Glass Mountain

Combine Dosetoyevsky and Tom Clancey, give the former a sense of humor and the latter the ability to write sentences of grace and power, take the ethical dilemmas of the Russian and the gritty fascination with all things covert of the American, and you have some sense of Glass Mountain, whose vitreous heart becomes adamantine brilliant by its moral conclusion.Previously, Koster amazed by topping The Prince, which topped One Hundred Years of Solitude with a sensibility both Yankee and Latin, with "The Dissertation," a book that fairly competes with Nabokov's Pale Fire and Ada for the funniest footnotes and the best portmanteau combinations of two cultures (in that case, American and Panamanian). Koster then went to historical fiends for his nonfiction (Torrijos, Noriega, Time of the Tyrants) before moving to more humane ones in his fiction (Odvart, among others, a demon of sloth semi-exorcized by a tenacious terrier, but check out the lust demons if flesh on the net is no longer sufficient to turn you on). Now he tackles Latin American macho, James Bond, Joseph Conrad, Vietnam, John le Carre, Graham Greene territory in the form of a psychological novel of all things that is funny, dangerous, disturbing, wickedly plotted, with great characters, dialogue, theatrics, and improvisations, in language clear as glass but angled just enough through mirrors to make you wonder. Again.Eminently worth the climb.

A moral rocketing upward, a terrifying descent, into the thin air of covert Everests, hit by the hurricanes of perfect storms, this is the first spy novel of the new millenium to send shivers through the spine.For those bored with Le Carre, who have utgrown Fred Forsythe, Robert Ludlam, and god knows Ian Fleming, who desire a writer with more wit than Tom Clancey, more maturity and depth than John Grisham, the one you have been awaiting is R.M.Koster.This novel is scary and exhilerating, quick, dirty, brutal, and fantastic, passionate and sexy, violently erotic and charged with high meaning and good fun.This one is worth dissertations by dogs and princes, and demonstrates what a writer can do after he has gone beyond demonic possession to a higher place, beyond times of tyrants to the purity of imaginative freedom.

Ah, we always want to pack exciting, fun reading for our summer trips to the beach. What we don't expect is that it will be beautifully constructed and written, fine literature if you will. Mr. Koster is incredibly talented and you will be amazed at the mesmerizing tale he has to tell. His other works of fiction, "The Prince", "The Dissertation" (my favorite) and "Mandragon", a triology; plus the deliciously strange "Carmichael's Dog" will hopefully be back in print as "Glass Mountain" brings a new public to his writing. The story of "Glass Mountain" is the redemption of Carlos Fuertes, the mixed-up, tortured son of an assassinated president of a Latin American country. Amazingly, Koster's wild and crazy imagination is coupled with an attention to detail that makes this seemingly fantastic tale of Carlos' healing plausible. He certainly has a wealth of information about what he is writing. As all readers of books full of action and adventure are want to do, I looked hard to trip Koster up. I couldn't. If you are tired of reading good stories with lousy writing, "Glass Mountain" is for you. The covert military operation that Carlos becomes involved in is worthy of Quiller's operations in the Adam Hall novels. No detail is too small for Koster. The journey of Carlos tells of his early years in Latin America, his most unusual service in that most unusual conflict in Vietnam, and his job stealing back children taken in custody battles. Then Koster ties it all up with a wam, bang operation that Tom Clancy will certainly envy. Oh yes, we get a love story thrown in for good measure. I urge you to read and enjoy.

A literary novel differs from one that is not literary. Tom Clancy tells a damn good story, his writing is all plot. A literary novel also tells a story but it goes further. It permits its reader to become its central character. It does this by letting the reader get inside the protagonist's mind, placing himself within. With a small amount of finagling here and there the reader can see the plot as a metaphoric presentation of some dilemma of his own. And lets him seek closure. A literary novel has requirements. Good writing! Character development! But it also may be a great story. That is what Koster does in "Glass Mountain." He gives us both. And that seems to be an objection of the reviewer from Publisher's Weekly. Apparently he or she thinks all fiction writing must fit one category or the other, either good writing or good plot. But not both. In other words, Clancy or Koster. (I mention Clancy simply because PW does. I enjoy his stories.) That is hogwash. Richard M. Koster has written a beautiful---even if harsh, rough, tough---novel that is certainly literary, and at the same time a fantastic adventure. Perhaps PW thinks that rude of him, this merging of classifications. But I don't care. I love good stories and I love good writing. Koster gives me both in "Glass Mountain." He is a "writer's writer" and a wonderful story teller. I am in pig heaven. Koster's main character's decision to seek redemption comes to him suddenly. Just like in real life. Just like love. And his frequent changing a "yes" into a "no" is just like real life, too. It adds drama and uncertainty to the story, even at its lower levels, as his perceptions change as quickly as they form. Just like in real life. To denigrate Koster's style, as the PW reviewer does, a style by the way that I admire very much in Koster's writing, is simply filling up space for a reviewer with nothing of importance to say. "Glass Mountain" is very, very good. The plot is good and the writing is good. No, they are both excellent. (You see, that's how the brain works! Jumping around. Changing.) You can have both worlds with Koster. Storytelling and literary writing. Buy and read this novel and have yourself a grand time with it. It is Koster's fifth and will lead you back to his first four. My two favorites are "Mandragon" and "Carmichael's Dog." With "Glass Mountain" now making its move down the stretch.END