Waiting for Sunrise: A Novel

Lysander Rief, the actor-son of famed Shakespearean actor Halifax Rief, is in Vienna, as the novel opens in August, 1913, seeking treatment for an embarrassing sexual problem. A close friend has suggested psychoanalysis, and Lysander has gone there for treatment. His doctor, a believer in "the fabulating function" of Bergson, not the methods of Freud, has told him that "If the everyday world, everyday reality is a fiction we create, then the same can be said of our past - the past is an aggregate of fictive realties we have already experienced - our memories." His goal is nothing less than to make Lysander change the damaging "old fictions" into a unique blend - "a union, a fusing - of this individual imagination and reality."What is real versus what merely seems real is obviously the primary theme here as Lysander deals with his problem, even as Europe deals with its problems and past histories in the lead-up to World War I. Additional themes of love and sex, and life and death as they overlap with the ideas of reality and fantasy enhance the main theme and bring it to life in new ways. However well drawn the themes may be (and the fiction vs. reality theme is extremely well done), the novel is memorable primarily for its good story, a trademark of author William Boyd throughout his long career. Vienna is bursting with activity as Lysander meets men and women from the British consulate and military, the Viennese world of art and the theatre, the psychiatric world inspired by Freud and others, and the servant world at the Pension Kriwanek, where he lives, and he feels "strangely at home" in Vienna.The British have intercepted coded messages which consist of a string of numbers, and they suspect that this is a one-to-one code, limited to only two individuals who use the same edition of a specific book as the key. They assign Lysander to identify the book and who among the British high command, perhaps someone in the War Office, is responsible, a phantom referred to as "Andromeda" by investigators. Lysander's mysterious liaison named "Bonfire," the reappearance of Hettie Bull, a wide variety of characters who are not who they are thought to be, and even an opera from 1912 combine with secret messages, torture, shootings, and betrayals to add depth and excitement in the last part of the novel, taking the theme of reality vs. pretense to its ultimate conclusion.Providing plenty of well-developed background for his main characters, Boyd also leaves mysteries in their lives, developing these mysteries to add complexity to his plot as the novel progresses. Lysander's whole wealthy family becomes part of the story here, and in Vienna, away from his roots, Lysander sees new opportunities. Hettie Bull, a femme fatale, succeeds in persuading him to pose nude (wearing only a "cache-sexe") for a sculpture she is working on, but even Hettie has her secrets and plots. Consular officials and British military attaches are involved in spying, and half the city seems to survive by blackmailing the other half and then, in turn, being blackmailed by them. Nothing and no one are what or who they seem to be. A well-developed and fascinating novel in which the main theme becomes one with which every reader will identify. Nat Tate: An American Artist: 1928-1960

William Boyd is/was a skillful and prolific writer of novels; and they do have variety of place, time and characterization. I have enjoyed each of them, beginning with the accurate evocation of a place and a time. Each work stands very well on its own and each is a novel that needs to 'find the right reader.' Many of those readers are 'out there' and Boyd's novels have been deservedly popular. (Check the leading reviews on Amazon; they are accurate and perceptive.) Well-read fiction fans will benefit from admiring Joseph Conrad (Boyd's 'Brazzaville Beach'; 'An Ice Cream War') and other 'literary' authors. John LeCarre is also cited. I read Boyd's books for 'what they are'' rather than what I 'expected' them to be. Each journey then becomes one of discovery and fascination.Characterization is central to 'Waiting For Sunrise' (as it is in every Boyd novel.) Lysander Rief comes on the scene as a handsome man in his later twenties. Unevenly educated since his actor-father moved the family from one theater to another, he becomes an actor and furthers his education through preparing for his theatrical roles. Readers are treated to a bit of the Theatrical Life in Britain through this thread of the story. So often playing someone else, Lysander is somewhat late in coming to a mature self-knowledge; most explicitly about sexual matters. He seeks to remedy some of this by traveling to Pre-WWI Vienna for a consultation with a Freudian-influenced psychoanalist--Dr. Bensimon. Vicariously we enter into some of the world of the new psychoanalysis of that day, including a treatment methodology of 'Parallelism'--burying the unpleasant facts from the past by creating a detailed alternate reality. There is serious food for philosophical thought in that plot thread. From that beginning, we are treated to more experience of deception--sneaky adultery, shaky self-deception and the duplicity of spying, even in the cause of one's country. Lysander becomes a counterspy, ferreting out a 'rat' in the British War Machine...but working without any training other than his acting ability. He takes personal risks that trained agents would have avoided in a somewhat naive search for facts. At the end of this novel I believe Boyd wants us to ask ourselves if Lysander really did get to the true bottom of the deception...or if any deception--by ourselves or others--can ever be completely laid to rest. I put the book aside after finishing reading but my thinking kept working on, much like the nagging itch left by many modern short-story writers. If you are that kind of reader, I believe you will LIKE 'Waiting For Sunrise.'

I'm 3/4 thru..........love it.Wonderfully written..........a good storyline......well developed characters.Although takes place during WW11, the circumstances could be today.

Set before and then during the first wold war. It is a story of intrigue within the British Military establishment that forces the main character Lysander Rief to carry spy on some of their own.Great characterisation and the images of Vienna in 1913 are beautifully drawn.Worth Reading

This story starts in Vienna in 1910 and meanders through sexual intrigue , family drama and espionage through the eyes of a troubled young man ...Boyd spends time on detail and paints good pictures of of Vienna , London and WW1 trench warfare . A worthwhile read .

William Boyd provides his usual interesting narrative until about a quarter of the way through the book where the story takes an unexpected turn. From then on we follow the main characters through war and espionage until a spy is revealed.

William Boyd at his best, an absolutely intriguing tale which mounts in it’s suspense through the beautifully told story. It is so easy to see the fascinating scenes the writer creates.