The Room and the Chair

'The Chair and The Room' is a knockout of a novel. It brings us places we have never heard of, into the familiar and then back to the recesses of the government's secret places. The novel opens our eyes to the unexplained and unexplored. Lorraine Adams tells us that in this novel "I'm looking at how human beings here in all their wonder and mystery and frailty stumble around a lot." And, does she ever! The book opens with a female pilot trying to eject from a failed fighter plane over Washington, DC. She lands in a tree and then disappears to surface later in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time the 'Washington Spectator' or as we know it, the 'Washington Post', explores their journalists and the stories surrounding the politics and life in this oh so political town. In Iran an engineer is in the middle of disappearing from his country. He is an 'informant' of a high mucky muck in one of the government's secret organizations. This leads directly to the Vice President's office, and someone who is not liked by many. How all of these stories intertwine is the magic of this novel. The stories of the night editor of the Spectator and the young woman he hopes to mentor. The nuclear engineer and the tragedy of his family. The female fighter pilot and her mentor and friend. The sergeant major who leads the secret organization. We get to know them, where they came from, how they think and all of the intricacies that make-up their personality and their lives. A sledding party that ends in tragedy, a hotel room that is a prison, a newspaper reporter who has a big story but where is it going? Some of the characters will seem familiar to you, and gives us a little insight into the news world. Lorraine Adams, the author, worked for the Washington Post, but that is all she will say about it. Her previous novel, 'Harbor' was one of the better books I read in 2005. The familarity of terrorists in both books gives me pause. She appears to have an inner source into the minds of terrorists, and a feel for how they work. Lorraine Adams has said that "The Room" is the newsroom, a place she knows well from working at the Washington Post for over a decade. "The Chair" is within the military intelligence community." These two organizations are forever in conflict. 'The Room' wants to know everything, all the secrets and and lies. 'The Chair' doesn't want anything known, no information, nothing passed to the outside world. The manner in which the two meet, is what sets this novel apart. It is a thrill to see behind the lines, to understand a little, how these worlds collide and how they work. The people in these worlds are so well written and drafted. We come to know them, and then..... The satisfaction of understanding the finality is not in this novel. We are left to wonder.... Highly Recommended. prisrob 02-13-10 Harbor Biography - Adams, Lorraine: An article from: Contemporary Authors Online