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5.0étoiles sur 5
Techno thriller of the highest order, Nov. 9 2007
If you have ever been bullied and wanted revenge, wanted sweet, brutal revenge, wanted to have your tormentors bruised and bloodied and begging for mercy, then this is the book for you.
John Kelly is one of those archetypical Hollywood American heroes--the quiet, honorable soldier who, when pushed, is capable of doling out large doses of mayhem.
I liked the book, honest. But I think Clancy missed a chance to plumb a deeper emotional well and show what a man in his situation would endure.
You have a man who has gone through a truly horrible experience, the death of his wife and unborn child. I don't want to say Clancy glossed over that tragedy, but his wife's death didn't create the same kind of anguish that Pam's death does. That anguish leads Kelly to begin what amounts to a serial murder spree.
Now, sure, these guys "deserved" to die. They were drug dealers, pushers, scum, etc, and the world isn't worse off now that they're no longer breathing. But...you just don't go around whacking people you hate, no matter what they did to deserve it.
Or, if you do, it should be treated with much more depth and sophistication than Clancy does in this book. Did I root for Kelly to waste the bad guys and gain his revenge? Yup.
But there should have more consequences for his actions. The title of the book is "Without Remorse", and that troubled me. Have I ever fantasized about being a highly trained killer and deftly disposing of that bully in junior high who always punched my in the hallway? You betcha.
But I didn't because of the laws of the land, which state that if I do that kinda thing, I go to jail, which is bad. John Kelly gets to act as his own judge, jury, and executioner, and while he has to "die" for his crimes, the book leaves no doubt that we are to consider Kelly a hero, and his acts heroic.
Clancy is often criticized for painting characters in stark black and white, and in this book he missed a chance to show a character who is many shades of grey. Kelly/Clark is a "shadowy" character, and should not be characterized simply as one of the good guys.
He is a man of honor, a man of action, a man you definitly want on your side, but he's not "good". To call him that is to diminish both Kelly and the book.
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