Review: The Ghost by Robert Harris

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (October 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416551816
• ISBN-13: 978-1416551812
• Reading group: adult
• Genre: political thriller

Synopsis:

The narrator, an intelligent, acerbic and single ghostwriter, is the perfect guy to do a high-stakes job on short notice. In order to recover from breaking up with his latest girlfriend and also for pecuniary reasons he decides to step into the shoes of his colleague named Michael James McAra. McAra had a nasty accident - he fell off the Martha’s Vineyard ferry and drowned while he had been trying to make the memoir of a former British prime minister, Adam Lang, publishable. Adam Lang sounds and looks suspiciously like Tony Blair, the real British ex-prime minister. He and his wife are currently living on a wintry Cape Cod, at the luxurious American estate of their billionaire publisher, where Lang is supposed to finish, with some little help, his “autobiography”. The death of his first “ghost” is just a minor obstacle. Like a true politician Lang won’t cancel the contract and refund his advance - the deal was made in this politician’s heyday and he fully knows he is worth less money now that he’s over the hill.

The new ghostwriter finds the deadline really terrifying and, after all, he is supposed to produce "the first full inside scoop by a leader on the west's war on terror". More accustomed to fabricating the memoirs of addled pop stars and inarticulate footballers, our narrator wants to "put some heart" into the leaden first draft left behind. When the rewrite begins, he meets other residents of the estate - Lang’s strangely embittered, restless wife and his slinky personal assistant, an overly devoted woman, who is also Lang’s more or less overt mistress. Soon the situation gets even more complicated and tense. Lang is to be investigated by the international criminal court on charges of war crimes, possibly even of crimes against humanity. When he was in power four British civilians were detained on suspicion of terrorist intentions and handed over to the Americans for interrogation, which meant nothing less than torture. Richard Rycart, an estranged former foreign secretary, has a letter signed by Lang that appears to authorize that arrests. The publisher shortens the deadline, which was already very demanding at the beginning. To make things even more complicated the ghostwriter finds out that some ruthless, faceless powers are after the unlovely manuscript. Perhaps his colleague's drowning wasn't an accident after all. What will happen to him and to his client ? Will he be able to finish his job satisfactorily?

What I liked:

“The Ghost” is very good - intelligent, perceptive and fun - as long as it is able to sustain its tone of witty tartness.

The first part I found to be the best – here’s the example why. The unnamed narrator cynically criticizes some former clients while praising his faithful super-slim laptop: “We had endured rock stars who believed themselves messiahs with a mission to save the planet. We had survived footballers whose monosyllabic grunts would make a silverback gorilla sound as if he were reciting Shakespeare. We had put up with soon-to-be-forgotten actors who had egos the size of a Roman emperor’s, and entourages to match.” How not to love him instantly?

Also citing a real handbook on ghostwriting by Andrew Crofts was a very good move - some tricks of the trade were really entertaining and they added a touch of professionalism and reality to the story. Not to mention the fact that I fully agree with  the author's  scolding of the publishing business for creating and coddling hack memoirists.

Finally the sensational core of the plot - the great revelation, and the crucial twist in the tail of it – is an accusation no one could make or take literally. The Ghost is, not about Blair; though of course it remains an indictment of everything he did and stood for. I think it is mainly a novel about the traps and snares that wait for everybody who craves power. To cite a sentence from another Harris’s novel, “Imperium”, “power brings a man many luxuries but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them." How very true.

One more remark : readers should be warned not to read the last pages of the book before they work their way there naturally because Harris has saved a little surprise for them  at the very end. In my opinion the last paragraph of the book nearly redeemed most of the faults by the way.

What I didn’t like:

It’s a pity that “The Ghost” loses its entertaining factor in the second, more action-packed part. The book degenerates swiftly into a commonplace “airport” mystery – a novel that its protagonist might have held in contempt when his safety and professional detachment were still there. By introducing special forces, spies and a shadowy evil corporate entity “The Ghost”, I must admit, underwent a complete sea change from its promising early pages. It seems a good ghostwriter would be needed here.

Final verdict:

This is a quick, effortless read: good vacation novel but not quite as riveting as I'd expect. If you want to read a good Harris book, try “Imperium”, reviewed by me here.

Teaser Tuesday today and I decided to quote a fragmet from "Lustrum" by R.Harris (p.3, the very beginning of the first chapter), reviewed by me not so long ago...;)

"Two days before the inauguration of Marcus Tullius Cicero as consul of Rome the body of a child was pulled from the River Tiber, close to the boat sheds of the republican war fleet. Such a discovery, though tragic, would not normally have warranted the attention of a consul-elect. But there was something so grotesque about this particular corpse, and so threatening to civic peace, that the magistrate responsible for keeping order in the city, Gaius Octavius, sent word to Cicero asking him to come at once."

Review: Robert Harris, „Imperium” and „Lustrum” (a.k.a. “Conspirata”)

Synopsis

These books are two parts of a planned trilogy based on the life of Marcus Tullius Cicero, taken mostly from his own letters and transcripts of his speeches. The rise to power of that well-known self-made Roman senator and lawyer is told from the perspective of Tiro. He was Cicero’s loyal slave and amanuensis, the inventor of the first shorthand system which enabled him to accurately record every word the Senator uttered (or anybody conversing with him for that matter). We meet him in the twilight of his years (Tiro is said to have lived till one hundred, no mean feat in those times), composing his memoirs and acting as our humble narrator, knowing his days are counted and therefore he doesn’t have to be afraid of anyone anymore. The focus here is not on Tiro, though, who, as a slave, is reduced to being just a fly on the wall, but on the events which swirled around him and he happened to live in very interesting times; through his eyes we witness the final days of the Roman Republic full of dramatic events – the result of scheming and conniving of the best, the brightest and the richest Roman citizens to gain more power. Cicero’s court victory over the murderous tyrant Verres, despite him being supported by the aristocracy, using only the power of his oratory, was a show worth live tv transmission (pay-per-view of course, nothing less!). The victory opened Cicero the way to the highest position available in the ancient Roman Republic. It was also the beginning of his end. Sometimes when people finally reach those highest honours and posts they had strived after so badly they simply lose their focus as there’s nothing left to fight for. I think it was also the problems of Cicero – “Lustrum” is a downward ride as “Imperium” was an upward journey and the pace is truly similar to that of a good rollercoaster. It starts with an ugly murder of a young slave boy who apparently became a human sacrifice as the body had been strangely mutilated. Who killed him and what for? Cicero as the new Consul would like to solve this crime but it proves more difficult that he ever imagined, especially as he must fight a more demanding opponent than Verres – the psychopathic but likeable aristocrat, Lucius Sergius Catilina. Meanwhile we are shown the unstoppable accession to power of the ruthless but very clever Gaius Julius Caesar, financed and helped secretly by a general-cum- businessman, Marcus Licinius Crassus. Abroad, Rome is consolidating its massive empire with the help of another general, Gnaeus Pompeius the Great, who is a figure very respected by his soldiers but definitely lacks Caesar’s brains and insolence. A no-holds-barred struggle for power is brewing and there will be plenty of casualties. Will Cicero be able to defend his position and come unscathed? Who will he support? What effect will his decisions have on his family and friends?

What I liked:

Plenty. Even if you are familiar with the history of the ancient Rome and you know pretty well how the Republic ended you will be neither bored nor annoyed. The author is clearly confident that he's preaching to the choir : the narration is presented in such a non-condescending but captivating way that you are simply swept up by the current of events. People and their motives are unchangeable after all, so whether we see power-hungry politicians, ruthless businessmen, high-born psychopaths or vain generals we usually can relate. To put it shortly both books are well written, fast-paced and in parts so gripping that I would find myself reading yet another chapter long after I should have gone to sleep. Harris, unlike e.g. Dan Brown, truly excels in creating three-dimensional characters. The scenes set in the senate and court houses are worth the entry fee alone.

What I didn’t like:

The final gesture of Tiro, after being liberated by his master (I won’t tell you what it was as it would be a spoiler) was a bit too much soap-opera thing for me. I also would like to see more scenes with women playing the main role. Where’s the final part, by the way?

The final verdict:

These two books are highly recommendable - even if you are not into historical books you will be delighted!







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