Panama: An Historical Novel [Hardcover]

Bill Boyd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1999

A swashbuckling historical novel whose characters are the heroes and adventurers, engineers and scientists, politicians and diplomats, soldiers and laborers who created one of the world's greatest engineering feats--the Panama Canal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The U.S. hand-off of the Panama Canal on December 31, 1999, evidently drives the timely publication of Panamanian-born Boyd's (The Gentleman Infantryman) limping historical novel about the realpolitik of the canal's construction. Boyd's patrician hero, George Roosevelt Phillips II, after surviving the Spanish-American War with his uncle Teddy, finds himself posted to Nicaragua. Since the war, the United States has become convinced that a transoceanic canal is necessary for American military readiness, and George is involved in the surveying efforts. Seen through George's eyes, the history of the canal's construction provides a ready-made plot, complete with political intrigue and sudden reversals, from the contest between the lobbyists for Nicaragua and the then-Colombian province of Panama, through the negotiations with the French for their abandoned site and the creation of the Panamanian Republic, to the arduous engineering of the canal itself. Unfortunately, the historical events only show up Boyd's stiff fictional characters, one-dimensional historical figures and howlingly bad dialogue ("'Just think, Larry, George is a nephew of the president! Wow! He's a real gentleman, isn't he, Larry?'"). In a particularly unlikely sequence of events, George meets his future wife on the same day he discovers that his childhood sweetheart eloped with a horse thief and was subsequently shot to death. The novel's last third, covering the years from 1914 to the present, moves at a steady clip and stars George's son, William, who describes U.S. tenure over the canal from a diplomat's vantage point. For all Boyd's familiarity with Panamanian history, Panama reads like a misconceived footnote to Gore Vidal's fiction of the American empire's evolution, overlaid with the cloying sensibilities of a romantic novel.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"... the history of the canal's construction provides a ready-made plot, complete with political intrigue and sudden reversals, from the contest between lobbyists for Nicaragua and the then-Colombian province of Panama, through the negotiations with the French for their abandoned site and the creation of the Panamanian Republic, to the arduous engineering of the canal itself. -----Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Capital Books (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892123150
• ISBN-13: 978-1892123152
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,667,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Tale of a Historic Event, November 29, 2002

By 

Bert Ruiz "Author" (Pleasantville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panama: An Historical Novel (Hardcover)

Bill Boyd does his homework. "Panama; An Historial Novel," is a wonderful work of fiction filled with valuable nuggets of history. Still and all, the author does a splendid job a capturing the "zeitgeist" of this vibrant era that was spurred by a brash young president enamored with "Manifest Destiny."

This is a book that is hard to put down. Most avid readers will go cover to cover in 48 hours. Boyd's masterful command of dialogue keeps the plot moving at a brisk pace. Moreover, Boyd is a polished writer who constructs a powerful protagonist who shines in moments of conflict.

This book is much more than a swashbuckling account of a dynamic moment in American history. Boyd is a deep writer and nurtures a strong understanding of a young nation boldly storming onto the world stage as a global superpower.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Panama - The Canal, May 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Panama: An Historical Novel (Hardcover)

This book is full of a history which I was not aware of and is most informative about the way the United States became the builder of the Panama Canal and of how, in the end, we had to give up this great engineering feat. Moreover, being a novel, it is very fast reading. It moves rapidly and intelligently and is, in my opinion, an easy way to learn history.