- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Mariner Books; None edition (Mar 22 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 061805670X
- ISBN-13: 978-0618056705
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.3 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 381 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,750,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Ward Just, a former war correspondent, uses his intimate knowledge of Vietnam to advantage in this exploration of America's tangled relations with that small Southeast Asian country. Set in 1965, the last year that civilians were in control of foreign intervention, A Dangerous Friend chronicles the lives of a small band of aid workers who purport to administer financial and technical assistance to the Vietnamese; unknown to most, however, the Llewellyn Group is actually covertly linked to the Pentagon. Though told by a nameless narrator, the protagonist of this story is Sydney Parade, an idealistic American who abandons wife and child in order to help bring democracy to the third world:
We worked harder than we had ever worked in our lives, or would ever work again. We were drunk on work. Work was passion. We were in it for the long haul, and from the beginning we swam upstream.Sydney arrives in Vietnam filled with altruistic purpose, but all too soon he finds himself up to his neck in dangerous intrigue. The head of the Llewellyn Group, Dicky Rostok, is trolling for information, and he uses Sydney's connections with a French planter and his American-born wife to further his own agenda. Despite the best of intentions, Sydney unwittingly becomes the source of information that will eventually lead to death, betrayal, and ruin. In A Dangerous Friend Ward Just conveys the depth of America's misunderstanding of the situation in Vietnam even as he illustrates how idealism unleavened by knowledge can be a perilous thing, indeed. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
With the appearance of his 12th novel, former journalist (and Vietnam reporter) Just (Echo House) has reason to be proud of the books he has produced, all of them thoughtful, judicious commentaries on the ironies inherent in politics, culture and human relationships. This trenchant work, set in 1965 Vietnam as the U.S. is inching toward full-scale war, may prove to be his most significant; certainly, it reflects with quiet understatement one of the central moral issues of our century. Its protagonist, Sydney Parade, is emblematic of the idealistic, dangerously na?ve Americans who felt it their mission to bring democracy to Southeast Asia. Recruited by Dicky RostokAthe brash, arrogant head of the Llewellyn Group, a foundation that purports to administer financial aid and technical assistance to Vietnam but is in reality a covert arm of Pentagon policyASydney leaves his wife and daughter in Darien, Conn., and travels to a country town near Saigon. Sydney is unaware of his vast ignorance of Vietnamese culture and political reality, but after he becomes involved with French expatriate and rubber plantation owner Claude Armand and his wife, Dede, a native Chicagoan, Sydney gradually loses his hubris. Eventually, he realizes that the American goal of "nation building" in Vietnam is at best a tragic delusion and at worst a cynical grasp at power. Almost accidentally, Sydney becomes the conduit for information about a U.S. Army captain captured by the VC. Ensuing events result in the annihilation of a village of innocent Vietnamese, betrayal of the Armands and the ruin of the one truly moral member of the Llewellyn staff. In spite of his good intentions, Sydney has become, as Dede Armand says, "a dangerous friend." Just gives readers an incisive vision of America's end of innocence. He does so with strongly limned characters who do not forfeit their individuality even as they are overwhelmed by history. Author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Dangerous Friend,
By
This review is from: A Dangerous Friend (Hardcover)
I liked this book and liked seeing the civilian side of the war revealed. What a crock these people must have been about in the early days of the war. As an Army helicopter pilot, we viewed their efforts and flew them around on their missions to improve this country. Watching their seriousness and intrigue was amusing and quizical at best. We flew a lot of single ship missions in support of MACV and USAID; thank God our seriousness was about flying the Huey.Read further about our side of the war with OUTLAWS IN VIETNAM; my book on flying UH-1D's out of Vinh Long in the Delta. Ward Just's book shows a very interesting story of what it must have been like to be French as this American involvement unfolds.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Evocative, powerful prose,
This review is from: A Dangerous Friend (Paperback)
"A Dangerous Friend" is the second best novel of its type, but that is high praise indeed, since it is only edged out by Graham Greene's "The Quiet American." Just's prose is a joy to read. He was a first-rate journalist in his younger days, and it shows. His economy with words and syntax is a marvel. Not a word is wasted, not a sentence tortured. Beyond that, the story is gripping and poignant. Just, like Greene before him, re-creates Vietnam on the page in a way that makes it startlingly real. The characters not only fulfill their symbolic function but also engage the reader on a human level. Finally, this is the book that makes you really feel what America did in Vietnam, as the U.S. is clearly the "Dangerous Friend" of the title.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well Constructed Story + Gifted Author = Quality Literature,
By brazos49 "brazos49" (Sugar Land, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Dangerous Friend (Hardcover)
I rate this as one of the better novels I've read. It presents an interesting look at civilian/government involvement in Vietnam. Tension, intrigue, good and bad guys and lessons to be learned can all be found in this book. A well constructed story presented by a gifted author elevates this book to literature class. Just has an elegant, simple way of writing that I found quite appealing. If you have any interest in the range of America's involvement in Vietnam or simply would enjoy a well written book and a good story, I'd recommend you give this book a look.
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