing much other than make love. Parker and Shaw are busy running around on countless missions, but they are barely more than stick figures. The author only gives us a couple sentences about their personal lives and the women they love. What I found most disappointing in the book was the absence of the characters’ emotions—we are not shown anything human about Parker and Shaw especially—no sense of their fear, concern, longing for their sweethearts, no bonding in their friendship, no hopes or dreams for life after the war.

Sometimes novels focus on plot to the detriment of character-development, but there isn’t much plot either in “The Cobbler of Normandy.” We know the characters are preparing for the invasion of Normandy, but their actions are not presented in a way to make the reader feel there is any progression being made toward a goal, and after five-hundred pages of near plot-summary, when the invasion of Normandy occurs, what should be the novel’s climax is described, it is finished with in a few pages—a major lack of climax and development.

Otto Berliner, on the “About the Author” page, is described as a survivor of the German atrocities of World War II, which means he is really an expert on the subject matter of World War II as a first-hand witness. He must have known the fear, anxiety, and danger of that time very well, yet the tone and feeling of a first-hand observer is completely absent from the book. Mr. Berliner is clearly knowledgeable, from the book’s scattered details, about the war and the invasion of Normandy. I think if the book could have been better focused, perhaps centered around one specific mission of Parker and Shaw and that mission’s direct influence upon the invasion of Normandy, then this could have been a powerful book. However, I cannot recommend the book to novel-readers who like good stories or well-developed characters, and to lovers of history, I would recommend instead reading a non-fiction book about the invasion.

Mr. Berliner has made a tremendous first attempt if only in the sheer volume of the book’s near six-hundred pages, but a good editor is needed to give the book focus. I also found myself frequently annoyed by continual tense shifts from past to present and several punctuation errors.

The book had great promise when I picked it up, and I was eager to read it, but I am afraid nothing about “The Cobbler of Normandy” was able to hold my interest. I hope Mr. Berliner revises the book or tries his hand at another with better success.

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