The Order, Silva - B+

     This addition to the Gabriel Allon series is both atypical and brilliant. Allon is not tracking down enemies of the state of Israel, but is assisting a Vatican archbishop in the midst of a Papal Conclave. The late pope and Allon were friends because of the assistance the Mossad had once provided  to the Vatican dealing with Islamic terrorists. The fictional pope, Paul VII, was about to hand over to Allon the Gospel of Pontius Pilate when he was murdered in his study. There is of course no such gospel, but the author uses its concept as a vehicle to discuss two thousand years of anti-semitism. In the gospel of Matthew after Pilate washes his hands of the fate of Jesus of Nazareth, the Jews of Jerusalem cry out, "Let his blood be on us, and our children". These nine words are the basis of the condemnation of the Jews by the church as Christ killers, when in reality Jesus was executed by the Romans, and the decision to blame the Jews came when Christianity was struggling to survive a few centuries later. In addition to the discussion of this issue, the novel also has  its standard fare of conspiracies, action and intrigue.

     The author also addresses the issue that haunts long-running series set in the present. Gabriel has been working for the Mossad for almost 50 years and has to be about 70. He and Chiara buy an apartment in Venice and he promises to retire in two years. We'll see.

The Split, Bolton - B-

      The title refers to the principal character, Felicity Lloyd, who suffers from multiple personality disorder. Dr. Lloyd is a glaciologist for the British Antarctic Survey. When under extreme duress, the terrors of her childhood cause personality disruptions that she neither understands nor remembers. She is assigned to the station on South Georgia Island and knows that someone from her past is on the way there. 

The Ugly American, Lederer and Burdick - A

     This novel was published in 1958. The cover of the book refers to it as 'The Classic Bestseller Whose Title Became A Synonym For America's Failed Foreign Policy'. Most of the events depicted occurred earlier, during the French war in Vietnam. It takes place in fictional Sarkhan in Southeast Asia.

    It is less a novel telling a story than it is a brilliant political document set out in a series of vignettes. To read this expose of our incompetence is to marvel at the book's insight and vision. It is hard to believe it was written almost a decade before President Johnson  escalated the war.

     Our ambassadors in Asia come off poorly, in particular,  the first sent to Sarkhan. Lucky Sears lost his senate seat, would have preferred a federal judgeship and took the job as consolation. He didn't know where the country was on the map, certainly couldn't speak the language and didn't particularly care about Sarkhan, and didn't understand he was being mocked in the local press. And, no one told him.

     Whether in Sarkhan, Vietnam, Burma or Cambodia, the one thing American leadership was not interested in was the work and input of Americans on the ground and in the know. A Jesuit in Burma was labeled a dissident for living in the country and successfully organizing a Burmese peasant response to communist influence. His crime was to do it from the ground up, not the top down.  American and French field officers soundly defeated a Vietminh battalion after adopting tactics espoused by Mao. They were rejected by generals who said that the officer corps of a nation that created Napoleon did not need to read Mao. An Iowa 'egg man' who tried to improve and enhance the health and productive capacity of chickens was forced to resign his position for not toeing the line on enhanced roads and military equipment. The American who rejected roads and more roads in lieu of aiding farmers pump more water to their fields was ugly and his chapter was 'The Ugly American'.  Ironically, either frm usage or the intent of the authors,  the general acceptance of our arrogant policies is what became known as "ugly".  The one senior American who understood Sarkhan, had studied its language and culture was a career foreign service officer. When he took the advice of the Americans and Sarkhanese who knew the needs of the people and asked Washington for embassy staff  who read the language, wouldn't bring their families and personal autos, commit to a two year terms, forego the luxuries of the PX and study the communist texts, he was recalled.

     The authors end with a chapter called 'A Factual Epilogue', in which they point out that this is fiction but fiction based on true stories. They close with, "We have been offering the Asian nations the wrong kind of help. We have so lost sight of our own past that we are trying to sell guns and money alone, instead of remembering that it was the quest of the dignity of freedom  that was responsible for our own way of life. All over Asia, we have found that the basic American ethic is revered and honored and imitated when possible. We must, while helping Asia toward self-sufficiency, show by example that America is still the America of freedom and hope and knowledge and law. If we succeed, we can not lose the struggle."

     

    

Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Mens Epic Duel To Rule the World, Rose - B+

     Inspired by a balloon ride in America, Count Graf von Zeppelin began to study and think about how to build, control and fly a lighter than air ship. When he turned his full-time attention to the issue in 1890, it was generally accepted that balloons should be cigar shaped, with many smaller cells comprising the total. Hydrogen was the best inflator and steering required a powerful propellant. The count befriended a local manufacturer of internal combustion engines, Gottlieb Daimler. Four hundred and twenty feet long and powered by a 14.5hp Daimler engine, the LZ-1 flew 3.5 miles in July, 1900. LZ-2 required a stiffer airframe, a better engine and better controls. The state provided financial assistance. But, the LZ-2 crashed in early 1906. Later that year, it flew for two hours and once again piqued the interest of the army. A twelve hour flight in the LZ-4 in 1908 cemented Zeppelin's relationship with the government and made him a worldwide phenomena. Meanwhile, the powered flights of the Wright brothers were drawing the approval of the American military. The count was committed to his airship as a weapon, while others encouraged its commercial use as a passenger carrier. Starting in 1911, the Zeppelins began commercial passenger service in Germany. Prior to the outbreak of war, the airships flew over 34,000 passengers on 1588 flights covering 107,205 miles.

     The initial army and navy efforts with converted airships were unmitigated failures. After a few years, the Reich built bigger and better airships which were able to fly to, and bomb, London. Anti-aircraft weapons and airplanes soon put an end to the Zeppelin's effectiveness. "The great majority of Zeppelin raids were a complete waste of time, money and life." The acceleration of construction of airships, the use of new materials and the breadth of missions flown positioned Zeppelins for success in the post-war era. 

     During the war, a Zeppelin had made a non-stop 4000+ mile trip and the successors to the Count, who had died during the war, believed in the future of long distance passenger travel. And they and most students of flight agreed that airplanes were not equipped to compete with the airships from Germany.  Hugo Eckener, the executive now in charge of Zeppelins, was prohibited by the Versailles Treaty from building a ship larger than one million cubic feet. In essence, he was limited to building small ships for local travel. His goal was to cross the Atlantic. In 1922, he made a deal to build the US Navy a 2.5 million cf ship. In October, 1924, he sailed it across the Atlantic and safely delivered it to the Navy in NJ. As Eckener dreamed of building a trans-oceanic business, aggressive American businessmen were also thinking about visionary air passenger options featuring gas-powered airplanes. Freed by the Treaty of Locarno in 1926, Eckener built the Graf Zeppelin and in 1928, the luxury airship crossed the Atlantic in 111 hours to worldwide acclaim. The return was a much quicker 71 hours. But, safety and practicality remained concerns in the eyes of many. To prove its durability and air worthiness, Eckener embarked on a round the world flight in the fall of 1929. He headed east over the USSR and landed in Japan in four days. Over the Pacific and on to the East Coast, where he was honored with only the 11th Gold Medal given by the National Geographic Society. He partnered with an American business and the following year, flew from Germany to Brazil to the US and back across the ocean. An international success was looming.

     Eyeing the Germans but convinced airplanes were the future, Juan Trippe, founder of Pan American Airways worked continually to establish a passenger airline on the back of his airmail business.  He initiated passenger service in the Caribbean on a seaplane, Sikorsky's S-40, the American Clipper piloted by Charles Lindbergh. Eckener was struggling to keep the Zeppelin company going under the new Nazi regime, which considered both Eckener and the airship relics of a bygone era. He was successfully managing regular Europe to Brazil runs, but still desired to conquer the Atlantic with a regular passenger service. With the support of the regime, Eckener began construction of the behemoth Hindenburg. In early 1936, the luxurious Zeppelin was ready. The Nazis the airship, took over control of the company and sidelined Eckener. Meanwhile, Trippe had pivoted to the Pacific and was building stops for his clippers on Midway and Wake islands. His China Clipper flew from San Francisco to Manilla late in 1935. Trans-Pacific passenger service was now a reality.

      On May 6, 1936, with fifty-one passengers aboard, the Hindenburg left for NY. The three day flight and its shorter return were a resounding success. It then undertook regular flights to Brazil, one of which carried a curious Juan Trippe and his wife. The following year, the Hindenburg was scheduled to land in Lakehurst, NJ on May 6th. The airship was late, the weather was not perfect and the ship came in a bit fast, causing a wire brace to snap. At 7:25 P.M., the ship burst into flames. "In roughly half a minute, a succession of wildly remote possibilities, none inherently dangerous in and of itself, turned into lethal certainty." Thirty-five of the ninety-seven travelers died. Although there was another airship built in Germany, it was only used domestically, mostly for propaganda purposes. As for Pan Am, the Pacific service was unprofitable and the Atlantic service began in May, 1939 and was suspended when war broke out.  Eckener survived the war and lived long enough to see the advent of the jet airplane. Trippe eventually conquered the airways making Pan Am the pride and joy of the US, the master of international flight. He built the skyscraper Pan Am building over Grand Central, retired in 1964 and died in 1981.

     This is a magnificent and wonderful book, a bit long at almost 500 pages, but well worth the effort.

     

     

      

The Marching Season, Silva- B+

                   In the follow up, Osbourne is working for his father-in-law, the new Ambassador to the Court of St. James. The Good Friday Accords have just been signed, but there is a protestant splinter group set on breaking the peace. The Society thinks that's a pretty good idea, as discord and violence keeps its members busy and wealthy. They recruit the former KGB man to assist and once again it is Osbourne v. Delaroche. Great stuff.

The Mark of the Assassin, Silva - B +

                This fabulous thriller is over twenty-years old and was written by the author prior to his beginning his successful Gabriel Allon series. It features a CIA agent, Michael Osbourne, on the tail of a KGB trained hit man, Jean Delaroche,  now working for the highest bidder. At the moment, that is The Society, a conspiracy interested in profit, not committed to any set of principles and made up of very senior people from around the world. The mission of The Society is to create and foster havoc, thus assuring their ongoing financial well being. There's a second in the series that will follow. 

The Quiet American, Greene - B+

                   This classic was written in Saigon in the mid-50's and that is the time and place of this novel. The narrator is British, and a somewhat world-weary reporter on the wars in Indochina. The French had been defeated the year before and the Americans were beginning their involvement. The quiet man of the title is Pyle, young, enthusiastic and an economic attache. His optimism and naievete costs him his life. As for our narrator, Thomas Fowler, he exhibits a cynicism and despair at the efforts of the west to try and understand Vietnam and to save them from communism. His statement, "it's their war, not ours" anticipates the foolishness that America would embrace in the following decade.

The Guest List, Foley -B

         This is another from the NYT summer reading list. It's a whodunit with a unique twist. In the prologue, someone is done in, but we don't find out who it is until almost the end of the book. The setting is an island off the Atlantic coast of Ireland that a couple has transformed from a deserted locale to a wedding destination. We meet the few dozen folks who are in the wedding party and their significant others,  the bride, editor of a popular online magazine, and the groom, star of a survival type reality tv show. As the bride, groom, best man, maid of honor,  a great friend of the bride and his wife tell their side of the story, more and more background,  some of it flat out awful, raises its ugly head. We learn that one person in our wedding party is a real SOB and that person winds up dead. The ending is a bit too contrived for me.

The Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt, Johnson - B+

    The pirate principal of this story, Henry Every, was born near Devon in the middle of the 17th century, and likely joined the Royal Navy as a teenager. He came of age in an era when there were conflicting examples of piracy. The Barbary pirates were universally condemned as enslavers and tyrants, while men like Drake were knighted and enriched for their roles as privateers. Every first appears in the historical record in the 1690's as a slave trader working for the Governor of Bermuda. In 1693, he shipped out as first mate on a ship that was part of a small squadron seeking to salvage sunken treasure in the Caribbean.  The following May, after the ship was stranded in Spain for over half-a-year, Every led a mutiny, re-named the ship the 'Fancy' and sailed south around the Cape of Good Hope and headed to the pirates' den of Madagascar. 

     Across the Indian Ocean, the Grand Mughal Aurangzeb, the Moslem ruler of India and easily the richest person in the world, was preparing his ship, the 'Ganj-I-Sawai' for sea. It was 1500 tons, one of, if not the largest ship in the world. It was carrying 800 dignitaries and 400 hands to Mecca for the hajj. It was also loaded with jewels, gold, spices and cotton.

     Every headed to the Gulf of Aden that summer and was met there by half-a-dozen other ships in his line of business. The pirates agreed on a concerted effort and selected Every as their leader. The 'Fancy' was so fast that a report was sent to the East India Company saying she sails "so hard now, that she fears not who follows her." On Sept. 7th, the 'Fancy' captured the 'Fath Mahmamadi' and  £60,000  of gold. The next day, they approached the much larger and better armed 'Ganj-I-Sawai' and were met with propitious fortune. The Indian treasure ship experienced an explosion on her gun deck and the 'Fancy's' first broadside dismasted her. The fortune the 'Fancy' absconded with was estimated as somewhere between 200-600,000. To  locate all of the treasure, they tortured the Muslim crew. They were surprised to find dozens of women including princesses, maids, and concubines aboard and proceeded in an orgy of rapine. Some of the  women threw themselves overboard. The  addition of  sexual violence to a heist that may have been the largest ever meant that soon, the 'Fancy', Every,  and the crew achieved international ignominy. 

     The sacrilege of the British pirates cast doubt upon the members of the East India Company leading to the incarceration of the entire garrison in Bombay. All realized that Every's actions put the company at risk and a writ was issued from London calling all Englishmen to pursue and capture the pirates. Every sailed for Reunion, purchased slaves, and then sailed to the Bahamas. The crew dispersed and Every and about twenty men sailed for Ireland in a small schooner. Soon thereafter, eight of his men were captured. Two turned state's evidence and the rest were hung at Execution Dock in London after a trial. As for Henry Every, he disappeared from the historical record. "He snuck back into the shadows." The lasting historical consequence of these events was an alliance between the Grand Mughal and the East India Company, tasking the English with the responsibility to protect ocean- going traffic in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

     

The Last Flight, Clark - B+

                         This novel is on the NYT summer list and it's a doozy. A successful woman married to the scion of a wealthy and famous family knows it's time. He's been abusing her for a decade, and with him about to announce for a senate seat from New York, it's now or never for her to leave. Her plan is upended when he sends her somewhere she wasn't intending to go, and in an act of desperation, she swaps identities and boarding passes with an equally desperate woman at JFK. The plane she was supposed to be on crashes and she's watching her funeral on CNN. Things are never that simple. This is truly fun.

Clean Hands, Hoffman - B

                        This fun novel was on the NYT summer reading list. It is set in today's NYC and opens with a law firm associate having his cellphone picked during a bump in Grand Central Station. When the firm's security people review the CCTV coverage, it appears as if the associate and pickpocket are working in tandem. Recovering the phone is the first priority and making certain the documents that were on it are not leaked is the next step. Off we go in a plot involving Russian thieves in Brooklyn, former CIA operatives in Manhattan, a DOD off the books operation and a story that pulls you in. 

Serenade For Nadia, Livaneli - B+

      This extraordinary novel is written by Turkey's most popular novelist. He tells the story through a narration by a 36-year-old woman in a clerical position at the University of Istanbul. Maya is assigned to accompany a visiting Harvard professor, Max, a German emigre who had spent a few years at the university from 1939-1942. We learn that dozens of Jewish intellectuals were brought  to Istanbul by Attaturk in 1933 when they lost their jobs in Germany to build the university and the entire education system in Turkey. Integral to the novel is the history of Max's wife, a Jew who made it to Romania and almost escaped to Palestine. She was one of 769 Jews who died when the overloaded ship, the 'Struma', was expelled by Turkish authorities from Istanbul, and torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea. The novel and the translation are spot on and recommended.