Partisans

Rating:
Summary: I forgot this one...
Review: I wrote in recent reviews of Mankell and Leon mysteries that, after reading Sherlock Holmes and Helen McInnes, I had avoided mysteries altogether for many years, too boring. I had forgotten about Alistair McLean. I did read a few of his stories, and liked them, but I didn't read the famous ones and have forgotten exactly which stories I had liked (it was in the seventies, at latest). "Puppet on a Chain" sounds familiar.

I picked up the Norwegian translation ("Partisaner") of "Partisans" cheaply in Trondheim in 1985 because I thought it might be easy, but my vocabulary at that time was inadequate for a novel, so I strained over the first 15 pages and then gave up. I read the first few pages again last night, and was amazed that I had marked a few sentences: in response to why the Scandinavian name "Petersen" (the name of the hero) is found in Jugoslavia, Petersen responds to the German officer in Rome that that can't be regarded as unusual, that there is, e.g., a village in the Italian Alps where the rest of a Scottish regiment landed in the Middle Ages, and where every second name starts with "Mac". What's funny is that I forgot that I had read this, but in 1/1988, with my then German girlfriend, we visited that village! It's named Gurro, lies in Val Canobino above Cannobio on Lago Maggiorre. They have a Scottish museum, and many of the men have red hair and faces. I didn't ask about surnames, though, although we returned to the village (an extremely stately mountain village half in ruin in 1988) and hiked in the region in 1995. Much more interesting is that this is a region where the old women still wear local costumes and use the kraxe (a wooden back-rack) for transport in daily life. There is only one hotel in the entire valley, which is not a valley at all but is more of a canyon. PS It's not a good translation, I still have trouble with it.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of Fun - A MacLean Classic
Review: MacLean delivers another fun adventure in this 1983 yarn about a World War II espionage mission. Pete Peterson and his motley crew of maybe-Chetniks maybe-Partisans cross Italy and Yugoslavia to deliver a message and unmask a double agent. The characters are MacLean classics: beautiful patrician women, evil assassins, stalwart companions, and a glib and brilliant hero. The plot meanders through the confusion of Yugoslavia's three-way civil war while under Italian and German occupation. A fun adventure, a light read, a real Alistair MacLean classic.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of Fun - A MacLean Classic
Review: MacLean delivers another fun adventure in this 1983 yarn about a World War II espionage mission. Pete Peterson and his motley crew of maybe-Chetniks maybe-Partisans cross Italy and Yugoslavia to deliver a message and unmask a double agent. The characters are MacLean classics: beautiful patrician women, evil assassins, stalwart companions, and a glib and brilliant hero. The plot meanders through the confusion of Yugoslavia's three-way civil war while under Italian and German occupation. A fun adventure, a light read, a real Alistair MacLean classic.

Rating:
Summary: Not Vintage MacLean
Review: This is the weakest book of his I have read, and that is about thirty MacLean novels. I understand that he passed away prior to this book being published and that is was compiled posthumously. While admittedly not all of his books are great, I don't feel this is up to snuff with any of the others. Don't make this your first MacLean book and unless you feel the desire to read every one of his books like I choose to, take a pass on it. I am unwilling to touch any of the Alistair MacNeill books written using MacLeans notecards because I feel those are apt to be pretty weak too, and no one ever seems to duplicate the originals. If you are going to give a couple of MacLean novels a try, go for "Where Eagles Dare", "Puppet on a Chain", "Bear Island", & "Ice Station Zebra".

Rating:
Summary: Not Vintage MacLean
Review: This is the weakest book of his I have read, and that is about thirty MacLean novels. I understand that he passed away prior to this book being published and that is was compiled posthumously. While admittedly not all of his books are great, I don't feel this is up to snuff with any of the others. Don't make this your first MacLean book and unless you feel the desire to read every one of his books like I choose to, take a pass on it. I am unwilling to touch any of the Alistair MacNeill books written using MacLeans notecards because I feel those are apt to be pretty weak too, and no one ever seems to duplicate the originals. If you are going to give a couple of MacLean novels a try, go for "Where Eagles Dare", "Puppet on a Chain", "Bear Island", & "Ice Station Zebra".