A thriller based on a fundamental tenet of Sun Tzu's Art of War: Wars are won not on the battlefield, but in the minds of men. After trying to disentangle the minds here, we'll take the action, please. Assistant Secretary of State Desaix Clark (hero of Maximum Vigilance, 1992) is sent to Beijing by his friend and boss, Secretary of State Jim Moffat, to avert a Chinese/Japanese invasion of Taiwan. His initial meeting with Prime Minister Lee Ann Wu is rife with hidden meanings underlying the chatter about food and culture; Desaix, also a psychiatrist, is happy to engage in the minister's mind games. When Ann reveals a possibly apocryphal conflict with her defense minister, General Y.K. Chang, Desaix is torn between negotiating with Chang, who periodically detains him in torture chambers, or with Ann, who proves to be mentally unstable. His uncertainty extends to all the top officials he meets from China, Japan, and Taiwan, any of whom may be vying for pan-Asian control. He and his entourage, which includes CIA Beijing Station Chief Phoebe Hill, race via underground tunnel, rail, and ship to Shanghai, where an international delegate will attempt to reach a resolution before war erupts. Desaix gradually uncovers the most shocking secret of all regarding bureaucratic rivalry between the US State Department and the CIA. Realizing that he is being used as a pawn between Ann and Chang, Desaix is now unable to trust even his old friend Jim. The narrative embodies Sun Tzu's state of formlessness, in which the warrior follows his adversary with a plan that has no constant shape, observing and waiting until he has the opportunity to strike. Unfortunately, the complex deceptions and lack of structure create a difficult reading experience. The mental gymnastics Desaix employs to get himself out of dangerous situations are lost on baffled readers. Pieczenik uses Chinese philosophy to weave a web so intricate that it's opaque and abstruse.
Pub Date: Feb. 3, 1995
ISBN: 0-446-51557-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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