Alistair MacLean - Reviews and Writing
When I got home last Wednesday there was a nice fat
package waiting for me. Not only did it have the three Alistair MacLean books I requested, but the seller had included a fourth for free! The following note was stickied onto the cover:
Hello:
Please excuse my wounded condition... You see I got into a fight with a much better swordsman and suffered a gruesome gash across my face.
I've been bandaged up pretty well and I'm still willing to serve... if you'll have me.
"The Secret Ways"
*delighted wibble* The injuries in question were two wide razor cuts to the cover, penetrating a couple dozen pages. The cover and first few pages were repaired with tape. It wasn't PBS-allowable, but just fine for reading, especially with a bookmate.
I requested Night Without End, The Black Shrike, and The Golden Rendezvous, written in MacLean's best years according to Wikipedia, between 1959 and 1962. The "wounded" book was The Secret Ways, coming immediately before those three.
The Secret Ways is the first of MacLean's books to not be set in World War II, taking place in Hungary in the year it was published. The protagonist is a British agent assigned to bring out an important Western scientist. Hungary was of course part of the U.S.S.R; the Hungarian Communists are fully capable and arguably more brutal antagonists than the Soviets. The Secret Ways starts with a bang and accelerates without pause for the first four chapters. Nor is the remainder anti-climactic in any way; it never disappointed. The Secret Ways is the most intense MacLean I've read. It surpasses any Tom Clancy I've read, including The Cardinal of the Kremlin, which has some comparable moments. (Dangerously near spoilers there, girl.)
The Secret Ways supposedly "contained overt philosophical and moral themes that were not well received" by the public. Thus saith Wikipedia. Don't let that description fool you, though. I'm very, very glad that I ended up with it, despite not having requested it. These themes were hinted at in the characterizations of The Guns of Navarone. They unavoidably slow the action down, although that might be welcome as a break from the intensity. Like all MacLean's work, though, they are key to the story. They attempt to impose the love of mankind for each other and the corresponding avoidance of war, without any kind of theological basis. Even the "love your enemies" statement is explicitly consigned to stay within the covers of the Bible. There is unresolvable tension in any position that imposes morality without a solid basis. Nevertheless, I can understand the characters that hold to it - and more importantly, act in accordance with it.
One character in The Secret Ways is remarkably Saint-like. He may be best described as a tragic Saint, although one would never know if from his demeanor and actions. It is in his motivations that the tragedy lies, and the tragedy is revealed slowly through hints and discussion. He is a wholly admirable and fascinating character.
There is a perfect "I Spy" connection to this book, if I only had the skills and imagination to flesh it out. The agent's plan hinges strongly of the success of two other agents - two very skilled and valuable agents - to get the scientist's son out from behind the Iron Curtain. For various reasons their success becomes imperiled, and there is, to say the least, delay. No more detail is given, but I can guess plenty. It would be a perfect plot for any "I Spy" episode, and made-to-order for a fanfic. If only!
Night Without End is set on the Greenland ice cap, and was responsible for busting at least one of the so-called MacLean Formulas I thought I'd found. (See below.) Out of the four it didn't make it into the Five-Star Favorites list, but that might be partially because of unfair comparison with the superlative The Secret Ways. I learned rather more about frostbite than I ever wanted to (not that MacLean is ever explicit; it's just not fun); I also was surprised by a number of his characters. Under great pressure many fictional characters become nastier than they ever were; a few turn much better than they ever were. Nice, but perhaps idealistic. MacLean's characters in Night Without End are remarkbly dynamic, changing in non-clichéd and wholly realistic ways. I actually felt ashamed for my early dislike of one particular character.
The Black Shrike joined with Night Without End in busting a Formula, and on its own blew another clear out of the water. Wow. In many ways it's one of the most romantic I've read, although that's not saying much. I can give no higher praise than to say that its romantic moments are scarcely less enjoyable than its action moments. They are admittedly much fewer. Humor is not absent, either. And yet in other ways it becomes one of the grimmer books I've read. This is in particular contrast to the setting on a small South Seas island - a far cry from the familiar ice-cold and watery haunts of many other MacLean books. The villain(s) of this piece is/are particularly well-drawn.
The Golden Rendezvous rivals The Secret Ways for my favorite of this batch. Its protagonist is John Carter, just like Edgar Rice Burrough's famous warrior of Mars. Coincidence? I think not. (See below for what I suspect is another naming tribute.) It is set on a combination tramp steamer and ultra-luxury cruise ship. Yes, you read that right; it's fascinating, logical, and becomes an integral part of the plot. The difficulties begin with mysterious disappearances and murders - of officers, not passengers - and rapidly escalate to hijacking. There's, of course, far more to it than that. It's only slightly spoiler-ish to reference my previously-acknowledged weakness for wounded heroes. Carter, like the protagonist of The Black Shrike, is seriously injured for a good part of the book. Once again MacLean avoids clichés and stays true to human nature as his protagonists use their heads and gumption and sheer stubbornness.
My list of MacLean favorites has jumped from three to six. It was a glorious three days.
You may recall that a couple weeks ago when nudged by
jordannamorgan, I wrote a little about Alistair MacLean. I looked him up on Wikipedia for the occasion and saw a chronology of his books for the first time. I've read the ones in bold; the ones I've really liked are in red.
- HMS Ulysses, in the USA H.M.S. Ulysses (1955)
- The Guns of Navarone (1957)
- South by Java Head (1957)
- The Last Frontier, in the USA The Secret Ways (1959)
- Night Without End (1959)
- Fear is the Key (1961)
- The Dark Crusader, in the USA The Black Shrike (as Ian Stuart, 1961)
- The Golden Rendezvous (1962)
- The Satan Bug (as Ian Stuart, 1962)
- Ice Station Zebra (1963)
- When Eight Bells Toll (1966)
- Where Eagles Dare (1967)
- Force 10 From Navarone (1968)
- Puppet on a Chain (1969)
- Caravan to Vaccarès (1970)
- Bear Island (1971)
- The Way to Dusty Death (1973)
- Breakheart Pass (1974)
- Circus (1975)
- The Golden Gate (1976)
- Seawitch (1977)
- Goodbye California (1978)
- Athabasca (1980)
- River of Death (1981)
- Partisans (1982)
- Floodgate (1983)
- San Andreas (1984)
- Santorini (1986)
It has puzzled me for years why some of his books were so fantastic, and others could never, ever draw me in. This chronology, and the discussion of his style in the article, shows me why. After his brief retirement from 1963-6, the books went downhill. Harsh words in the article, but they're true. But now, too, I had the confidence to gamble on some of the earlier ones. My gamble was well-rewarded!
A number of my assumptions were proved incorrect. From the checkered nature (some good, some bad) of my previous reading, I thought I'd identified some formulas. It was disappointing to discover this, because the mechanics of MacLean's style demonstrated a real skill that was worthy of more variety in plotting.
1. The protagonist and/or narrator is a professional agent, either civilian or military, with extremely high expertise.
2. The presence of a traitor, who could be anyone, from the protagonist himself to a name barely mentioned.
3. A staggering accumulation, increasing in huge jumps, of incredible odds against the protagonist.
4. A dryly humorous tone to the narration and/or the dialogue.
5. Zero sexual content and the occasional bit of romance.
6. "Happy" or satisfying endings, even amidst disaster; the people who really matter don't die.
(These do not all apply to HMS Ulysses, which is the once-in-an-author's-life great novel, and falls outside the more personalized espionage-like stories.)
Well. These four books definitely exploded Formulas 1-2 and 6, introduced a plot with lots of turns that helped counteract Formula 3, and gently shoved aside Formula 4. MacLean is truly the master story-teller and writer I thought he was. I'm happy to report that the only thing MacLean's consistent about is the lack of sexuality. It is masterfully done. I cannot even imagine where he could have included it. It's simply his style, like having only mild swearing like nearly all fiction before him, and like not including gore. There are injuries - bad injuries - and when necessary they are described; but nothing is gratuitous.
Let me add another, not a formula, but a Theme. To quote Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore: "Things are seldom what they seem!"
Generally speaking, the challenges his protagonists face range from mere personal survival to virtual save-the-world missions. But even these latter are fantastically well-hidden, as any serious World Destruction Plot would be in the real world. (Don't limit that to World Destruction Plots. All of the Evil Plans are well-concealed and only gradually pried out into the open through evidence and reasoning. Quite realistic.) And when they finally do break on the protagonist, he - and the reader - hardly has time to dwell on the implications. No time, nor inclination; what sane person really wants to think about how he's got the world on his shoulders? That would petrify anyone.
MacLean is apparently seen as a precursor to Tom Clancy. I find MacLean's books far more enjoyable. He doesn't mess with the technical jargon that Clancy spends so much time on, nor does he create intricately nasty political setups to drive the action. And he doesn't go into the early life of every minor character's next door neighbor. *g* And yet Clancy's own fully-fleshed-out stories are no more twistingly, intricately, or tightly plotted than MacLean's.
If I'm comparing plots with Tom Clancy, I must compare writing style with Edgar Rice Burroughs. ERB was a terrific story-teller; his books move, and they're fun and exciting and imaginative. But compared to MacLean, his prose is downright childish. It's simple, undescriptive, and adds nothing to the story. MacLean's very word choice is a delight. Not flowery, not needlessly complex; but full of power without dramatic words, full of intensity without exclamation points, and full of interest without pretension.
There are motifs in his writing that are consistent, but these spring, I believe, out of MacLean's own experiences. Many of his settings include extreme cold, either seasonal or because of altitude/latitude. Many others, and some of the same, are set partially on - or in - the water. He doesn't do much for my aversion to cold temperatures; nor does he give me a fondness for snow and ice. :D
One parting reflection. My arguably favorite character is Captain Keith Mallory from The Guns of Navarone and the sadly inferior Force 10 from Navarone. Captain Mallory is a New Zealander, and before the war was world-famous as a mountain climber. I have a very strong suspicion that MacLean named him in tribute to George Mallory, the British mountaineer who died climbing Mount Everest in 1924.
I still have two books yet to read on the early-MacLean list: Fear Is the Key and The Satan Bug, both available on PBS. How long should I wait before requesting them, d'ya think? :D