|
Loading... The Crook Factory (1999)by Dan Simmons
 antiquary | Apr 27, 2013 |   This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lest readers be left wondering how much of the novel is based on fact, Simmons adds this clarifying note at the end of the book: “The incredible story of Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban spy-catching, submarine-chasing, World War II adventures in my new novel, The Crook Factory, is – I think – all the more incredible for being 95 percent true.” He then goes through a list of plot twists and main characters that are based on “confirmed fact.” Fictional FBI man Joe Lucas, under direct orders from J. Edgar Hoover, is in Cuba to keep tabs on Hemingway and the little network of spies Hemingway is running there. Hemingway, although he is a little suspicious of Lucas, only knows that the U.S. ambassador to Cuba will not approve the operation unless Lucas is part of the team. He is not particularly happy to have Lucas on board, and, in turn, Lucas is unhappy because he thinks he has been assigned simply to “babysit” Hemingway long enough to keep him out of trouble – or from embarrassing the U.S. government. But then people start dying. And everything changes. In this world of agents, double-agents, traitors, and professional killers, all Lucas knows is that someone wants Ernest Hemingway – and him- very, very dead. Now, if he can figure out why, he might be able to save both their lives. The Crook Factory is a superb World War II thriller that will, I think, leave the reader with a new appreciation for just what a wild man Ernest Hemingway really was. Its seamless blending of fact and fiction includes appearances by the likes of: Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Hoover, John F. Kennedy, Ian Fleming, and other figures from both sides of the war. The author’s account of Hemingway’s end is both so touching and so disturbing that readers will long remember it. That such a famous man could have been so ill-treated by the medical community and his own government is shocking. This, in combination with the incredible “missions” undertaken by Hemingway’s Crook Factory, make for engrossing reading. I do, however, have one word of warning. The story involves a tremendous amount of infighting between Hoover’s FBI and the other intelligence agencies of the U.S. and Britain, and Simmons spends way too many pages explaining how it all happens - and why. Several long sections within the book’s first two hundred pages read more like mind-numbing pages from a bad history textbook than like content from a war thriller. But don’t give up because the last 350 pages or so will greatly reward your patience. Rated at: 4.0 (  ) SamSattler | Mar 12, 2013 | This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.In The Crook Factory, Simmons tackles a fun meme - the semi-fictional novelization of little known or improbable events. This is territory that reminds me of one of Tim Powers' best novels, Declare, which somehow manages to put together Kim Philby (the super spy), Lawrence of Arabia, Djinn and Nazis. In this case Simmons isn't channeling the supernatural, just the world of 1940s Cuba and J Edgar Hoover - and yes Nazis and Marlene Dietrich too. Oh, and Ernest Hemingway. Did you know that Hemingway was a spy? Me neither. The Crook Factory plays out through the eyes of Joe Lucas, a fictional FBI agent with a history of bending the law and being the FBI's goto person when dirty tricks or semi legal activities are involved Joe is sent to become part of, and spy on, Hemingway's burgeoning spy ring - the crook factory. Through Joe we meet, and become very close to, Ernest Hemingway - the writer, the lover, the prodigious drinker, the pugilist, the sentimentalist, the blowhard, the trickster. The novel renders Hemingway in amazing depth. Joe and Ernest are off to fight the Nazis and sink subs (seriously), as well as the fighting off the local Cuban police while watching out for any number of competing intelligence agencies. Crook factory is a great adventure and a fantastic history lesson all wrapped in one. Virtually all of the novel with the exception of Joe Lucas himself is well grounded in fact. I also gained a much more realized view of Hemingway the man (albeit fictionalized), and the book inspired me to return to some of Hemingway's novels (e.g. For Whom the Bell Tolls) with renewed appreciation. If any of this sounds interesting, get The Crook Factory - you won't be sorry. [I received a complimentary copy of The Crook Factory through the excellent LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.]. (  ) viking2917 | Mar 3, 2013 | This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. ) charlottem | Feb 24, 2013 | This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.It is meticulously researched and a good story, but it fell flat for me in a couple of ways. First, there are a few too many winks at the reader, statements made by characters of the mid-20th century that any reader in the 21st century would know to be wrong. One particularly clunky example: "'Rather more [J Edgar Hoover's] style to haul you up in front of a Senate committee investigating Communist infiltration and discredit you or send you to jail' 'There's no such thing as a witch-hunt committee like that,' said Hemingway." Second, it felt at times that nothing of what Simmons found in the archives was left out of the book. The story is fascinating, but the way it is presented, it is overburdened by detail and research. As he has Hemingway state at one point, "Only you have to avoid showing off... parading all the things you know like marching captured soldiers through the capitol." In his other historical fictions, *Drood* and *The Terror*, Simmons does an excellent job of not letting his research get in the way. *The Crook Factory* was originally published in 1999 (this is a re-release by Mulholland Books), and maybe, by the time he wrote the later novels, Simmons learned how to incorporate his research more naturally into the narrative. Perhaps the best review is done by the narrator himself. At the end of the book, he is reflecting on his time with Hemingway, and the best way to write about it. "In later years, Hemingway was quoted as saying that a novel was like an iceberg--seven-eighths of it should be invisible.... I knew that I would never be good enough as a writer to tell the story that way." (  ) evenlake | Feb 15, 2013 | no reviews | add a review
References to this work on external resources.
|
 Google Books — Loading...Popular coversRatingAverage: (3.71)
 LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumnThe Crook Factory by Dan Simmons was made available through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Sign up to possibly get pre-publication copies of books. Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
Wikipedia in English
1
Other aspects of the book are similar in that there is a tendency to work in famous names --notably the young John Kennedy --in implausible ways. A document about
Kennedy's affair with a possible German spy shows up in a very random collection of German intelligence documents supposedly being released by the SS to discredit the Abwehr. Simmons includes facsimiles of apparently genuine documents but they are a very odd assortment.
I will say I respect the most significant plot twist --I had just thought to myself "Simmons doesn't have the guts to make that person the traitor" when he did it.
After that the book moves much more rapidly to a terrific climax, in which Lucas faces down several villains and Hemingway does prove himself heroic in saving Lucas's life.
Overall, I think it is a good action adventure despite the rather slow opening. (