East
of Desolation is the twenty-second novel published by
Harry Patterson, and the first to appear under his most famous byline, Jack
Higgins. It is also a pivotal title in his transition from midlist to
bestselling writer. It was originally released in the U. K. as a hardcover by
Hodder & Stoughton in 1968, and it was issued in the United States by
Doubleday & Company; it was Mr. Patterson’s first U. S. appearance in
hardcover.
Joe Martin is a British pilot flying an Otter Amphibian
from the small town of Frederiksborg on the southwest coast of Greenland. The flying
season is short and the climate cold, but the money is double what he can earn
elsewhere and its lack of civilization suits him. He has summer contracts with
several mining outfits, and a special deal flying provisions to an Ernest
Hemingway-style actor hunting polar bears and everything else drawing breath.
The actor is a washed up legend named Jack Desforge who authors, and perhaps
believes, his own mythology.
Things get interesting when an insurance adjuster,
Hans Vogel, arrives with the widow of a pilot whose crashed airplane was discovered
on the ice-cap a year earlier. Vogel wants Joe to fly him to the wreckage to identify
the pilot. The story, both Vogel’s and the widow’s, Sarah Kelso, doesn’t add up
and Joe has an uneasy feeling about the whole thing.
East
of Desolation marks Harry Patterson’s entrance to the
top-tier of adventure writers—Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, Hammond Innes. It
is markedly better than its predecessors; its characters are richer with less
caricature, the plot is larger with more doubt about its conclusion, and its
setting is sturdy with a forbidding sense of isolation. It is first person
narrative with a hint of the unreliable. Joe Martin knows more than he is
sharing with either the reader or the other players. A characteristic shared by
most of the cast—Desforge, Kelso, Vogel—which generates significant tension and
unease.
Joe Martin is the most developed protagonist of Mr.
Patterson’s early work. He is, like many of Mr. Patterson’s protagonists, a man
who has fallen below his station, but he is also more; an alcoholic, divorced,
and hiding. His relationship with women is more complex than the usual and
there is a nicely executed romance between he and an actress friend of Jack
Desforge. An early line nicely defines his feelings—
“I
think it was General Grant who said: War is hell. He should have added that
women are worse.”
The is plot complicated, there are more variables than
Mr. Patterson’s earlier work, and a larger cast with believably suspicious
motives. It is enhanced by the strong and forbidding setting of Greenland. The
flying scenes, to a rank non-pilot, have the feel of reality and give the story
a sense of high adventure. And everything works perfectly.
6 comments:
One of my favorites of his books.
Mine too. I had forgotten how much I liked it and re-reading it was like finding an old friend.
Ben, I have not read this Jack Higgins title yet. Most of his protagonists, including Sean Dillon, Paul Chavasse, Martin Fallon, and John Dillinger, are more or less like Joe Martin. Some, in my opinion, stand out more than others, like Neil Mallory in "The Last Place God Made," Liam Devlin in "The Eagle Has Landed," Henry Martineau in "Night of the Fox" and Jack Drummond in "The Iron Tiger." Besides, he also tends to repeat character-names like Kelso and Vogel.
Prashant. He does have a typical protagonist type, and Joe Martin is a very good example. He is less than he could have been, relatively moral with a touch of sadness to him. The best of his protagonists, in my mind, are between East of Desolation and his early big bestsellers; Eagle Has Landed +. He repeats, and frequently, but it has never really bothered me as it would with most other writers and I'm not completely sure why.
Ben, the repetitions don't bother me either. I agree, his heroes are "relatively moral with a touch of sadness." Most of them are hopeless romantics, almost to the point of being patronising in a nice way. I have read many of his novels and I found them all highly entertaining.
I like your idea, "Most of them are hopeless romantics, almost to the point of being patronizing in a nice way." I think it is the sadness (without bitterness) and the hopeless romantic aspect that make his protagonists so likable, and forgivable.
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