Not Just a Game

What a great idea for the novel, mixing three generations of professional athletes with historical events in three different eras and top it all with Nazism and Hitler. I absolutely love the idea for the plot, but the execution is even better. The book is divided into three parts, we are in 1930s in Berlin, there is our main guy Dietrich, Jesse Owens, Hitler and everything we know from history, written in a riveting and fresh way. Then there is Israel in, I think, 1972 where the horrible murders of athletes happened. There we meet our main character Kirsten, she begins to train fencing and at the last part we are in Rio in 2016 Olympics where we are back to Hitler and rebirth of Nazism.I know this sounds chaotic and nonsensical when I write it like that, but that is why I'm not a writer and Zipes certainly is, and a darn good one. He connects all the main threads of the story in a flawless way across many decades and ties them up in a satisfying way at the end. Characters are well shaped and the story never drags, it is really a page turner all the way. Most of all, I love the mix of sport and Nazism, it makes kind of a sport themed thriller, and that is definitely not something I come across every day. Don't miss this.

The author does a fantastic job weaving facts and fiction into an interesting novel. While the story is entertaining, it reminds the reader to not forget the atrocities of the past. I thoroughly enjoyed the book Dr. Zipes. By the way doc, you were right. There was definitely more than one pathway. Literally dozens of them.

There was a good balance of historical base and fiction rolled into a page turning thriller. Seems thus could be the start of a good series???

Doug Zipes takes his readers along for a story that encompasses the better part of a century, from the 1930s and the Berlin Olympiad in 1936, all the way through the Rio Olympics in 2016, all told in the framework of a family’s history. Zipes wants to tell an important story about family – about love, loyalty, and perseverance – and uses as a backdrop actual historical events. In fact, this is what I loved most about the book: I was drawn into the lives of each character (Dietrich and Kirsten, especially) through the tumultuous historical contexts. I was riveted, for example, by Zipes' rebelling of the Berlin Olympiad, with Jesse Owens competing against Germans, not just on the field, but against their hatred and bigotry in the Nazi era. The book made me want to go out and read a little more history! Needless to say, I loved the book. Zipes can tell a great story, and he knows how to draw characters and action in a way that keeps the pages turning. Highly recommended!

I am rereading much of the ending chapters - I was too anxious the first time through to get to Doug Zipes' excellent and surprising conclusion. I not only recommend the book, I am having it sent to some I know will enjoy it. Although clearly fiction, often throughout is much fact about the Olympics from 1936 forward - enough to make the reader pause to remember those past games. It is a fabulous read.

An intergenerational saga, meticulously researched, "Not Just A Game" is Doug Zipes' latest, and best novel to date. The author has reincarnated Henrik Ibsen's literary motif of the "life lie," and its life-altering consequences for three generations of a Jewish family whose lives are inextricably linked to history's archetypal villain, Adolf Hitler. Fast paced, full of plot twists and turns.  Just plain fun!Philly Phan

Enjoy reading Doug Zipes books. This one gave one lots to think about.

In his most ambitious work to date Zipes takes us back to pre-World War 2 Europe and sets an intrigue in motion that spans the years through modern times and spans distances from the old world to the new. His vehicle is a story at the edge of plausibility, but is just plausible enough and so ridden with tensions and plot turns that the best way to read the book is in a single long sitting. And this will not be hard to do because the author grabs your attention at the outset and never lets go. Clearly this is a must-read.