Topic #24: Pleasure reading: "Patriot Games" by Tom Clancy

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.