Customer Reviews

Banquo's Ghosts: A Novel

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

BANQUO'S GHOSTS by Rich Lowry and Keith Korman is great entertainment. Witness Stewart Banquo, a man who conducts espionage like a chess-master. Some reviewers on these pages have complained that they wanted more of Banquo, as he is just one of many memorable characters represented in this powerful thriller. Or perhaps they want something different; a 007-type who pitches knock-outs with every punch, makes love to every run-way model he meets and finally dispatches the bad guys with great explosions. But Banquo does little of that. He is a thinking man's spy for the 21st century. This reader found the measured development and final display of Banquo's wisdom and ability to impose order on chaos to be ultimately, inspiring and completely satisfying.

The plot involves a "rogue" C.I.A. operation to assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist, followed by an Iranian terrorist attack on New York City. The action develops at break-neck speed and for those who want pure fun this summer, this is your book.

But BANQUO'S GHOSTS transcends its genre. Literature has the power, like UNCLE TOM'S CABIN of the 19th century, to affect the progress of nations, and this might be just such a work. I wish every American and European would read it.

Mr. Lowry and Mr. Korman advance an important political argument here. They seem to admit that the Bush administration's rush to war with Iraq with its supposed "WMDs", was a blunder. But they maintain, and remind us that nonetheless, we must remain vigilant and fearless to act, even outside our borders.

This book reminds us that even now, as we deal with a world economic crisis, we must keep in mind the ignorant Islamic extremists who admit their profound malice for the west and claim divine sanction for their evil deeds, even as they use their own naïve, young people in suicide attacks to express their hatred for their perceived enemies. And late at night in his New York office Banquo contemplates the lessons of September 11:

"... the death of innocents and smoky ruins splattered in blood."

This book is a powerful warning to those liberals who, as the Iraq fiasco winds down, tend to view conservatives as unreasonably warlike. We are in a war whether we like it or not. Can we accept a nuclear-armed Iran? The authors' argument here, although not explicitly stated, seems to be not in favor of all-out ground war but rather to suggest that the west should use surgical, well informed strikes to prevent fundamentalist Islamists from obtaining possession of nuclear arms. Bomb Iran? Thoughtful readers of this work will find themselves inspired to debate this subject over their dinner tables.

In one of the most challenging scenes for lefties like me, Lowry and Korman conjure a scenario in which we are forced to root with guilty pleasure as Banquo directs the torture of despicable Iranian terrorist leaders, forcing them to identify their agents who are in the act of spreading deadly radioactive material throughout New York City. With this episode, Lowry and Korman can proudly take their place as the pre-eminent bad boys of contemporary American literature. And I bet they had lot of fun writing it!

The writing is smart, crisp and funny. Mr. Lowry and his ruthless, wordsmith-henchman, Korman, take every opportunity to skewer liberal media types. In one hilarious scene, a socialite publisher (who looks suspiciously like Arianna Huffington) conducts a press conference to welcome an Iranian mission to the United Nations. The reporters toss rhetorical questions like slow-motion mushballs over the plate:

"In your experience with international inspecting bodies have you ever had the opportunity to raise the question about nuclear inspections of United States facilities or Israeli facilities? And if so, when and with whom both in Washington and Jerusalem?"

Hah! (It's ok. We liberals still have Al Franken for payback.)

Whether you are looking for pure fun or serious political argument, I heartily recommend BANQUO'S GHOSTS. Enjoy. P.S. Can't wait to see the movie.

You may have read Rich Lowry in the National Review and your local paper, or even seen him on Fox, but now he has written as he's never written before. With Keith Korman, Lowry has the CIA recruiting a magazine reporter to assassinate a scientist in Iran. Liberals beware as Lowry and Korman leave few unscathed. But better yet, the book's damn good and will appeal to anyone who likes a good, international, adrenaline boosting thriller. Very highly recommended.

In Shakespeare's play Banquo's ghost is a haunt to Macbeth for the crime he committed. By contrast, in Lowry's and Korman's new novel, Banquo's ghosts are the memories or actual persons which spur heroically maverick action, action Banquo plans, then proceeds to fulfill via his ghosts.

Despite the craven complacency of flesh in government bureaucracy, Banquo manages to move his ghostly pawns, especially liberal journalist Peter Johnson, to victory over the kidnappings, torture, and mass terror coming from the enemy government of Iran. The story of these adventures is delightful entertainment. But it also provides a sobering education to the possibilities in ripening scenarios for dangers (kidnappings, tortures, and mass terror) all too real and close to home since 9-11.

BG (Banquo's Ghosts, not Battlestar Galactica) flows quickly for a fast read. Besides possessing the thrill of action along with purposeful instruction, the novel is seasoned with pinches of timeless truth and wisdom--a characteristic reserved for the better works of fiction. One example comes from page 249, in the eponymic chapter:

"How did Banquo know about Husseini? The way he knew about so many other things: human frailty. Never be surprised by frailty, for without it you're out of the spy business. And when such frailty hit him
by surprise--when he was let down or tricked--he never cursed human nature, but only his own naivete."

The passage oozes with a self-command: Be wise and know--the nature of man. Not knowing is one's own frailty.

Insight like this makes one anticipate quality work from the author(s) in the future. I believe Banquo's Ghosts is the first attempt in published fiction for Mr. Lowry. We're likely to receive more from him as he matures as a story-telling author. Of course BG has its weaknesses, but a diverting vivisection is not necessary. The stalwart promise the novel displays overwhelms any detractors.

It's a worthy investment to get this first (in Rich Lowry's case) work of fiction, Banquo's Ghosts, as a beginning foundation for a future collection.

Banquo's Ghosts provides a fast, enjoyable, yet thought provoking read on threats facing all free nations today. Fortunately in the novel there are actors with enough courage and integrity to buck the conventional bureaucratic, social and political forces which either willingly or unwittingly aid and abet those bent upoon destruction and a return to the 7th Century filled with intolerance and ignorance.

The unlikely semi-hero Johnson the Journalist begins his inner transformation after 9-11 when he realizes there truly are evil people in this world bent upon destruction of him, his family and his freedoms. That Johnson has used his freedoms to aid in building a climate for such hateful, deadly and violent acts to be committed is a realization that deeply transforms him. Though outwardly continuing his elitist scribbling and ranting, he assists a small cadre of agents dedicated to stopping horrific acts.

The moral conflicts within such an endeavor are exposed and choices must be made. When the choices are stark the moral but flawed can blur and at times cross lines to insure that the darker evils do not overwhelm.

In the end, Banquo and his Ghosts prevail, battered, a bit bowed but committed to carrying on.

Very good first novel, looking forward to a sequel.

Every so often an important novel comes along to say something important to its age, and does so with a drama and humanness that nonfiction can't manage. Bradbury did this with Fahrenheit 451, Orwell did this with 1984, and now Rich Lowry and Keith Korman have done this with Banquo's Ghosts. I can't say whether it will have the staying power of those two classics, but I can say it captures the often ridiculous and partisan journalism characteristic of too many of today's reporters. Its anti-hero will amuse you, baffle you, and keep you turning pages just hoping, as we do with today's journalists, that he'll begin to honestly use the power of his pen.

I give this a three because it's an uneven book but good in spots. I'm familiar with Lowry from his writings on politics and current affairs over the years, so he's a good writer. The co-author I don't know nor could I tell the extent of each one's contribution to the overall effort.

The biggest weakness is in the characterizations of some of the major figures, particularly Banquo and his helper, Wallets--a bit more background would have helped here. The dissolute writer is better filled out but how he came to be converted to the cause seemed a little thin to me. Lesser figures are adequately done, in some cases better than the main ones and, as others have said, barbed descriptions of society figures, 'elite' newspeople, politicians, and bureaucrats are right on and cutting.

In comparison to the action overseas, the plot gets tighter and more exciting when it shifts to the US and the hunt for the terrorists in New York. Here the authors seem to clearly be on more familiar ground and it shows in the scene-setting and plot. I began to really like the book more at this point, where it can definitely compare with some of my favorite, more-experienced authors.

Overall, this book is worth the price and I look forward to future efforts with some of the rough spots filled in.

Recall HG Well's science fiction classic, "The Time Machine", where the time traveler comes upon a future London very different from the one he left - a bucolic and peaceful Garden of Eden, populated by the Eloi, a naïve and childlike evolution of mankind, living in peace and oblivion - no work, no stress. No stress, that is, except for those pesky Morlocks, that less gentle branch of this fictional evolutionary chain, living underground, running the machinery that keeps the Eloi in their state of mindless bliss (while popping to the surface from time-to-time to eat the unwary Eloi).

OK, so the analogy isn't perfect - the CIA and others who live in the shadows while protecting the utopian existence of America's childlike Liberals aren't eating them - not literally, anyway - but Rich Lowry and Keith Korman's extraordinary "Banquo's Ghosts" couldn't help but remind me of Well's heavily allegorical "Time Machine". Not since Ayn Rand has an author so deftly skewered the hypocrisy and illogic of the Liberal mindset, and so clearly exposed the bias of the mainstream media, while at the same time spinning a contemporary thriller as gripping as Robert Ludlum before he got repetitive and as authentic as John LeCarre before he forgot which side of the Cold War he was on.

"Banquo's Ghost" is the tale of Stewart Banquo, an old school CIA dinosaur that still believes in the value of human intelligence and is not above the occasional rogue operation as necessary to skirt a federal bureaucracy gone soft on sensitivities and other politically correct nonsense. With Iran on the brink of a nuclear weapon, Banquo finds and recruits the perfect agent, Peter Johnson, a "blame America first" journalist in search of a morale compass. Johnson is the least likely suspect with the perfect cover - a documentary puff peace on Iran's "peaceful pursuit" of nuclear energy - to assassinate (gasp!) the Iranian scientist who holds the intellectual keys to the bomb. But Banquo's plot goes awry, Johnson is captured and tortured, setting off a chain of events leading to a potential catastrophe that would make 9/11 look like a fender-bender on the Henry Hudson Parkway.

The Lowry/Korman team peppers their headlines-to-life suspense-fest with characters so real you'd think they were, oh, I don't know, maybe Adriana Huffington and Peter Arnett? Spiced with enough real culprits from inside and outside the beltway to keep it credible. While the "Hope and Change" crowd will write this off as Right Wing fantasy (gosh, but Ahmadinejad said the enriched uranium is for power, not weapons), the authors build a scenario that is much too horribly real - a scarily serious drama that is guaranteed to be as sobering as it is entertaining.

In short, contemporary fiction mimicking fact too closely - required reading that will make you cheering for, if not the Morlocks, then at least John Gault. And, unless you're George Soros, feeling very fortunate that real men and women like Stewart Banquo are out there lurking through the underground, keeping our Eloi-like existence intact.

I loved this book. It is a cautionary tale of the consequences of allowing Iran to skip along its merry way defying all demands that it cease attempting to develop nuclear weapons. The story also demonstrates the gullibility of western liberal elites to Iranian deception and to the catastrophe that may come if we continue to pretend Iran means no harm. "Banquo's Ghosts" tells the story of a secret CIA department specializing in human intelligence and its co-opting of a liberal journalist to assist in stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The plotting is twisted, intricate and keeps the reader guessing. Nothing is as it seems. The dialogue was wonderfully snappy, often humorous and the charaters were three dimensional and engaging. Also... you will never view liberal journalist Peter Arnett the same way again!!

CIA agent Stewart Banquo knows he needs a specialist to get past the concentric circles of security surrounding his target; he must choose a killer who the Iranians (and the American media) would never suspect. He tags Crusader writer Peter Johnson as his ghost, a mild mannered drunken liberal writing for an ultra left wing rag; Banquo just needs to figure out how much to bribe the fool to do the deed.

Johnson agrees to undergo the dangerous mission of assassinating the eliding Iranian nuclear scientist using his magazine as a front. However, In Iran, he is double crossed several times ending up a guest of the state. Tortured into confessions of everything short of killing Cock Robin; Agents Robert Wallets who actually recruited him and Marjorie Morningstar who trained him enable Johnson to escape. Back in New York, Johnson leads the agents in a quest to prevent Iranian terrorists from nuking the city while his daughter is being held hostage.

This exciting espionage thriller works on two levels. First there is the thrilling obvious terrorist threat and the counter efforts to do more than just prevent it; second there are not so subtle left hook right uppercut combos slammed at politicians and news media for interfering with the efforts to stop terrorism (mostly by the left) or dumbing down the realities (mostly by the right). Even with these sharp punches, the strong story line is owned by BANQUO'S GHOSTS especially the mild mannered reporter who is out of his element when he takes the field assignment.

Harriet Klausner

This is a book you will read twice. First you'll be turning the pages rapidly to follow the thrilling action that leaves you breathless. Think of Jack Bauer and Mitch Rapp in joint action. This kind of action has not been seen on the movie screen since patriotism has become an undesired quality in Hollywood. Competent, heroic, moral, courageous, American patriots in justified action. Then you go back and reread it to enjoy the delicious real life characters and the cynical rancid scenery of the literary/political world of New York and the imponderable cosmos of the CIA where even the twists camouflage twists within. I also read it with nostalgia for a past where this book could become a reality under a patriotic political leadership in Washington, but alas it is unlikely to ever happen in this new politically correct socialist world. A few pages in the book are frighteningly accurate, almost prophetic in their realistic anticipation of what will happen to our world. This is a must read. The good triumphs and will leave you sad that it is only glorious fiction that ends so well.