It’s a stirring proposition but there are doubts about Peace’s handling from the start ... His afterword defies anyone to read the novel and still use Munich as a slur, which seems to misunderstand his likely audience.
Relentless, electrifying, harrowing ... The novel’s modus operandi is also one of juxtaposition, of a kind in which voices and scenes appear to melt into one another, marked by tonal shifts ... What elevates Munichs above a recitation of an event so repeatedly discussed and memorialised that it has acquired a near-mythological status is Peace’s dogged devotion to particularity.
As the novel continues to alternate between Manchester and Munich, it’s clear that there will be a huge number of characters to keep track of — but also that the new reader-friendly Peace will help us to do so, while supplying all of them with backstories of enormous richness and depth ... The combination of heart, sheer scale and — let’s face it — a sense of relief that Peace has forsaken cussedness for epic narrative sweep adds up to an irresistibly stirring read.
