Glass Mountain: A Novel [Hardcover]

R. M. Koster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

A novel in the vein of Conrad and Le Carré: a man risks his life to save his soul.

When Carlos Fuertes looks in the mirror, he sees a dead man. Son of an assassinated Latin American president, Carlos found his calling in Vietnam going on lone raids north of the DMZ. Now he works out of Tijuana, Mexico, stealing children for the losing parties in divorce custody contests, his nerve and self-respect broken, a victim of terrifying hallucinations.

A phone call from the past offers a reprieve: an "op" is being mounted to kidnap a fugitive American financier from Central America. An authentic trial, Carlos decides, with authentic risk, is the only way back from death in life.

Through the grueling preparation stage and meticulous setup, Carlos begins to rediscover himself, even as he puts on the roles the operation requires. Only near its end, however, does he see his chance to repair his life fully.

Glass Mountain renders the details and tension of a covert military operation with riveting immediacy, then turns the excitement higher through a rescue and escape Carlos improvises on the fly. With mastery of form and language, R. M. Koster crafts an exhilarating novel on the classic American theme of redemption through violence—a fitting sequel to his acclaimed Tinieblas Trilogy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Koster's latest offering (after the Tinieblas Trilogy) attempts a high-wire act the injection of a "serious" literary sensibility into a Clancy-style military thriller. The narrator is Carlos Fuertes, son of a deposed Latin American president. Fuertes went over the edge doing counterinsurgency in Vietnam, returning to America after three tours, although his family still thinks he is missing in action. In 1984, he is plagued by gruesome hallucinations and operating as a kidnapper, snatching kids for the disgruntled losers of custody battles. He breaks down after abducting the children of Ellen Gonders and delivering them to her ex-husband, Antonio Oliviera, a dangerous oligarch from Atacalpa, a Central American country with some resemblance to El Salvador. Down and out in Juarez, Carlos decides to expiate his guilt by joining a semilegal operation organized by one of his former commanders in Vietnam, "Ape" Thomas. The op's aim is to snatch a swindling millionaire, Edgar Haft, from Atacalpa, where the laws against extradition protect him from the U.S. The op is financed by another roaming millionaire, Jim Keegan, who's seeking a government pardon. After rigorous training, Carlos infiltrates Haft's household as a gardener, only to discover connections between Haft and Antonio Oliviera, as well as Ellen Gonders and Haft's wife, Diana. Then he makes it his mission to return Ellen's children to her. The narrative takes time to achieve momentum, hindered by distracting tangents and constant, pointless retractions: "I sat down... with my face in my hands. No, I opened the tap and spritzed my face. No again." Koster's grasp of Mission Impossible detailing is impressive, but fans of the action genre may find it difficult to indulge his existential bent.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

A tightly sprung, cerebral thriller....[A] bit of James Bond, but grittier, more realistic, and smarter. -- New York Times, Richard Bernstein, 1 June 2001

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039302007X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393020076
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,625,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glass Mountain---Great Story, Great Writing, May 16, 2001

By 

Joseph A. Psarto (Westlake, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Glass Mountain: A Novel (Hardcover)

A literary novel differs from one that is not literary. Tom Clancy tells a damn good story, his writing is all plot. A literary novel also tells a story but it goes further. It permits its reader to become its central character. It does this by letting the reader get inside the protagonist's mind, placing himself within. With a small amount of finagling here and there the reader can see the plot as a metaphoric presentation of some dilemma of his own. And lets him seek closure.

A literary novel has requirements. Good writing! Character development! But it also may be a great story.

That is what Koster does in "Glass Mountain." He gives us both. And that seems to be an objection of the reviewer from Publisher's Weekly. Apparently he or she thinks all fiction writing must fit one category or the other, either good writing or good plot. But not both. In other words, Clancy or Koster. (I mention Clancy simply because PW does. I enjoy his stories.)

That is hogwash. Richard M. Koster has written a beautiful---even if harsh, rough, tough---novel that is certainly literary, and at the same time a fantastic adventure. Perhaps PW thinks that rude of him, this merging of classifications. But I don't care. I love good stories and I love good writing. Koster gives me both in "Glass Mountain." He is a "writer's writer" and a wonderful story teller. I am in pig heaven.

Koster's main character's decision to seek redemption comes to him suddenly. Just like in real life. Just like love. And his frequent changing a "yes" into a "no" is just like real life, too. It adds drama and uncertainty to the story, even at its lower levels, as his perceptions change as quickly as they form. Just like in real life. To denigrate Koster's style, as the PW reviewer does, a style by the way that I admire very much in Koster's writing, is simply filling up space for a reviewer with nothing of importance to say.

"Glass Mountain" is very, very good. The plot is good and the writing is good. No, they are both excellent. (You see, that's how the brain works! Jumping around. Changing.)

You can have both worlds with Koster. Storytelling and literary writing. Buy and read this novel and have yourself a grand time with it. It is Koster's fifth and will lead you back to his first four. My two favorites are "Mandragon" and "Carmichael's Dog." With "Glass Mountain" now making its move down the stretch.

END

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Beach Reading and Great Writing, Too!, May 27, 2001

By 

L. Thomson (Hampton Falls, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glass Mountain: A Novel (Hardcover)

Ah, we always want to pack exciting, fun reading for our summer trips to the beach. What we don't expect is that it will be beautifully constructed and written, fine literature if you will. Mr. Koster is incredibly talented and you will be amazed at the mesmerizing tale he has to tell. His other works of fiction, "The Prince", "The Dissertation" (my favorite) and "Mandragon", a triology; plus the deliciously strange "Carmichael's Dog" will hopefully be back in print as "Glass Mountain" brings a new public to his writing.

The story of "Glass Mountain" is the redemption of Carlos Fuertes, the mixed-up, tortured son of an assassinated president of a Latin American country. Amazingly, Koster's wild and crazy imagination is coupled with an attention to detail that makes this seemingly fantastic tale of Carlos' healing plausible. He certainly has a wealth of information about what he is writing. As all readers of books full of action and adventure are want to do, I looked hard to trip Koster up. I couldn't.

If you are tired of reading good stories with lousy writing, "Glass Mountain" is for you. The covert military operation that Carlos becomes involved in is worthy of Quiller's operations in the Adam Hall novels. No detail is too small for Koster. The journey of Carlos tells of his early years in Latin America, his most unusual service in that most unusual conflict in Vietnam, and his job stealing back children taken in custody battles. Then Koster ties it all up with a wam, bang operation that Tom Clancy will certainly envy. Oh yes, we get a love story thrown in for good measure. I urge you to read and enjoy.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Possessed: Koster's People, June 6, 2001

By 

Fergus O'Manion (Bethesda, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glass Mountain: A Novel (Hardcover)

Combine Dosetoyevsky and Tom Clancey, give the former a sense of humor and the latter the ability to write sentences of grace and power, take the ethical dilemmas of the Russian and the gritty fascination with all things covert of the American, and you have some sense of Glass Mountain, whose vitreous heart becomes adamantine brilliant by its moral conclusion.

Previously, Koster amazed by topping The Prince, which topped One Hundred Years of Solitude with a sensibility both Yankee and Latin, with "The Dissertation," a book that fairly competes with Nabokov's Pale Fire and Ada for the funniest footnotes and the best portmanteau combinations of two cultures (in that case, American and Panamanian). Koster then went to historical fiends for his nonfiction (Torrijos, Noriega, Time of the Tyrants) before moving to more humane ones in his fiction (Odvart, among others, a demon of sloth semi-exorcized by a tenacious terrier, but check out the lust demons if flesh on the net is no longer sufficient to turn you on). Now he tackles Latin American macho, James Bond, Joseph Conrad, Vietnam, John le Carre, Graham Greene territory in the form of a psychological novel of all things that is funny, dangerous, disturbing, wickedly plotted, with great characters, dialogue, theatrics, and improvisations, in language clear as glass but angled just enough through mirrors to make you wonder. Again.

Eminently worth the climb.