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Tom Clancy makes demands upon his readers and upon himself. His meticulous attention to detail is at once both fascinating and maddening. Characters drop into the pages like swarms of paratroopers; readers are advised to take notes to keep track of all of them, particularly those with surnames unfamiliar to Westerners. The length of his books are daunting, causing at least one wag to comment that Clancy does not write books so much as build doorstops. And yet, and yet...there is simply no denying that there may well be no one who is more compelling an author currently laboring in the field of fiction. And the latest exhibit in the presentation of that argument is RED RABBIT.
Clancy is at the stage in his career where he can take chances; and what greater risk can he take than writing a work of historical fiction in which the end of the book is already known before one even begins to read? Ah, but part of the joy of reading Clancy is his opinions --- which, as any government op will tell you, are more often revelations --- as to how that ending occurred. So too with RED RABBIT, which occurs in the early 1980s, at the very beginning of Jack Ryan's career with the CIA. Ryan's first day on the job begins with his examination of a potentially explosive document. The newly elected Pope, John Paul the Second, has delivered a private ultimatum to the government of his beloved native Poland and indirectly to that of the Soviet Union: If the Polish government does not stop it's repression of its people, he will resign the Papacy and return to Warsaw. Such an action would be far more than a symbolic gesture: it would shake the foundations of at least two governments and profoundly affect the actions of a third. What the Pope knows, and what the CIA suspects, is that John Paul has effectively written and signed his own death warrant. And, indeed, Yuriy Andropov, the feared head of the KGB, has set the wheels in motion to put a stop to the Pope's actions before they even begin.
Knowing that John Paul does not fear his own death, and will accordingly be undeterred by threats, Andropov steers his plot through Kremlin intrigue, while Ryan, occasionally stymied by those within the American government who don't believe that the Kremlin would contemplate such an audacious plan, rushes to prevent it. Clancy, however, won't be rushed, as he painstakingly, line by line, paints a picture of a chess game between government forces as they attempt to outguess, out think, and outmaneuver each other. While the outcome is known, the events leading up to it, and the event itself, have repercussions that continue to affect events right up to the present. Clancy, as he has previously, demonstrates an uncanny ability to pull back the curtain and reveal not only what may have occurred, but also what almost assuredly did occur. More than one higher-up, in more than one government, has been known to cringe while reading a Clancy novel and say, "How the hell did he know that?!" RED RABBIT will undoubtedly elicit similar comments, and similar fears.
Clancy, ultimately, is a marvel. His analytical mind and canny imagination have combined to create a body of work that at once has redefined and recreated a genre in his own image. If his work is challenging to read, it is a challenge worth undertaking both for the journey and the destination.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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