The Levanter [Paperback]

Eric Ambler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1973

A brilliant novel from the winner of the 1972 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Syria, 1970. Three years after the Six Days War. Michael Howell was utterly apolitical and genetically programmed for survival, a Levantine of mixed origin who possessed profitable business enterprises throughout the Middle East and an Italian mistress as his office manager. Life was sweet for Michael Howell until, one night in Damascus, he discovered that his factories had become the clandestine operations base of the Palestine Action Force, a fanatical terrorist organization dead-set on destroying Israel. Suddenly, Howell is caught in the middle with nowhere to run.

Product Details

• Paperback: 311 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First edition. edition (January 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000EVLA72
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,855,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Ambler is the recipient of four Gold Dagger Awards and one Silver. In 1975, he was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Suspense, Intriguing Characters, Good History, May 11, 2003

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Levanter (Hardcover)

A Levanter is an inhabitant of the Levant, the countries of the eastern Mediterranean.

I am new to Eric Ambler. In recent months I have read and reviewed two stories from his early career, A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939) and Journey into Fear (1940), one from his mid-career (The Light of Day, 1962), and now his 1972 novel, The Levanter.

His early writing career was interrupted by WWII. Entering as a private in the Royal Artillery and serving in Italy, Ambler was later assigned to a combat photographic unit. Ambler ultimately earned the rank of lieutenant colonel and although British, he was even awarded an American Bronze Star.

His postwar career focused more on writing screenplays for Hollywood and television, but he did continue to write an occasional new espionage story. The Levanter (1972) was among his last books.

His early stories have exciting plots, but his early characters lack the fascinating complexity of his misguided and all-to-clever protagonist, Michael Howell, found in the Levanter. I quite enjoyed The Levanter and I believe that it compares favorably with the early John LeCarre novels.

In The Levanter Ambler tells a story through the eyes of three characters: Lewis Prescott (an experienced journalist interested in Michael Howell's situation) in chapters 1, 3, and 8, Michael Howell himself in chapters 2, 4, 6, and 7; and Teresa Malandra (Michael's secretary and lover) in chapter 5.

The setting is 1970 Syria, three years after the Six Days War. The Baathist Party, in power since 1963, has been steadily nationalizing all industry and Michael Howell considers his family's (third generation) commercial holdings at great risk. His plans to cleverly shelter his Syrian operations come apart when he involuntarily becomes an integral component in a plot to launch a substantial terrorist attack on Israel.

I was disconcerted by one aspect of Ambler's story. Despite the passage of three decades, The Levanter still reads like a contemporary novel. Today, for political and security reasons Israel still holds territory acquired during the Six Days War while the Syrian Baathist party continues to covertly (and not so covertly) support terrorist activities against Israel.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ambler Turns his Eye to the Mideast, April 16, 2006

By 

Marco Antonio Abarca (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Levanter (No Exit Press 18 Years Classic) (Paperback)

Eric Ambler had a talent for setting his stories in historically interesting places and times. In the 1930's he wrote about the rise of facism. After the War, he wrote suspense stories set behind the newly erected Iron Curtain. In the 1950's, he switched his focus to Southeast Asia and wrote about the newly emerging nations of the region in the aftermath of their wars of liberation. So it is not surprising that in 1972, Ambler moved his attention to the Middle East and the Arab Israeli conflict.

Michael Howell is a classic Eric Ambler character. Although he has an English last name, Michael Howell's family heritage is principally a mix of Lebanese Armenian and Greek Cypriot. He is a member of that class of creative Eastern Mediterrean businessmen who over the centuries have successfully engaged in commerce in the notoriously difficult business climate of the Middle East. To survive in that harsh world, a businessman needs to be cosmopolitan, quick witted and highly imaginative. Michael Howell's family shipping business is doing well until he becomes unintentionally involved in the Palestinian Israeli conflict.

When Ambler is at his best, "Passage of Arms", "Judgement for Delchev" or a "Coffin for Demetrios", he is one of the finest political suspense writers to have ever graced the genre. The "Levanter" is very good but it is not one of his classic books. Start with the classics and when you have exhausted them, move to his second tier works like "The Levanter." Even his second tier works are very good.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plus Ca Change, Plus C'Est La Meme Chose!, June 2, 2003

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Levanter (Hardcover)

To read or not to read the great espionage novels of Eric Ambler? That is the question most people ignore because they are not familiar with Mr. Ambler and his particularly talent.

Mr. Ambler has always had this problem. As Alfred Hitchcock noted in his introduction to Intrigue (an omnibus volume containing Journey into Fear, A Coffin for Dimitrios, Cause for Alarm and Background to Danger), "Perhaps this was the volume that brought Mr. Ambler to the attention of the public that make best-sellers. They had been singularly inattentive until its appearance -- I suppose only God knows why." He goes on to say, "They had not even heeded the critics, who had said, from the very first, that Mr. Ambler had given new life and fresh viewpoint to the art of the spy novel -- an art supposedly threadbare and certainly clich?-infested."

So what's new and different about Eric Ambler's writing? His heroes are ordinary people with whom almost any reader can identify, which puts you in the middle of a turmoil of emotions. His bad guys are characteristic of those who did the type of dirty deeds described in the book. His angels on the sidelines are equally realistic to the historical context. The backgrounds, histories and plot lines are finely nuanced into the actual evolution of the areas and events described during that time. In a way, these books are like historical fiction, except they describe deceit and betrayal rather than love and affection. From a distance of many years, we read these books today as a way to step back into the darkest days of the past and relive them vividly. You can almost see and feel a dark hand raised to strike you in the back as you read one of his book's later pages. In a way, these stories are like a more realistic version of what Dashiell Hammett wrote as applied to European and Middle Eastern espionage.

Since Mr. Ambler wrote, the thrillers have gotten much bigger in scope . . . and moved beyond reality. Usually, the future of the human race is at stake. The heroes make Superman look like a wimp in terms of their prowess and knowledge. There's usually a love interest who exceeds your vision of the ideal woman. Fast-paced violence and killing dominate most pages. There are lots of toys to describe and use in imaginative ways. The villains combine the worst faults of the 45 most undesirable people in world history and have gained enormous wealth and power while being totally crazy. The plot twists and turns like cruise missile every few seconds in unexpected directions. If you want a book like that, please do not read Mr. Ambler's work. You won't like it.

If you want to taste, touch, smell, see and hear evil from close range and move through fear to defeat it, Mr. Ambler's your man.

On to The Levanter. In this novel, we find Mr. Ambler operating at his full powers, combining remarkable character development with complex plots and delicious ambiguity. You will be reminded of Mr. Le Carre.

Uncharacteristically, his protagonist, Michael Howell, is a man of great intelligence, sophistication and subtlety. So he can take on a greater threat than anyone else. Fascinated by the problem of extracting his family's investments from Lebanon, he's been collaborating with the government in covert activities. This backfires when he accidentally learns that one of his factories has been taken over by the Palestinian Action Force as a base for terrorist activities. Howell finds himself forced to help implement an anti-Israeli raid. How will he overcome this challenge?

Howell is one of Ambler's best characters, full of moral ambiguity. He's so good at looking out for his own interests, that he constantly is taking advantage even of those who are trying to take advantage of him. In this book, we get a sense of the mental and moral toughness of a trader. I found the book to seem immensely realistic.

The story telling is strengthened by varying the role of who the narrator is so that you see more dimensions of the plot. Part of the story is told by Howell, part by Lewis Prescott (a journalist hose attempting to sort out what really happened) and part by Teresa Malandra (Howell's co-worker in Lebanon and mistress). I'm sure that small businessmen in Middle Eastern countries still face the issues exposed in this plot, which makes the story chillingly timely, even though it is set in the late sixties.
Howell's solution to the problem is quite original and interesting. I think you'll enjoy it.

After you finish this story, think about where your principles are compromised by the actions of others who are outside your control. How can you ensure that those inadvertent compromises do no harm?