Customer Reviews

Hopscotch

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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Miles Kendig is a man with a mission--his own. When he is forcibly retired from service in the Agency (CIA), he comes up with a plan to put himself back in the hotseat: exposing the dirty tricks the Agency has played. Of course, this irritates his former employer and a world-wide manhunt is on. I bought this book thinking it would flesh out some of the details the movie, which I dearly love, wasn't able to expand upon. What I found was that the two are quite dissimilar. The premise is the same, as are the names of most of the characters, but don't for a minute think if you've seen the movie, the book is redundant. It's a different story in many ways. If you enjoy an extremely well thought-out, well-timed and well-researched edge of your seat novel, this is the one. The movie, a delightful comedy starring Walter Matthau, is in a much lighter vein. I unreservedly recommend both. And I plan on finding more of Mr. Garfield's books!

Though supposed to be above politics, the Agency is embroiled in internal politics that reacts to external pressures from the White House and Congress. Thus, it is not surprising that his employers force long time out in the cold agent Miles Kendig to retire. A man used to living beyond the edge in which every breath could mean death, Miles finds middle age life in America boring as he misses the adrenalin rush that his field missions provided him.

Several years pass. Miles is ready to get back in the game on his terms. This time he will be a rogue exposing the world espionage units to the public as unscrupulous dirty tricks in which murder or ruining someone is a way of life and collateral damage is acceptable as long as the mission is accomplished. Competing spy agencies form strange bedfellows with one quest: destroy Miles before he exposes them. Gleefully, Miles, a veteran of twenty-five years of field work, looks forward to the ultimate cat and mouse game, in which he tossed down the gauntlet.

This is a terrific spy thriller that sort of reminded this reviewer more of the Bourne Identity (second movie) than the Mathau film Hopscotch. Though the novel is from the late 1960s early 1970s, the story line remains fresh because the Cold War is more of a backdrop except that d'entente existed when it is convenient for all parties to fight the common cause, a lone ranger. That intrepid individualism that is rare to see in a society filled with profiles and spin doctors is what makes Brian Garfield's thriller hold up as a fabulous espionage thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I was first introduced to Hopscotch "The Movie" and when I finally found the DVD version I decided to get the book to see what differences I would find.

The differences are vast, yet not to far apart. I found the book excellant. I preferred the personality of the books character as to the overall story and I also found the movie character extreamly satisfying.

I have both now and have enjoyed them in their own right. The movie is timeless and the book well worth several readings over time.

Get the book, get the DVD, enjoy both and expect differences that will not detract from either.

Miles Kendig is a retired CIA spy who is dying slowly of boredom. Unable to adjust to his forced retirement after a life living on the edge, he is inspired after a meeting with an old adversary to write his memoirs. That is the last thing his former employers had counted on because Miles knows a lot more about their dirty tricks than they ever imagined - and he knows how to run circles around his hunters when he invites them to try and stop him.

This book was written in the 70s during the cold war and was later made into an entertaining movie. Despite the age, the story has held up well. Kendig is not James Bond, but he's not stupid either as he takes both the CIA, KGB and MI5 on a merry chase. This book held me easily to the end of the story, though its not quite the same as movie it easy to see its source in this book.

Other reviewers have already offered excellent synopses of the plot: Miles Kendig is the best field agent in the CIA but, at age 53, has been put out to pasture. His revenge is to play a cat-and-mouse game -- a kind of hopscotch -- that keeps agents from the US, Britain, USSR (this was written in 1975) and other nations on their toes, guessing what Kendig's next move will be. They need to shut him up permanently, as he's writing a tell-all book that exposes some embarrassing truths about such events as the Sadat and Hammerskjold assassinations, and much more.

This is a stellar piece of writing, taut and exciting. Walter Matthau & Co. did a great job in the movie, which was also excellent, but this book goes deeper into Kendig's character and is hard to put down. I highly recommend it, whether you're a Cold War spy buff or not.

Using the child's game of Hopscotch with chalk on pavement where the player hops on one foot without touching a chalk line, the protaganist has devised an unending search-and-capture game with himself as the pawn. What Miles, former CIA agent, plays is not a child's game where he could be cornered, but more dangerous, as he tried to outwit both the CIA and KGB as he hops here and yonder, taking his followers on a wild goose chase. The game had to be played on its own terms, not the terms of its speculative consequences. He hopped from country to country, just ahead of his pursuers. Cynicism and defeat were their religions.

He was seen by Leonard Ross in Mobile, Alabama, where he copied his expose of th CIA, making fifteen copies of 220 pages. From there, he was tracked to Pensacola, Tampa, and Sarasota, Florida, before scooting off to Madrid, Spain. His manuscript, when published, would reveal the secrets to which he'd been privy of the spy activities on both sides. This was a game with no rules and, if successful, he'd get what he wanted and sweet revenge. If caught by Ross or others before his book could be released to the public, he might have to settle for a sweet surrender.

It was a clever cat-and-mouse adventure as he kept one step ahead and had fun deceiving his former bosses with a bit of global excitement. The fun part of being a secret agent with ability to write and to hide. He became weary after a while and realized that the agents paid to find him were "lost souls who'd settled years ago for the usual hypocries and specious rationalizations." A rage to survive was a natural thing. Everybody has it. Everybody has a right to it. Will he survive or will he give in to pressure of the chase.