A Flag for Sunrise

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: A complex tale of rebellion and redemption that is so seamlessly told that one gets the notion that Stone possesses all the genius of a great composer as his plotlines are symphonic and orchestral in their nature alternating and complementing each other at every turn. The redeemable thug, the whiskified priest, the forlorn academic searching for meaning, and the Aloysha-like spiritually perfect nun represent the intimately drawn cast of characters that inhabit this novel about a revolution that occurs in the fictional Tikal(an actual name of the ancient Mayan city in Guatamala). To be brief this novel is an himage to Conrad's Nostromo, and although I do not want to suffer the curse of the dead, I would say Stone surpasses Conrad's tale in depth and in sheer virtuosity of prose to himself become a modern master.

Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel
Review: A very ambitious book that works on every level - it's at once a potboiler about a revolution in Central America and an intelligent exploration of faith and political idealism. In fact he's among the few writers I can think of who still try to tackle such questions and have the power to pull it off. Enriching as well as entertaining. His language and description can be breathtaking - as with Updike, sometimes you simply want to applaud. If you read a few of his books his novelist's tricks become a bit distracting - characters supercharged with booze and drugs are the norm, and this can seem an artificial jumpstart for action - but he's after the big game and he bags it. Best book I've read in years.

Rating:
Summary: Revolution and Heresy in the Central American Jungle
Review: Another Stone masterpiece, a novel of uncomfortable ideas -- even better than Dog Soldiers. This time Stone has taken the steamy, conflicted Yanqui-in-the-tropics oeuvre ala Graham Greene, added sex, betrayal, heresy, drugs, drifters, danger and political violence and turned it into a thriller so gripping, you'll be happy Stone's fictional Central American state of Tecan doesn't exist, and hopefully never will (though it looks and feels suspiciously like Somoza-era Nicaragua). This book is peopled with a scary mix of misfits and losers: a homicidal, speed freak Coast Guard deserter, a compromised anthropologist doing the CIA's bidding, a whiskey priest, assorted Central American military thugs, and other creeps found on the extreme periphery where Stone is most at home.

Rating:
Summary: Power, [evil] and self interest.
Review: In its setting and background a Flag for Sunrise rests firmly in Graham Greene and Ernest Hemmingway territory - a fictional Central American country run by a right wing military regime. The cast of characters holds few suprises - the whisky priest, the idealistic nun, the american abroad, the sadistic secret policeman, various members of the world intelligence services.

What struck me about a Flag for Sunrise was its uncomprimisingly dark view of the world and the politics that makes it function. A world where all that is important is power and strength and your ability to harness these forces for your own self interest. A world where morals have no place, in fact a place where morals will get you killed, often slowly and painfully.

Yet somehow the book remains rivetting. You know that it is going to end badly for those characters that you like, at times it is difficult to turn the page, but you do anyhow and what happens is often worse than your darkest imaginings. But it is also honest.

This is the second Robert Stone novel that I have read and I am certain that it will not be the last.

Rating:
Summary: Power, [evil] and self interest.
Review: In its setting and background a Flag for Sunrise rests firmly in Graham Greene and Ernest Hemmingway territory - a fictional Central American country run by a right wing military regime. The cast of characters holds few suprises - the whisky priest, the idealistic nun, the american abroad, the sadistic secret policeman, various members of the world intelligence services.

What struck me about a Flag for Sunrise was its uncomprimisingly dark view of the world and the politics that makes it function. A world where all that is important is power and strength and your ability to harness these forces for your own self interest. A world where morals have no place, in fact a place where morals will get you killed, often slowly and painfully.

Yet somehow the book remains rivetting. You know that it is going to end badly for those characters that you like, at times it is difficult to turn the page, but you do anyhow and what happens is often worse than your darkest imaginings. But it is also honest.

This is the second Robert Stone novel that I have read and I am certain that it will not be the last.

Rating:
Summary: My first Stone novel and looking forward to more
Review: Robet Stone has always been a novelst of PLACE. Whether in New Orleans,{HAll of Mirrors},Vietnam and the southwest{dog soldiers},or later Jerusalem{Damascus Gate},he inhabits these places as if he were a lifer. IN a FLAG FOR SUNRISE, his finest work to date, he inevnts a claustrophobic,insane CIA crazed counrty,TECAN.A Graham Greene novel written by a close to the edge survivor,this is a complex political religious thriller. There are some chilling moments early on, a whiskey priest{not a very rare breed, in fiction }a radical nun, a reptillian colonel,a cia agent, his latin american contact, a drug smuggler and his wife[bored, they do this for kicks] a psycopathic meth-amphetamine addict,all cross paths and slowly,slowly they come together. Stone along with Heinrich Boll inhabits the same area in fiction, at least for me: morally compromised people, thrown by situation,fate or grace into out of control situations.Also,like Boll, Stone doesnt like happy endings[knowing that there are few, at least now}. This book is a masterpiece of contemporary fiction,one of the better novels of the last 25 years. Stones best to date, a powerful novel filled with potent mix of religion,politics and philosophy.

Rating:
Summary: Stone's Best Novel
Review: Since all the previous 5-star reviews have been by written by
Bob Stone groupies, a 'reality check review' is in order here.

Stone likes to write about chaotic places in chaotic times
(Vietnam and San Fran in the early 70s, Jerusalem in the 90s).
Such places attract all kinds of strange and unhappy people,
including flaky hippies, cynical hustlers and stone psychos.
They also create no small number of monomaniacal fanatics.

The problem with Stone's novels is that these are the only

characters who appear in them! Perhaps an exception should
be made for the 'well-meaning but ineffectual intellectual'
character that plays a major part in every one of Stone's books.
I am not sure whether to count this 'Uberangstmensch' as an
actual character-type, however, since I suspect it is merely
a fictionalized version of Stone himself!

'A Flag for Sunrise' is a bit different than Stone's other
novels, and quite a bit better (I would give it 3.5 stars if
I could (-:). Stone did a great deal of research for this book,
and it shows-check out his fascinating comments in his
interview,included in *The Paris Review: Writers at Work* series.
Unlike Vietnam, the American West Coast or Israel, Central
America has not been written about much (or well) in fiction.
This book truly captures the feel of the region, though
thankfully things have improved since Stone was writing.
However, Colombia has been looking rather scary lately and may
be for our time what Central America was for the 80s.

Despite its proliferation of unpleasant characters (half-way
through any Stone book you start to wonder whether any happy
and well-adjusted people exist in his imagination), lapses
into hippie mysticism and repetitiveness, *A Flag for Sunrise*
remains a very good book. It is better than just about any
novel published nowadays, but it is certainly not on a level
with Joseph Conrad or Graham Greene-two of the greatest novelists
of the 20th Century!-despite what any Robert Stone groupie might tell you.

Still, Stone is well worth reading; and this is his best book.

Rating:
Summary: A Third World Apocalypse...
Review: The incendiary hint of Revolution simmers on the surface of a South American country beset by poverty and the all-consuming appetite of corporate gluttony. The rolling green hills and sparkling beaches of Tecan are perfect for exploitation. The land is already littered with an assortment of "investors" jockeying for inside information. Revolution spells opportunity, out with the old regime, in with the new, and a tidy profit to be made along the way. The only question is whether to "run with the Rabbit or hunt with the Hare?"

Saints and sinners compete in this Third World nightmare, each with a different agenda. It's an ideological train wreck and the ultimate victims are the disenfranchised. The name of the game is greed and the players are the usual: privately owned corporations, interested governments, a militia trained to fight insurrection, various criminals, religious zealots and a panoply of hired spies and assorted operatives. Our personal guide is Frank Holliwell, an American anthropologist with "Company" ties from his days in Vietnam, visiting the region ostensibly to give a lecture. Holliwell becomes one more pawn in a dangerous game with incredibly high stakes.

In the final act, no one is who he seems in this Darwinian struggle for dominance. The common people are disposable, the cause is mutable and the quality of civilization a casualty of events. Enter at your own risk, this is Robert Stone at his best. But know this: you step into chaos in this novel (with no separate chapters) that jolts from one state of anxiety to another, watching over your shoulder at every turn.

Rating:
Summary: A Third World Apocalypse...
Review: The incendiary hint of Revolution simmers on the surface of a South American country beset by poverty and the all-consuming appetite of corporate gluttony. The rolling green hills and sparkling beaches of Tecan are perfect for exploitation. The land is already littered with an assortment of "investors" jockeying for inside information. Revolution spells opportunity, out with the old regime, in with the new, and a tidy profit to be made along the way. The only question is whether to "run with the Rabbit or hunt with the Hare?"

Saints and sinners compete in this Third World nightmare, each with a different agenda. It's an ideological train wreck and the ultimate victims are the disenfranchised. The name of the game is greed and the players are the usual: privately owned corporations, interested governments, a militia trained to fight insurrection, various criminals, religious zealots and a panoply of hired spies and assorted operatives. Our personal guide is Frank Holliwell, an American anthropologist with "Company" ties from his days in Vietnam, visiting the region ostensibly to give a lecture. Holliwell becomes one more pawn in a dangerous game with incredibly high stakes.

In the final act, no one is who he seems in this Darwinian struggle for dominance. The common people are disposable, the cause is mutable and the quality of civilization a casualty of events. Enter at your own risk, this is Robert Stone at his best. But know this: you step into chaos in this novel (with no separate chapters) that jolts from one state of anxiety to another, watching over your shoulder at every turn.

Rating:
Summary: Stone fans: stand up and be counted!!!
Review: What? No one has reviewed this book in over a year?!! Is some Agency eliminating all of the Robert Stone fans... will my review make it past the Censor Board?

Yes, Ken Kesey has called his friend Stone a professional paranoid and asserted that he could sense sinister elements lurking behind every Oreo cookie. After reading this book I could see what Kesey was saying.

This book reminded me of Graham Greene in some general ways (sneaky spies, drunken central american priests, general gloom), and like Greene (who i dont even like that much) there are plenty of worried, unhappy people. In fact I challenge one to catch any of the characters in this book happy or sober for one whole scene. I believe there were perhaps two smiles. Anyhow, Stone strikes me as the type of guy uncomfortable with writing about happy people or comedy, but this really is not a criticism and it does not limit the scope of his writing. An added bonus is the unbelievabe, almost heroic amounts of drinking in the novel. It makes you feel better about your own alcohol problem.

The writing is beautiful, contemplative, and his creation of the country Tecan is cool. The suspense and tension was often as immediate as it can be in really good movies, or worrisome phone calls or any discussion with an ex-girlfriend.

So the point is: this is a great book, OK?