John Kelly's life changed drastically during the Vietnam war. Trying to deal with a lost wife, he gets thrown into a vigilante situation locally and must risk one more mission abroad. This is where he becomes "Mr. Clark" from all the other "Jack Ryan" Clancy novels.

Pure pleasure/entertainment. Indulge in this male action story at your own convenience.

the grimness of the first 20 pages, and the depths of the scars to this man's soul. this is Clancy's best writing, right after it got polished and long before he got formulaic. and it's realistic. Clark may be a prototype commando, but he is not stereotypical.

sometimes Clancy has so many badguys that he's forced to oversimplify some of them. out of a dozen antagonists here, two of them stick out as obviously underwritten. but they don't get much camera time, so who cares

go watch some gritty early 80s movies, like "The Warriors" (Coney Island gang) or "Death Wish"

like if I ever flipped my lid, this would be my Bible. from how dark this starts out, I'm amazed how logically and soundly Clark recovers his sense of purpose and finds peace and sanity and a reason to go on living

is famous for his movies (Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Sum of All Fears) featuring Jack Ryan. but John Kelly ("Clark") is the most interesting of all his characters.

if you're a guy, you'll love every bit of it. it has everything we enjoy, and you can really identify with the intelligence and struggles of the hero

if you're a traditional, "proper" lady, this won't interest you. too action-oriented, and the internal struggles are based on purpose instead of emotional development

zingers from the book:
"Loneliness didn't tell you what you had lost, only that something was missing."
"It was hard not having a soul, especially when you could remember having had one."
"The one hope of the doomed is not to hope for safety."

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Without Remorse   from Amazon.Com!

Created Sep 26, 2006 at 11:23am • Submit your own review...