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Cargando... Harry Saves the Worldpor Gary Alexander
Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.  Dokfintong | Jul 7, 2018 |  sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
From an author whose work has been called "very, very funny," the tale of an all-American guy who runs off to Europe--and gets tangled in WWII espionage (Kirkus Reviews). Horatio Alger (Harry) Antonelli is 1938 college grad and football star who decided to spend a summer in Europe before settling down to teach high-school history, coach the football team, and eventually marry ─ white picket fence, kids, pets, et cetera. Increasingly, that scenario is terrifying him, so his 1938 summer has stretched out to July 1940. Now, keeping one step ahead of the Third Reich--and some enraged husbands--Harry settles in Lisbon. While Portugal is neutral in the war, Lisbon is a clearinghouse for every manner of spy, counterspy, and hustler. Though he barely scrapes by, Harry is right at home. He wheels and deals with a shady Brit, dodges his landlady who's after back rent, and has fallen for a sultry and mysterious café singer. But his precarious lifestyle is complicated by the arrival of Dorothy Booth, the girl he left behind, and her brother David, an operative in an ultrasecret government agency he refuses to identify. David's agency has information suggesting that the Nazis run a factory in Lisbon where they're enriching uranium they plan to somehow release in Allied cities, killing millions. Why Harry Antonelli? David, who strongly disapproves of Harry in general, laments that America has been remiss in getting agents into Lisbon. Harry is all they have. Aided (and babysat) by Dorothy, Harry reluctantly sets out to save the world. To do so, he must thwart the fanatical Nazis, who are dedicated to ensuring that the project succeeds at all costs... No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999ValoraciónPromedio: (3)
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It's a fun book but a bit flimsily constructed. There is no intention to be realistic, it is fun of a Bob Hope / Bing Crosby "Road to Lisbon" film.
The flimsy bits have to do with the Nazi plot to use enriched uranium as a disbursed poison. The science is whoo whoo. Radiation poisoning can be acute, with death coming fairly quickly or slowly with cancers taking years to manifest. That part's worked into the storyline. What's ignored is that uranium yellowcake has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Enriched uranium has a half-life of 1600 years. The highly radioactive isotopes have shorter half-lives, but regardless, the site where Hitler uses this weapon won't be livable for a very long time, which is a silly kind of strategy. In this context, there is a reference to "The Radium Girls" which is a bit unlikely give the early date of the book. The story of the Radium Girls started to be big news in the late 1930s and the idea that it was common knowledge in Hitler's Berlin is unlikely. The plot could have been carried by any secret bomb or chemical warfare element that could be placed in Lisbon.
I read this book when I was on a kind of road trip myself, and it formed an amusing backdrop for a few days in Tbilisi. I really wish the bomb plot had been stronger so that I could have enjoyed it more.
I received a review copy of "Harry Saves the World" by Gary Alexander (Encircle Publications) through NetGalley.com. (