Customer Reviews

The Good Son: A Novel

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

The Good Son is a different kind of international spy thriller - intelligent, thoughtful, with a complex plot and interesting well developed characters. There are actually three intertwined story lines that come together at the end of the book. Theo Bailey is a US army Special Forces fighter who has been wounded in Afghanistan by friendly fire. He is the son of a Pashtu father and a Polish American mother. He was raised as a Pashtu and while still quite young participated in the jihad against the Russians. As a teenager he is taken to the US and becomes an American citizen. While recuperating from his wounds his mother is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan. He develops plans to free her from the terrorists. In a separate thread we are told his mother's story. Sonia is a former circus performer who has married a wealthy Pakistani and is also a trained Jungian psychologist. Her two daughters are murdered by terrorists in the 1980s. She is kidnapped while leading a peace conference in Afghanistan. In the third thread we meet Cynthia Lam, an analyst at the National Security Agency charged with monitoring intercepts from South Asia. The events surrounding the attempts to release Sonia and the other hostages bring together the stories of Theo, Sonia and Cynthia.
I know I have not distilled this plot well in my description but the first half of the book where the characters are introduced is a really good read. The detail that the author provides relating to the Afghani and Pakistani culture enriches this story. Descriptions of the food, the family and clan life and the different sects of the Muslin religion were educational and enjoyable to read. The author makes a real effort to illustrate the differences between Western culture and the Muslin tradition. For this most part this works.
As I write this review I can see how wild this plot seems but let me tell you it worked for me right up until the last few chapters. The author was so skilled and the story presentation so strong that I was sure the ending would life up to my expectations. Sadly not true. So many implausible things happen in the last 50 pages I was stunned. Not only were the events contrived, major characters acted totally out of character.
So, I still recommend this book despite the end. It has a ripped from the headlines feel, strong characterizations, complex plotting and a unique look at the Muslin jihad.

Michael Gruber has written a serious novel of ideas and cultural conflict that happens to be a dynamite thriller. As a mystery reader, I would be very interested to see what a *serious* political pundit would have to say about this book.

I have read all of Mr. Gruber's novels and have enjoyed each, for different reasons as well as similar ones: intricately realized characters, compelling story-telling and intelligent engagement with fascinating intellectual conflicts. Oversimplifying, his first trio of books concerned belief systems and perceptions of reality, the next two were centered on the creative process (in literature and painting).

The Good Son uses the plotting and pace of a thriller to present cultural differences in a balanced and empathetic narrative of different basic drivers - individual freedom v. harmony with family and tribe, soldier v. warrior, life [or maybe just survival?] v. honor. But this makes the book sound terribly abstract and distant from our day-to-day world -- it's not.

To quote the author: "it's about a woman who gets kidnapped in Pakistan and about her son who devises an elaborate plot to get her free. She's an American married to a Pakistani, and she's one of my oddball female characters, a Sufi and a Jungian therapist. He's a special forces soldier..."

But being one of Gruber's intense female characters (remember Jane Doe from Tropic of Night?), you have to wonder who is rescuing whom... and from what. The action is relentless and the interplay of ideas, faith and cultures will resonate long after you are able to put the book down (I found myself re-reading many passages and sections). What a blast!

Michael Gruber's `The Good Son' begins with an early morning phone call, mother to adult son (who just happens to be sharing the bed of his paramour). An uncomfortable situation for most mothers/sons, but typical of the relationship between Sonia Laghari, a peripatetic Jungian analyst, and her soldier son Theo. Sonia is off to the wilds of Pakistan where she has assembled an international peace conference. And where she and the eight conferees will be kidnapped and held for ransom by terrorists. And of course Theo, a member of one of the many fictional undocumented American military squads, will set out to save her.

While this may appear to be the usual no-brainer thriller, it isn't. Instead, Gruber has written a highly effective and complex novel. Sonia and Theo are but two of the well developed and credible characters Gruber portrays. These are people with complex and fascinating histories that he sparingly teases the reader with until the final chapter.

The various plot threads are handled with skill. Sonia, isolated with her fellow hostages in a Pakistani village, offers her skills as dream interpreter to her captors. In return she is assigned the task of deciding the order in which they will be beheaded. But just who is Sonia? Her history is murky at best.

Theo meanwhile is determined to rescue his mother with the unknowing aid of the American military. His convoluted plot to rescue Sonia provides the second major plot thread.

But it's Gruber's Pakistan and Pakistani's that truly bring the novel to life. Pakistan is far more than the setting of the novel: in many ways, it is the novel. It is gritty and imperfect and glorious, and, for most American readers, a place we haven't really understood.

Five Stars: How good is Michael Gruber's `The Good Son'? As good as it gets.

I've read two earlier Michael Gruber novels. The Forgery of Venus and The Book of Air and Shadows. I enjoyed both novels immensely. Both were tightly constructed stories with multidimensional characters in situations that stretched the reader's ability to suspend disbelief. Both earlier novels made me a strong fan of Gruber's work.
When I saw The Good Son on the Vine list I couldn't believe my good luck. A Gruber novel being offered as a Vine selection?
That I was disappointed in the newest novel doesn't quite describe how I feel. In all honesty, The Good Son is quite dissimilar from Gruber's earlier works; so different that it seems that it was written by a different author. I'm sure that isn't true, but that's what it feels like.
Sonia Laghari is attending a conference dealing with the Pakistan/Afghan area. She and other conference attendees are abducted by a group of Islamic militants; one of the multiple groups terrorizing the general area. Sonia is a strong woman and manages to get into the heads of the captors and this is the most entertaining element of the novel.
An additional story thread deals with her son, Theo, who is planning to rescue his mother. Once a member of the Afghan forces that fought the Russians, he is now doing black ops for the U. S. Army. Very competent in what he does, Theo seems less realistic than other characters in the story.
The story is well told, but still lacks sympathetic characters. In fact, the overall story seems to be convoluted; almost as if Gruber isn't sure what should come next.
I am patiently waiting for the next Gruber novel as I chalk up The Good Son in the loss column.
But even with my problems with the book, this is still a solid three star read. Perhaps the problem is more about the reader than the book.
Peace to all.

I loved this book and could not put it down. There was so much to digest about culture in Pakistan and Afghanistan. More importantly the author helps to widen our lenses about who we are as Americans.

I can see this book being developed into a movie. The book however really teased my imagination and much would be lost in a movie version.

The amazingly versatile Gruber has done it again, filling us armchair adventurers with knowledge as well as thrills and making the outlandish plausible.

This time he leaves behind themes of previous books - the diabolical intricacies of the art world (The Forgery of Venus), Shakespearean intrigue (The Book of Air and Shadows), Cuban Santeria (The Jimmy Paz trilogy) - to take on the intrigues of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Before you start groaning, let me say that those who find the whole muddle a hopeless quagmire will gain greater understanding and those who prefer their political thrillers in black and white should look elsewhere.

The narrator is Theo Laghari, a Pakistani-American U.S. Special Forces soldier with a back-story any boy would envy. Born to a prominent Lahore family, he enjoys a privileged upbringing, a bit marred by the storms his Polish-American former circus magician mother creates by her outrageous behavior, like going on the Haj disguised as a boy then writing a book about it.

A sudden tragedy ends this comfortable if insecure boyhood, inculcating the young Theo into the code of the Pashtuns (the tribe of his best friend and his grandfather's best friend, Theo's foster father) and spiriting him off to Afghanistan where he joins jihad against the Russians, training that well prepares him for his third incarnation in the U.S. military.

The present-day kidnapping of Theo's mother, Sonia, along with the international group she has gathered together in Pakistan for a peace conference, kick starts the plot. Point of view alternates between Theo and Sonia, with detours to Cynthia Lam, an ambitious Vietnamese-American NSA officer whose facility for languages leads her to believe that intel concerning a Pakistani nuclear bomb plot is a hoax.

Sonia is appropriately larger than life, manipulating her unsophisticated captors with Sufi dream interpretations and Jungian psychology. She can discuss all aspects of jihad, Islam and hypocrisy, and arouses brutal anger as well as doubt.

Religious observance - her native Catholicism in the West and her adopted Islam in the East - grounds her, but she is a Sufi at heart. "They believe that everything written about God is in some sense wrong....He's always a surprise and trying to chain Him to a human religion is folly."

This is a talky novel, but the ideas are well put, thought provoking and go some distance toward making sense of Islamic and Pashtun honor, tradition and history, though no easy solution to the mess is on offer. The kidnap situation is highly unstable, including videotaped beheadings, and Theo's rescue plans unfold in classic thriller style.

There are a number of twists and surprises at the end as well as some unanswered questions and at least one gratifying thread-tying development.

Gruber is a fine writer and researcher (who has in his past life been a chef, a marine biologist, a traveling hippie and rock group roadie, a civil servant at the highest Washington echelons, an environmental expert, a speechwriter and more) who puts his eclectic talents to excellent use in his wide-ranging fiction.

I stumbled on Michael Gruber by accident, when I found "The Book of Air and Shadows" at a going-out-of-business bookstore. It took me a while to get into it, but I was ultimately thrilled to find a new writer to follow. I bought every Michael Gruber book I could find. Other reviewers have noted that "The Good Son" departs from the style of Gruber's other novels. I disagree. While obviously a different and wholly contemporary story, it is structurally and thematically similar: separate narrators with separate stories that eventually merge, themes of mothers and sons and duty, religion as almost another character.

Other reviewers have summarized the plot, to the extent that a complex plot can be summarized. Unlike "Air and Shadows" and "Forgery of Venus" there's no 16th-17th century narrator--it's all 21st century vernacular. Unlike the Jimmy Paz novels, there's no occult or magic, unless you count Jungian dream interpretation.

I loved the strangeness of the characters: orphan circus performer turned therapist/peace promoter; Pakistani-born U.S. Army special ops warrior; foster son and brother turned warlord/terrorist. All in addition to the other roles revealed as the story unwinds. I love Gruber's allusions to both popular and classical culture. I thought the story was well-crafted and the book a great read. I think this novel defies genre: it's about espionage but not overtly a "spy" novel, it's thrilling but not really a thriller, there's a lot to figure out but it doesn't read like a mystery.

"The Good Son" is not a book to skim. Gruber's novels demand your attention. My usual complaint about books is that they go by too quickly. All of Gruber's books have demanded to be savored. "The Good Son" follows in that tradition. It's one of the best books I've read in some time.

If you're looking for something smart, contemporary, and a bit demanding, I recommend this novel. I think it's not a "beach" book; "The Good Son" is great fun but is not fluff. You'll want to pay attention and it's worth the time. It's not one of those summer reads that you can't remember ten minutes after you put it down. It sticks with you.