Customer Reviews

The Osterman Weekend

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After Robert Ludlum passed away, I decided to read several of his books, having loved The Bourne Identity when I read it several years ago, but having stopped reading his books when The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum disappointed. I started with The Holcroft Covenant, reported to be one of the classics, which I really enjoyed. Then I read the final book he wrote, The Prometheus Deception, which I enjoyed more than most.

This year, I decided to go back to his early books. I found the second book he ever wrote, The Osterman Weekend, in a used bookstore. The book tells the story of John Tanner, a TV news executive who is summoned to Washington one day and told by a CIA operative that one or more of his best friends, the Ostermans, the Cardones and the Tremaynes is a traitor. They are all gathering for the weekend at Tanner's house in suburban New Jersey and Tanner's job is to get the traitors to reveal themselves so the CIA can swoop in and deal with them.

On its own, the book is probably worth three stars. It is a quick and easy read, the suspense grows and the reader has no idea where the plot will lead although double-crosses seem likely. However, until the last few chapters, it doesn't really grip you.

However, the book shows flashes of the greatness Ludlum achieved later. An ordinary person is thrown into extraordinary circumstances and must get by on his own wits. Ludlum is a genius at making the ordinary person seem believable and scared and yet be the hero who saved the world. The action in the last few chapters is a foreshadowing of the wall-to-wall action that will be Ludlum's trademark in other books. The insight this gives the reader into Ludlum's evolution as a writer was worth an extra star to me.

This is the first Ludlum book I ever read and it still remains my favorite. For sheet storytelling, suspense and convoluted plot resolution, it remains supreme.

It is characterization that drives this book - much more so than the movie - and particularly the interplay among the various guests. This is vintage Ludlum before he became Ludzilla, the author of sagas of immeasurable length. This is also the typical formula that Ludlum uses in his best books - a lone guy gets involved in nefarious activities involving the government and both people and events are not what they seem.

The moment when he awaits the arrival of the agent, when the agent walks up and we all hold our breath - the revelation is simply stunning! This is a classic.

Usually, being kept in the dark by a book is a bad thing. This usually results in a muddled, incomprehensible mess. Not in this case. He successfully pulls off the greatest act of intrigue ever, by intentionally leaving the reader as clueless as the main character.

The main character is brought to Washington under false pretenses to discover that his weekend party with three other couple may be a meeting of some Omega agents. The only problem is, no one knows who is and who isn't part of Omega. Now the main character has got to lead a double life, protect his family against Omega, figure out who are his true friends, and worry about the CIA protection.

While the middle of the book feels kind of jumbled, and beginning of the book is slightly dull, the book is immensely readable and fun. Definitely not an action packed book (not until the end at least), Ludlum instead brings the low-key mundane trivialities of life into a new light. Does a particular sentence reveal something about his or her loyalties, does weary a gaudy piece of jewelry mean your connected with an organization? Finding out the truth behind everything becomes harder and more alluring than ever.

All in all, I would recommend this quick page turner.

A great story which concerns Jack Tanner, a TV journalist who is drawn into a CIA plot to uncover the clandestine Soviet OMEGA group. Only one snag - OMEGA is in his neighbourhood in a small town - and when friend Bernie Osterman brings his family and friends over for a weekend get-together - one of them is the OMEGA plant, but which one? Several unexpected twists and turns along the way which reach fever pitch when Tanner's family become threatened in many ways! And who is the man giving the orders? A classic conspiracy thriller which paved the way for several more that came later, and one could say it inspired the movies ENEMY OF THE STATE and CONSPIRACY THEORY with its the-bad-guys-are-really-the-government ideas! THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND was also made into a movie itself in 1983, which is also well worth tracking down.

A major step forward from the disaster that was The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Osterman Weekend is a fast-paced tale of intrigue that may surprise even Ludlum fans. Being one of his earliest works, he was still developing his style and finding his niche, and this book clearly shows that.

Gone (or, not yet arrived) are the mammoth chase sequences, the far reaching conspiracies (this conspiracy is on a somewhat limited scale), the beautiful but strong-willed women who only want to help their men, but aren't sure if they can trust them. Instead, we have a family man who finds himself threatened no matter which way he turns.

Large portions of the book are written with dialogue only. The book is already his shortest, and the combination makes for a very fast read. However, those used to large narrative sequences from Ludlum will feel a bit out of place, and rightfully so: there are many places where a little bit of narration would have come quite in handy.

On the whole, though, I recommend it to suspense fans. It is by no means Ludlum's best book, but it is a good book, and well worth the limited time it takes to read it.

This one is pretty impressive! Ludlum scales down his scope and tightens up the suspense! You should not pick up this book if you need sleep. This book is about what is seemingly a normal American family, but Ludlum keeps piling on the twists and tension until you wonder if anyone in the book is who they seem. This is a must read. Read it.

A refreshing change of Ludlum's thriller, instead of a globe-trotting hero who speed through Europe escaping mysterious gunmen, this time, the action is much confined to the small élite township of Saddle Valley, though the catasthrophe still threatens the entire the free-world.

A weekend gathering of 4 couples - husbands all successful financially in their careers, hosted by John Tanner has the making of a classical who-dun-it. Beneath the normally jovial relaxing surface are strong undercurrents that each member of the party knows that things are not what they seem - one or more among their number knows a deadly secret and threatens to expose it or utilise it for self-gain. The CIA operation recruited John Tanner to expose Omega, a Soviet mole who holds numerous influential people in the US hostage. Omega has a time-table when he will squeeze these hostages to do as he bid, resulting in financial, social and economic catasthrophe in the Western world.

Action is seen much through the eyes of John Tanner, a man trapped by the CIA, who has no choice but to see his family at risk to catch the Omega.

But Omega seems to be on the game, leaving a bloody trail of hints and attempts on Tanner's family.

The good thing about this novel is you never know where the author will take you next, the twists and turns are more of classical mysteries rather than a thriller.

Ludlum did a fair job, but he could have done better if he had concentrated more on the suspense and leaving of clues. Instead, he gave the settings and characters of a mystery, the plot of a "save-the-free-world" thriller, and the between both worlds, he was unable to maintain a proper pace in either.

A man hosting a weekend long party and getaway for a group of friends gets an unpleasant surprise when he is told that his friends are spies and traitors. He doesn't believe it at first, but the weekend degenerates into a whole pile of problems and nastiness as this CIA prediction unfortunately for him, becomes true.

The Osterman Weekend doesn't live up to the promise that Ludlum would normally offer for a weekend thriller read. John Tanner's plans for the weekend are disturbed when he is confronted by CIA agent Fassett. Fassett tells Tanner that some of the three couples who are coming over to spend the weekend with the Tanners as long-time friends are actually part of a huge international conspiracy code-named Omega. But Fassett needs Tanner to help uncover which of the couples - the Cordones, the Tremaynes, and the Ostermans - really are part of the Omega conspiracy. So when the friends of the Tanners visit, the weekend is anything but ordinary, as the various couples hold varying suspicions of each other in a rather icy atmosphere. It is only in the last quarter of the novel that the action and intrigue really heats up and all hell breaks loose. For most of the novel, the reader is just as confused as John Tanner, and the last pages really fly by as you try to discover who is really part of the conspiracy. It's a complex web with various double crossing and threats on all sides. But until the last few chapters, the book is quite easy to put down, and neither gripping nor convincing, although heavily dosed with profanity. For a good weekend read, Ludlum has produced much better gems than The Osterman Weekend. For a more enjoyable weekend, re-read your dog-eared copy of The Bourne Identity or The Matarese Circle.

The book starts out with murder and deception. A TV host of a 60 Minutes type show, is being summoned to Washington under false pretences and convinced by the CIA that his friends are conspiring against the country. The host, John Tanner, invites his friends to his home for the weekend in order for the traitor to reveal themselves so the CIA could capture them.

This is a clever, intriguing and fun book which has glimmers of the genius which Robert Ludlum is about to become. The characters come to life, even though not all of them are likeable or pleasant.

I've enjoyed this book (not as much as I enjoyed Ludlum's later releases) simply because it intrigued me, the characters were interesting and the plot was fascinating since both the reader and the main character have no idea what's going on.

Even though the book might seem thick, as are most of Ludlum's books, it is a quick read and a page turner.