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Title: Judgment on Deltchev (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Eric Ambler ISBN: 0-375-72675-6 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 03 December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Eric Ambler - Master of Espionage and Spy Genre
Comment: In the aftermath of WWII the Soviets tightened their grip on Eastern Europe. Outwardly legal processes were observed. Witnesses were summoned and evidence was presented before the leaders of opposition parties were condemned. Nikolai Petkov in Bulgaria was hung while Julius Maniu and Ion Mihalache in Romania were condemned to solitary confinement for life. In this historical context Eric Ambler produced his fictional novel Judgment on Deltchev (1951), a story of the trial of Yordan Deltchev.
Foster, a successful London playwright, accepted an unexpected job offer to attend the trial and write articles for an American newspaper publisher. Foster was not naïve. He expected to have difficulty properly covering Deltchev's sham trial. He rationalized that his inexperience might help him develop a fresh view.
Ambler has layers of surprises awaiting Foster. From the beginning Foster dislikes and mistrusts his employer's local representative, a disheveled, smelly man named Georghi Pashik. He is wary of other correspondents. And, of course, he totally disbelieves the government's information minister. He soon finds himself even questioning whether Deltchev the liberal is so innocent after all. We readers become unable to distinguish between the truth and carefully fabricated lies. In this convoluted, complicated plot Ambler illustrates the dangers of preconceived notions.
Graham Greene, Len Deighton, and John LeCarre all credit Eric Ambler for his influence on their writings. I highly recommend Judgment on Deltchev. It compares favorably with other Ambler novels like A Coffin for Dimitrios, Passage of Arms, and Journey into Fear. I have yet to encounter an Eric Ambler story that has disappointed me.
Rating: 5
Summary: Master of the Espionage Story
Comment: Having finished all of the Alan Furst novels, I wanted to read Eric Ambler, one of the creators of the Espionage Novel. Ambler began writing his spy novels in the 1930's and continued through the 1970's. Most of his early work was set in Europe as the dark shadow of facism was falling on the Continent.
Judgment on Deltchev was in written in 1949. With the end of the Second World War, Facism had been defeated and the new spectre of Communism was beginning to fall over Eastern Europe. This tale is set in an un-named Eastern European country shortly after the end of World War Two. The Communist Party has recently seized power and they are putting the respected leader of an opposition party on trial. With the backdrop of a political show trial, an underground stuggle is taking place to determine who will really run the country. It is into this highly charged atmosphere that Foster, an English journalist covering the political trial arrives.
Eric Ambler is a master stylist. His writing is economical and he effortly produces a story of complicated political intrigue. Ambler's writing is a great example of how less can be more. There are many contemporary writers producing espionage tales set during the Second World War and the years immediately following it. Ambler was the first master of this genre and he set a very high bar.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Slippery Nature of Reality
Comment: It's easy for a person to begin to confuse their subjective perceptions with reality. Do this long enough, and the person becomes convinced that anyone who disagrees with them is either perverse or stupid. Naturally, a successful person is more likely to fall into this trap. That syndrome is one that Eric Ambler deftly explores in Judgment on Deltchev in such an effective way that the book actually transcends the spy thriller genre into universality. This is one of my three favorite Eric Ambler novels. If you haven't read it yet, you're in for a major treat!
At the height of the Cold War, Foster, a London West End dramatist is invited to write a series of articles in what seems to be a political show trial of Yordan Deltchev behind the Iron Curtain. Deltchev had been a moderate leader in the revolution that brought the currrent government into power. The charges against him are assumed by Foster to respresent a final way to liquidate Deltchev's party, because Deltchev is accused of conspiring with the group that he had personally opposed. Like the protagonists in many of Eric Ambler's best novels, Foster is hopelessly naive and inexperienced for the challenges he is about to face. Only his good intentions can hope to save him . . . but too often his good intentions put him into dangerous situations. In the background are numbers of people who accommodate the current government in a variety of ways such as Georghi Pashik, the local press representative whom Foster relies on, and Sibley, the reporter.
As the trial develops, many unexpected events occur and Foster finds himself unpeeling the onion of a complex mystery concerning what the real agendas behind the trial are. In the process, he learns a lot about himself and human nature in general. He faces important ethical challenges, ones that will leave you wondering what you would have done in the same situation. As a result, you'll find yourself walking in Foster's steps and sharing his reality. It's a chilling trip.
One of several fascinating areas this book explores is the connection between whom we trust and whom we do not. Foster, like most, is attracted to those whose views he understands and approves of, those who are physically attractive, and those who he enjoys being with. Yet the information he receives that is helpful often comes from what would appear to be obviously untrustworthy or discredited sources. He gradually learns to cross-check his information, and digs to the bottom of many cross-currents of plots and subplots among the competing characters in the political tempest of a totalitarian regime. We can all learn a lot of good lessons from this story in overcoming out own shortsightedness about finding the truth.
Learn to appreciate the fragile and delicate beauty of truth . . . and how to seek it...
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Title: Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler ISBN: 0375726721 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 03 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler ISBN: 0375713247 Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Pub. Date: 05 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Cause for Alarm (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Eric Ambler ISBN: 0375726748 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 05 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Schirmer Inheritance (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Eric Ambler ISBN: 0375726764 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Background to Danger by Eric Ambler ISBN: 037572673X Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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