The American Ambassador
A Novel
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
"A gripping international thriller" about a Foreign Service officer—and the son who turns to terrorism to spite him (Los Angeles Times).
William North Jr. inherited his father's keen political instincts and passion for justice. But the last time Ambassador North saw his son he seemed like a stranger—and a hostile one at that. Now, just as North prepares to take a new post in Germany, reports emerge that Bill Jr. is aligned with a German terrorist organization.
Suddenly, a private conflict between father and son escalates to a matter of national security. North is faced with a terrifying dilemma as loyalty to family and country are directly at odds.
The American Ambassador is at once a riveting tale of suspense and a thoughtful meditation on the fragility of Western values in an age of terrorism.
"Haunting and persuasive . . . Charged with authenticity . . . A splendid book that is both thoughtful and fast-moving." —The New York Times
"To make out the jagged intersections of ambition and greed, idealism and sell-out in contemporary politics, you need only turn to . . . The American Ambassador." —Salon.com
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 1986 winner of England's Booker Prize, and by all accounts doing very well over there, this novel about a group of elderly Welsh people and their romantic and alcoholic shenanigans is likely to have tougher sledding on this side of the Atlantic. Amis, as usual, offers some funny and even touching moments, but his peculiarly elliptical comic style takes some getting used to. His four aging couplesthree stay-at-homes, responding to the return among them of a TV poet, who has been a success in England, and his wifeare well enough characterized, but once the reader is inside their heads, they all think Amis thoughts: often surly, resentful, nostalgic and deeply conservative. (In one remarkable lunchtime scene several of the protagonists grumble about "the penal system, the health service, the BBC, black people,'' varying this with ``eulogies of President Reagan, Enoch Powell, the South African government, the Israeli hawks . . . ,'' and there is no indication the author is anything but sympathetic.) The sheer quantity of boozing that goes on is dizzyingthe men favoring whiskey and gin, the women (no really glaring misogyny here, only the usual undertone of Amis dislike) white wine. The expertise on the stages of drunkenness and hangover is, as always, awesome, but by the rather unfocused ending, which includes a sudden death, a wedding and a tentative reconciliation, the reader is likely to be as befuddled as most of the characters.
