The Good Son: A Novel [Hardcover]

Michael Gruber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2010

New York Times bestselling author Michael Gruber, a member of "the elite ranks of those who can both chill the blood and challenge the mind" (The Denver Post), delivers a taut, multilayered, riveting novel of suspense

Somewhere in Pakistan, Sonia Laghari and eight fellow members of a symposium on peace are being held captive by armed terrorists. Sonia, a deeply religious woman as well as a Jungian psychologist, has become the de facto leader of the kidnapped group. While her son Theo, an ex-Delta soldier, uses his military connections to find and free the victims, Sonia tries to keep them all alive by working her way into the kidnappers' psyches and interpreting their dreams. With her knowledge of their language, her familiarity with their religion, and her Jungian training, Sonia confounds her captors with her insights and beliefs. Meanwhile, when the kidnappers decide to kill their captives, one by one, in retaliation for perceived crimes against their country, Theo races against the clock to try and save their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Bestseller Gruber (Forgery of Venus) explores America's political involvement in South Asia and the bloody religious and ethnic fanaticism associated with the region in his superb seventh novel. Sonia Laghari, a Pakistani-American writer and psychologist, sets up a conference on peace in Kashmir, the most terrorist-infested place on earth, only to have her and her small group of pacifists abducted and held captive by terrorists, who may or may not be manufacturing nuclear weapons. All but doomed to a public beheading, Sonia uses her familiarity with Islamic doctrine as well as her knowledge of Jungian psychology in an attempt to enlighten her deeply conflicted captors. Though the numerous bombshells at the end may strain credulity, the brilliant character development and labyrinthine plot line, not to mention the absorbing history of modern jihadism and the U.S. war on terrorism, make this a provocative thriller that readers won't soon forget. (May)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gruber’s last two novels were about a forged Velázquez painting and an undiscovered Shakespeare play. Readers considering this one may wonder how well an author of art-historical thrillers will handle collisions between East and West, faith and unbelief, and Islam and Christianity. Those who have read it will ask a different question: Is there anything Gruber can’t write about? In this richly layered tale, Sonia Laghari’s attempt to convene a conference in Pakistan called “Conflict Resolution on the Subcontinent: A Therapeutic Approach” goes awry when the conferees are abducted by jihadis and told that one of them will be beheaded after each fresh infidel outrage. In the U.S., Sonia’s commando son, Theo, instigates a plot to bring about a military-backed rescue. But Sonia, with her wiles and her understanding of her captors, just might rescue herself. That’s the simple outline, but one of many pleasures in The Good Son is the way Gruber confounds simple explanations. Sonia, for example, is a Catholic Pole who converted to Islam before writing books that scandalized the Islamic world. She practices both religions without compunction and is a Jungian psychologist, to boot. And, before he became a shooter for the U.S. Intelligence Support Detachment, Theo was a mujahedeen hero in Afghanistan. (Trust us, it works.) The pace here isn’t as rapid as usual, and much of the story is told in flashback or as discourse. But there are twists and tension aplenty—ideas, too. If only governments were half as interested in the psychology of violence, maybe war itself might become a work of fiction. --Keir Graff

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (May 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805091289
• ISBN-13: 978-0805091281
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #434,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised in New York City, and educated in its public schools. I went to Columbia, earning a BA in English literature.. After college I did editorial work at various small magazines in New York, and then went back to school at City College and got the equivalent of a second BA, in biology. After that I went to the University of Miami and got a masters in marine biology. In 1968-69 I was in the U. S. Army as a medic.

In 1973, I received my Ph.D. in marine sciences, for a study of octopus behavior. Then I was a chef at several Miami restaurants. Then I was a hippie traveling around in a bus and working as a roadie for various rock groups. Then I worked for the county manager of Metropolitan Dade County, as an analyst. Then I was director of planning for the county department of human resources.

I went to Washington DC in 1977, and worked in the Carter White House, Office of Science and Technology Policy. Then I worked in the Environmental Protection Agency as a policy analyst and also as the speechwriter for the Administrator. In 1986, I was promoted to the Senior Executive Service of the U.S., the highest level of the federal civil service. That same year, Robert K. Tanenbaum contacted me and asked me to write a courtroom thriller to be published under his name. I did that, and since then I have also written the first fifteen novels in the popular Butch Karp and Marlene series.

In 1988 I left Washington, D.C. and settled in Seattle, where I worked as a speechwriter and environmental expert for the state land commissioner. I have been a full-time freelance writer since 1990, mostly on the Karp novels, but also doing non-fiction magazine pieces on biology. My first novel under my own name, TROPIC OF NIGHT, was published in 2003 (William Morrow) and a second novel, VALLEY OF BONES, as well as a children's book THE WITCH'S BOY (Harper Collins) came out in 2005. A third thriller for Morrow, NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR is due out in early 2006. I am married, with three grown children and an extremely large dog.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the family that prays together, March 29, 2010

By 

Konrad Baumeister - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Good Son: A Novel (Hardcover)

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Michael Gruber's The Good Son is simply an outstanding political thriller.

The plot itself is hard to compress into a simple paragraph; other reviewers will do that for you anyhow. Suffice to say that a conference with a theme of bringing peace to the Pakistani/Afghan/Kashmir area, viewed by its attendees through the prism of psychotherapy and psychology rather than straight politics, is hijacked by one of the multiple factions of jihadis infesting the area. Sonia Laghari, a highly unconventional woman with a highly unconventional family, is one of those abducted, and her son, Theo, one-time muj fighting against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 80s, and now killer commando doing black ops for the US Army, decides he must rescue her.

However, that's the least of it. Additional characters include the extended Pakistani family, ranging from 'businessman' of a certain sort to corrupt ISI leaders, fanatical jihadis and loving family men; the jihadi captors in their various factions, as well as the villagers living around them; and, in Washington DC, operatives from the CIA and NSA who are involved to a greater or lesser degree in the kidnapping and/or trying to prevent a nuclear disaster. Each of the characters is superbly drawn, vivid and fleshed out, fully believeable and outfitted with real and conflicting motivations. The story is masterfully told.

The three major plot lines develop more or less simultaneously, each told from a different POV. Sonia works through a combination of Sufi wisdom and self-control, and Jungian psychological insight and dream interpretation, to get under the skin and into the heads of the jihadis, while keeping the group of hostages from disintegrating, as the muj start cutting off heads. Theo gives us a great deal of back history while organizing a rogue rescue mission. Cynthia Lam, an NSA language specialist, is picking up on conflicting information from cell phones in Pakistan which seem to indicate a potential nightmare scenario; what should she do about this, in an environment where her superiors seem to have a pre-existing bias to a certain explanation over her own interpretations?

Gruber handles each aspect of the story brilliantly, particularly Sonia's extremely delicate role in dealing with her Muslim captors. We get poetry, Jung, intelligence, hostage negotiations, factional infighting, and theological discussions, all of it well presented. The underlying theme of attitudes of the local Muslims to God, women, religion, foreign presence in their lives, is all there, balanced and nuanced. The attitude and modus operandi of the Americans is presented as well, unfortunately all too realistically.

I cannot say enough about how well-written, thoughtful, complete and engrossing novel. It is sensitive, highly intelligent, insightful, complex, and thoroughly enjoyable.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ALL PRAISE IS DUE TO MICHAEL GRUBER, May 30, 2010

By 

Jack Rosenblum (Deerfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Good Son: A Novel (Hardcover)

Some of you may already know Michael Gruber's unusual history as a writer. His brother-in-law, Robert K. Tanenbaum, asked him to ghost-write a legal thriller based on Tanenbaum's experiences as a prosecuting attorney. They split the royalties, but Tanenbaum was listed as sole author and got all the credit except for a fulsome acknowledgement ("All praise is due Michael Gruber...") at the beginning of each book. Their first book "No Lesser Plea" was so successful that "they" followed it with 13 or 14 more of the now famous Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi exploits. As a part of their arrangement, Gruber was not to reveal his role as ghost-writer. Eventually Gruber apparently tired of not being able to answer such innocent inquiries as "And what do you do?" and started to spill the beans. When Tanenbaum found out, he fired his brother-in-law, hired a new, much inferior ghost-writer, and Gruber began his career as a novelist in his own right and with his own name on the cover.

Gruber should thank his brother-in-law for firing him as it pushed him to further reveal a talent that I regard as genius. In the legal thrillers, Gruber had demonstated a remarkable ability to understand and get inside sub-cultures, in this case the sub-cultures of the New York District Attorney's Office and various criminal networks. In his own novels he has expanded this talent to portray credibly everything from Cuban Santeria cults to Siberian tribal groups. In "The Good Son" this unique talent is on conspicuous display as we are invited inside the various cultures of Pashtun, Punjabi, CIA, jihadi, and a few other groups. It is truly an amazing tour de force. I know of no other writer who could pull this off.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the novel has three intertwined stories, each with an eloborate back story: Sonia who is kidnapped by jihadis along with her peace-seeking group; Theo, her son, who mounts a rogue operation to free her; and Cynthia, the CIA operative that gets wind of Theo's plan. Each of the three stories is fascinating in itself, but the connection among the three doesn't always come off perfectly. All we really get to see of Theo's elaborate plot is Theo's heroic actions and Cynthia being harshly sidelined. If the rest of the hostages are also rescued, it happens off stage. Also, the denoument or after-story is anticlimactic. We see Theo's work as an employee of his uncle but learn very little about what happens to Sonia. There is a hint when Theo meets Cynthia at the end but not more.

Despite these shortcomings, I have to say I loved the book. Anytime I can learn some history, sociology, politics, and cultural anthropology along with a gripping thriller, I feel like I have gotten my money's worth and then some. I echo Robert K. Tanenbaum's acknowledgement: All praise is due to Michael Gruber.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Usual Unusual People, May 28, 2010

By 

Roger Brunyate "reader/writer/musician" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Good Son: A Novel (Hardcover)

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I have enjoyed Michael Gruber's psychological thrillers in the past, such as TROPIC OF NIGHT and THE BOOK OF AIR AND SHADOWS. They come nearer to the straight novel than most thrillers, in the relative complexity of their characters and their unusual settings. With THE GOOD SON, however, Gruber enters Clancy or Ludlum territory, with a novel that is more frankly political and of the moment. In a sentence: Sonia Laghari, an American married to a Pakistani, gets taken hostage by militants in Pakistan, and her son Theo uses his special forces skills to rescue her. The book may well have wide appeal; it is certainly long and detailed; but I personally have less taste for this genre.

One of Gruber's trademarks is to give his characters back-stories of amazing complexity; all of them are highly unusual people, but their unusualness itself becomes something of a cliché. Here, I'm afraid, he comes close to parodying himself. Sonia, it is revealed quite early on, grew up in a circus and trained as a magician. Penniless when she met her husband, she is barely accepted by his rich family, and eventually escapes, disguising herself as a boy (complete with prosthetic manhood) and entering the forbidden city of Mecca, later writing a book about her experiences. Later still, she studies to be a Jungian psychologist in Zurich, gaining skills which she will use in holding off and confusing her captors. While barely out of his childhood, her son Theo established a reputation as a boy warrior among Pashtun tribesmen, and now serves in a US army unit so secret that it does not even have a name. And Gruber is not exactly subtle with his exposition. There is one sequence when Theo takes a woman home after a fine dinner. "So spit it out, Buster!" she says. "You were born in Pakistan. And then what?" So Theo tells her for thirteen densely written pages, with the result that "She seemed to have been aroused by my story, and I felt myself riding on her excitement, drowning the guilt."

For all the obviousness of his narrative machinery, there are things that Gruber does extremely well. Sonia, for example, confounds her captors with a deeper knowledge of Islamic law and practice than they have themselves. It is clear that the author has done much research, and all his major characters really know what they are talking about. Those who read only for the action may find that this slows the pace unbearably. But for many readers, this depth of understanding may be the entire point.