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A Dangerous Friend
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A Dangerous Friend Paperback - 2000

by Ward Just

A major novel by the author of "Echo House", set in Indochina in 1965. Sydney Parade, a trained political scientist, runs away to Saigon in an effort to become something larger than himself--and begins--but only begins--to understand something of the complexities of Western survival in the Third World.


Summary

Ward Just's twelfth novel penetrates deeply into America's role in the world. Set in Indochina in 1965, A DANGEROUS FRIEND tells a story of "the devolution of an innocent American crusading for democracy" (VANITY FAIR), a man living the conflict of so many Americans caught in a political and spiritual crossfire. Sydney Parade, a political scientist, has left home and family in an effort to become part of something larger than himself, a foreign-aid operation in Saigon. Even before he arrives, he encounters people who reveal to him the unsettling depths of a conflict he thought he understood, and in Saigon the Vietnamese add yet another dimension. This "fabulous, tense and dramatic" (LOS ANGELES TIMES) narrative needs neither combat nor bloodshed to tell its tale. A DANGEROUS FRIEND is the beautifully constructed story of civilians who want to reform Vietnam -- but the Vietnam they see isn't the Vietnam that is.

From the publisher

Ward Just is the author of fourteen previous novels, including the National book Award finalist Echo House and An Unfinished Season, winner of the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Award. In a career that began as a war correspondent for Newsweek and the Washington Post, Just has lived and written in half a dozen countries, including Britain, France, and Vietnam. His characters often lead public lives as politicians, civil servants, soldiers, artists, and writers. It is the tension between public duty and private conscience that animates much of his fiction, including Forgetfulness. Just and his wife, Sarah Catchpole, divide their time between Martha’s Vineyard and Paris.

Details

  • Title A Dangerous Friend
  • Author Ward Just
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 272
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Mariner Books, Boston
  • Date 2000-04-19
  • Features Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780618056705 / 061805670X
  • Weight 0.74 lbs (0.34 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.73 x 5.62 x 0.72 in (22.17 x 14.27 x 1.83 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1940's
    • Chronological Period: 1960's
    • Chronological Period: 1950-1999
    • Cultural Region: Asian - General
    • Cultural Region: East Asian
    • Cultural Region: Southeast Asian
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 98050728
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

"Spectacular . . . Truly visionary." Boston Globe

"Extraordinary...Mr. Just's novel makes you want to run screaming into the street to protest retrospectively the war he has so movingly recreated." The New York Times

"A powerful story beautifully told." Newsweek

"Its greatness will stand the test of time . . . One hundred years hence, A DANGEROUS FRIEND will remain a beautiful, beautiful book." The San Francisco Chronicle

"Emotionally wrenching and always beautifully observant, this is a work in the Graham Greene tradition." Entertainment Weekly

Citations

  • Entertainment Weekly, 05/26/2000, Page 65
  • New York Times, 05/28/2000, Page 24

About the author

Ward Just is the author of fourteen previous novels, including the National book Award finalist Echo House and An Unfinished Season, winner of the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Award. In a career that began as a war correspondent for Newsweek and the Washington Post, Just has lived and written in half a dozen countries, including Britain, France, and Vietnam. His characters often lead public lives as politicians, civil servants, soldiers, artists, and writers. It is the tension between public duty and private conscience that animates much of his fiction, including Forgetfulness. Just and his wife, Sarah Catchpole, divide their time between Martha's Vineyard and Paris.
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dangerous friend
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dangerous friend

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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