| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Book Reviews From our Archives |
February 2006 |
NO MAN’S LAND,
by Graham Greene, Hesperus Press
Limited, 114 pages, hardcover,
$24.94, ISBN 1-84391-414-X
Dead Game
by Kirk
Russell, Chronicle Books, San Francisco,
ISBN 0-8118-5078-1, US $23.95
By J. M. Smith
Graham Greene (1904-91) was part of the first generation of British writers to be considerably influenced by the movies. No Man's Land was his treatment for a film to be similar in style to The Third Man. This complex spy thriller is set in the Harz region of occupied Germany at the end of the Second World War and early on in the Cold War. Protagonist Richard Brown arrives in the Harz Mountains and seems to be enjoying a holiday. At first he spends his time sitting, reading and walking — or is he waiting, blending and observing ? One night, he crosses a strip of no-man's land into the Russian Zone supposedly to inspect a near-by Catholic shrine. His cover does not convince the omnipresent MKVD (Soviet secret police that later became the KGB.) He is arrested, interrogated, tortured and eventually befriended by Nicolai Starhov, a high ranking KGB official who takes Brown to his war-claimed headquarters/home. Although this is a relief from the relentless interrogation, the stark, prison-like atmosphere of Brown's room and the concealed guards on all paths to the house make him uneasy and suspicious. He soon encounters Clara, Starhov's 'devoted' mistress, who finds him irresistible.
An atmosphere of despair and mistrust pervades this tight, psychological drama. The personalities, the setting and the politics are all cleverly intertwined. Brown is not what he appears to be. Clara, a survivor at all costs, seems willing to betray anyone and quickly leaves Starhov for Brown. Starhov, the idealist "who committed the crime of trust" , seems to be a pleasant, thoughtful, book loving man, but is an important KGB officer. Mistrust and betrayal are reflected in the hostile wasteland of the British/Russian border crossing. The Iron Curtain wraps the characters into its folds. The loss of hope and post war devastation permeate this sinister landscape. East-West tensions, disturbing implications of uranium discoveries in the Soviet zone, Starhov's crime in trusting Brown and Brown's duty to betray him reflect the recurring 'trust' theme and a desperate need for peace on the political level.
Next, the reader is treated to Greene's The Stranger's Hand, an excellent, though unfinished film treatment. It was eventually completed by veteran screenwriter Guy Elmes, with Greene's approval, and filmed in 1954. Set against a background of the Cold War, espionage and border disputes, it is similar to No Man's Land. It concerns the plight of seven-year-old Roger Court, sent off to a strange foreign city, Venice, to meet his long absent father, who fails to appear. Greene's sympathetic portrayal of this unhappy, frightened child is impeccable. We experience this poignant . . .
December 2005
By J. M. Smith
Deadgame is Kirk Russell's third book in his John Marquez crime novel series. Marquez is head of the undercover unit of the California Department of Fish & Game, whose purpose is to stop the commercialization and endangerment of wildlife.
The reader is drawn into the dangerous world of the highly profitable caviar trade. It is backed by the Russian mafia or Eurasian Organized Crime and its two hundred plus 'liquid' cells, who form as needed, then disappear into the proverbial thin air. Just as Marquez is closing in on a network of sturgeon poachers, his key informant disappears. He becomes entangled in a conflicting FBI operation that is attempting to shut down the Russian Mob for things much more dangerous than fish eggs.
If you want to experience the lonely, bleak existence of a dedicated undercover officer in the muddy sloughs of California, then this book is for you. The long and winding trail that leads to the poachers, the middlemen and the Russians . . .
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