The American Ambassador

So many novels are gone when you finish the last page. This one stays with you. Patricide is hardly a new theme, nor is the European terrorism of the 70s and 80s. Ward Just has written a story, and characters, who are indelible. One can write pages about the motivations and the psychic set of Bill Jr. and Gert. Are they mentally ill? is the society the illness? But this is a story that we have observed more than once. The list of terrorist actions in one of the other reviews should have been different--Aldo Moro, the German bankers and industrialists, the pathology of Bader-Meinhof and the Red Brigades. Thanks to those reviewers who mentioned other Ward Just novels. I'll get them.

This book is not as bad as the negative reviews here suggest, but this is not Ward Just at his best, either. Worth reading? Absolutely, if you are interested in the psychology of the Cold War. That's what this novel is about. The portrait of Bill North Sr. is beautifully drawn & that is what Just is really interested in here -- a diplomat in extremis -- but the depiction of North's son Bill Jr. is much more problematic. Perhaps all terrorist acts are without motive, but the son's pathological detachment remains unexplained. As I savor the aferglow of the novel, I would note that the figure who sticks with me is Ambassador North's wife, a painter married to a diplomat, a woman who will not be bullied. If you have not read any of Just's novels, you might want to begin with A Dangerous Friend, which is about the early days of Vietnam & which is more successful, I think, in blending psychology & politics.

It's fiction after all, not intended to be fact specific. It's one of Just's best efforts. Ignore the other reviews, they missed the point. This is my third read of a Just novel and I liked it best. "The Translator" is a close second. Having visited Germany many times, I could visualize the settings depicited in the novel and Just's descriptions were right on target. The estranged relationship between parents and son is well presented and the story keeps one guessing at the outcome.

I felt compelled to write when I read the other reviews. I think Just is getting a bad rap. The novel is interesting and creative, and full of poetic prose. I enjoyed the characters. There's the bright but somehow clueless Ambassador and his wife who have lived their lives of adventure, giving their son everything that they would have wanted. But their son, raised overseas (Germany, France and Congo, if I recall correctly) in a "sophistocated" globe-trotting world, rebels against it all. The novel portrays a fascinating dichotomy of a patriotic American father, and his son, who chooses to become a German terrorist.