Tom Clancy is an American
author, best known for his technically-detailed espionage and military science
story lines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video
games on which he didn’t work but which bear his name for licensing and a
promotional purposes.
On the one hand the title of
the book means that a patriot, a person who is fond of his or her native
country, plays some games. On the other hand the title reveals the fact that
the characters in the story are different patriots with different games who
follow opposite goals. To my mind they lose the sense of patriotism and
transform it into the game. Their games are different too because of their
ideology: what is “the patriotism” for one isn’t “the patriotism” for the
other. But all of them take part in patriot games.
The story is subdivided into
two parts. It begins in London and then passes
to the USA
where it finishes. In my opinion the author uses such a device to show us that
terrorism may touch us everywhere. Both these places are changed greatly
because of this global problem. Nobody could imagine that the Royal family can be attacked in the centre of London. It’s “unpatriotic”
to make crimes against the Crown agents. Moreover people in America have
never heard about terrorists at all. That’s why from my point of view, Tom Clancy
chooses these two virgin-terrorism country to make his book colorful.
Let me give you the whole
reconstruction of the events. In London,
Jack Ryan saves the Prince and Princess of Wales, from an Irish terrorist group
called Ulster Liberation Army (ULA) during a kidnapping attempt on the Mall. Sean
Miller, a ULA terrorist captured by Ryan, is sentenced to life imprisonment for
killing the royal driver. However, he is freed by ULA members while being
transported to prison. The ULA later goes after Ryan and his family, partially
as an act of revenge, but his expectant wife, Cathy, and daughter, Sally, are
injured when Miller causes their car to crash on a freeway. After the attack on
his family, Jack accepts an offer from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The
Prince and Princess of Wales
come to visit Ryan in America.
The ULA conducts another operation—they plan to kill Ryan and his family and
kidnap the Royal Family. The attack ultimately fails, Ryan and his friends manage
to apprehend and subdue the terrorists. Ryan arrives at Bethesda after the
final arrest to be with Cathy for the birth of their son, who will be god
parented by Robby Jackson and his wife, as well as the Prince and Princess of
Wales.
Now let me pass on to the main
characters of the story. Robby first met Jack Ryan while he was still a
Lieutenant Commander, and recovering from an injury that had left him grounded
from being a Navy pilot. Robby and Jack befriended one another during a kendo
match while Robby was still in a cast from his flight accident. The friendship
would blossom and endure for years to come, to the point Jack would consider
Robby "closer than a brother ever could have been". Robby supports
Jack when Cathy and her daughter Sally are in the hospital after the attempt of
Miller and his gang. Robby never left his friend's side, and ultimately things
came to a head when terrorists attacked Jack's house, when Robby, his wife
Sissy, and the Prince and Princess were visiting Jack for a barbecue. Robby,
Jack and the Prince worked together to eliminate the terrorists once and for
all.
Another main character is Jack Ryan.
After officer training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he went on to serve as a platoon
leader. However, his military career was cut short at the age of 23 when his
platoon's helicopter crashed during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The crash badly injured Ryan's back. U.S. Navy surgeons, at the National Naval
Medical Center
in Bethesda, Maryland, inadequately repaired his back. This
led to a lengthy recovery process (during which he nearly became addicted to
pain medications) after which, complete with a permanent disability and wearing
a back brace, he left the Marines. He passed his stockbroker's exam and took a
position with Wall Street investment firm Merrill Lynch's Baltimore office. His parents died in a plane
crash at Chicago Midway
International Airport,
19 months after his crash in Crete. He
developed a fear of flying that persisted for years. He also invents the canary
trap, a method for exposing an information leak, which involves giving
different versions of a sensitive document to each of a group of suspects and
seeing which version is leaked. These accomplishments come to the attention of U.S.
Navy Vice Admiral James Greer, the CIA's Deputy Director for Intelligence. The
expertise of Ryan's report, plus the application, persuades Greer to offer him
a permanent job in the CIA, but Ryan declines. Ryan is wounded while trying to
prevent the terrorist attack and foils their plan, killing one of the gunmen
and capturing another.
Personally I think the author
wanted to attract the attention of the reader to the global problem –
terrorism. I believe that he did so because the book was written in 1987 when the
terroristic movement gained momentum. I think
that the main idea of the story is that terrorism is a difficult war to fight. The
Scotland Yard, FBI and CIA stand behind the terrorists’ back. Their acts became
efficient only at the end when many people
had been killed. Moreover, terrorism knows no boarders: O’Donnell and his group
make acts of terror both in Great Britain
and the USA.
In conclusion I’d like to say
that this book impressed me greatly. The story reveals the author as a master
of character drawing. Moreover he has managed to predict the future because
today terrorism is a burning issue.