The American Ambassador [Hardcover]

Ward S. Just (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1987

The author of A Family Trust takes us behind the lines in the battle between democracy and terrorism with the story of an American ambassador and his son who has joined up with a German terrorist organization.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In a hospital because of the lingering effects of an old wound, William North reflects on his 20-odd years as a successful Foreign Service officer. Now his career and all that he values are threatened by his own son. As a member of a West German terrorist gang, Bill, Jr., has become the ultimate expatriateintent on destroying both his father and his fatherland. In dramatic episodes of political conflict (ranging from Africa to Georgetown to West Berlin) and in scenes of quiet domestic tragedy, Just's narrative is eloquent and convincing. He combines a suspenseful plot with a sensitive examination of characters and their divergent values, shifting point of view so that the reader can feel both the pain of the father and the nihilistic anger of his son. Albert E. Wilhelm, English Dept., Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Ward Just is the author of fourteen previous novels, including the National book Award finalist Echo House and An Unfinished Season, winner of the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Award. In a career that began as a war correspondent for Newsweek and the Washington Post, Just has lived and written in half a dozen countries, including Britain, France, and Vietnam. His characters often lead public lives as politicians, civil servants, soldiers, artists, and writers. It is the tension between public duty and private conscience that animates much of his fiction, including Forgetfulness. Just and his wife, Sarah Catchpole, divide their time between Martha’s Vineyard and Paris.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (T); First Edition. date on title page edition (March 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395426944
• ISBN-13: 978-0395426944
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 7.9 x 3.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,082,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

WARD JUST is the author of fifteen previous novels, including the National Book Award finalist Echo House, A Dangerous Friend, winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for fiction from the Society of American Historians, and An Unfinished Season, winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award and a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, if you can find a copy., October 20, 2002

By 

Juliet Gole Krarup - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The American Ambassador (Hardcover)

I felt compelled to write when I read the other reviews. I think Just is getting a bad rap. The novel is interesting and creative, and full of poetic prose. I enjoyed the characters. There's the bright but somehow clueless Ambassador and his wife who have lived their lives of adventure, giving their son everything that they would have wanted. But their son, raised overseas (Germany, France and Congo, if I recall correctly) in a "sophistocated" globe-trotting world, rebels against it all. The novel portrays a fascinating dichotomy of a patriotic American father, and his son, who chooses to become a German terrorist.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and dark, September 9, 2005

By 

TLW (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Ambassador: A Novel (Paperback)

It's fiction after all, not intended to be fact specific. It's one of Just's best efforts. Ignore the other reviews, they missed the point. This is my third read of a Just novel and I liked it best. "The Translator" is a close second. Having visited Germany many times, I could visualize the settings depicited in the novel and Just's descriptions were right on target. The estranged relationship between parents and son is well presented and the story keeps one guessing at the outcome.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Darkness Visible, January 20, 2006

By 

Joseph Duemer (South Colton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: American Ambassador (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is not as bad as the negative reviews here suggest, but this is not Ward Just at his best, either. Worth reading? Absolutely, if you are interested in the psychology of the Cold War. That's what this novel is about. The portrait of Bill North Sr. is beautifully drawn & that is what Just is really interested in here -- a diplomat in extremis -- but the depiction of North's son Bill Jr. is much more problematic. Perhaps all terrorist acts are without motive, but the son's pathological detachment remains unexplained. As I savor the aferglow of the novel, I would note that the figure who sticks with me is Ambassador North's wife, a painter married to a diplomat, a woman who will not be bullied.

If you have not read any of Just's novels, you might want to begin with A Dangerous Friend, which is about the early days of Vietnam & which is more successful, I think, in blending psychology & politics.