Antivirale Eccellente avventura meno cerebrale di LeCarr�, meno pirotecnica di Fleming ma col grandissimo mestiere misurato e temperato di Ambler. Parte a fatica, scegliendo la forma inusuale del doppio memoriale di un giornalista esperto in questioni mediorientali - il guazzabuglio etno-politico-socio-militare che viene evocato con realismo encomiabile fa capire definitivamente perch� c'� bisogno d'esperti, e di un armatore anglo-sirio-armen-cipriota, mescolanza non inusuale nelle famiglie d'affari locali, che viene abilmente incastrato da quelli colla tovaglia in testa onde fungere da veicolo attivo per una loro operazione. Praticamente lui ed una sua collaboratrice e amante (ottima scelta per entrambi) vengono infettati da un virus terrorista. Guarire sar� molto difficile. Due punti di maestria assoluta. L'intervista al capo terrorista, colla perfetta fiancheggiatrice che mangia nel piatto dove sputa, le cautele di un giornalista di mestiere, le strategie da grandi maestri internazionali dell'arte retorica di porre le domande giuste evitando trappole: somiglia al biliardo per campioni. Non solo devi fare un buon colpo, ma a biglie ferme non devi regalare un'occasione all'avversario. Gli errori voluti di traduzione, le condizioni dell'incontro e ci� che implicano o nascondono. Sembra che Ambler abbia lavorato colla Fallaci, Biagi o altri sommi artisti dell'intervista per decenni. Poi la costruzione del caso, dove il metodo per battere il terrorista deriva proprio dall'acuta interpretazione dell'errore di base ideologico-filosofico del terrorismo locale. Somiglia moltissimo a come si sfruttarono gli errori della Germania nazista, compiuti proprio in quanto tedeschi ed in quanto nazisti. Sottile ma capitale. Colonna sonora: Jan Garbarek/Hillard Ensemble - Officium. Ambler � rigorosamente jerking-free ed il quantitativo di tecniche, situazioni ed informazioni utili che vi passa vale un corso, al prezzo di una pizza o poco pi�. Ai pipparoli, l'augurio - rinascendo - di doversi confrontare colla mamma dell'armatore: una che non si fa troppi problemi a darti torto di fronte a tutti i parenti, ma non davanti ai passatelli in brodo del pranzo di Natale: in consiglio d'amministrazione.
This was, what, my twelfth Amber mystery? After all these years, he's one of the first, and still one of the best. This is I believe his last novel, and it takes place not in the Balkans as so many others, but Syria. Reading it 40 +years after it was written, it's chilling to realize how little has changed, while so much has changed. A Palestinian terrorist group wants to wreak havoc in Israel, and a businessman -- Ambler's usual hero -- gets caught in the middle. He has no real understanding of the situation he is in, but tries to find a way out that is resourceful, unexpected, with some reasonable chance of success. Ambler's writing is engaging and always a pleasure, even when chilling. For example, he describes an encounter with the master mind who insists on sharing horrific photos of violence, saying, "His eagerness reminded me, incongruously, of the lonely man on the long plane flight who wanted to share his homesickness with you: 'Look, there we are last summer, up at the lake.'" This isn't his best novel -- I prefer others such as the Coffin for Dimitrios, Journey into Fear and my favorite, Judgement on Delchev, all written in the 1930s and set in Eastern Europe with the same droll, dead pan and witty style. Worth reading if you like the modern masters, La Carré, Ludlum, and others -- they all learned from Ambler.
What do You think about The Levanter (2005)?
A wonderful suspense thriller from the past. Because it is set in the Middle East, it doesn't seem as dated as its 1972 publication date would indicate. A middle-eastern businessman, Michael Howell discovers a militant Palestinian organization making detonators in his battery factory in Syria. He finds that the corrupt head of Syrian security will do nothing. How Howell threads the dangerous waters of this predicament is interesting and suspenseful. IMDb gives no indication that a movie has been made from this Ambler story but someone should.
—itpdx
I'm a big fan of Ambler's early, and famous, espionage novels. I picked this book up at a sale, based on Ambler's name alone. It turns out to have been written late in his career, and is certainly not one of his best. The action takes place in the middle East in the 70s. A mixed-blood English entrepreneur, successful in the middle East, is coerced by a radical Islamist into supporting his plan for a major terror attack on Israel. It's an interesting premise, and the setup is similar to other Ambler work, but the plot development is tedious and the threat to the entrepreneur doesn't seem to be one that he couldn't have dealt by means other than allowing himself to be drawn into actively helping the radical. Since the radical and his threat aren't persuasive, the story is rather limp.
—Al
1972 Gold Dagger Award. Michael Howell finds that there are Palestinian terrorists working in his Syrian factory and ordering inventory to use in the manufacture of detonators and rocket shells. When he attempts to fire them, armed guards dissuade him. The leader demonstrates that he has collaborators in the country's security service. Slow starting novel but the pace picks up and leads to a satisfactory conclusion.Non-series - Michael Howell is "the Levanter," an English businessman trying to keep his family firm intact in 1971 Syria, a country undergoing a revolution. He and his secretary-mistress are captured by a splinter group who want him to help manufacture bombs for a terrorist attack on Israel.
—Ed
