The Gold Coast – Nelson Demille

Summary: A WASP lawyer lives with his wife on the Gold Coast of Long Island, and his life has gotten to the point where it obviously needs some excitement. I don’t think a mafia boss moving in next door is just what the doctor ordered though. This may sound vaguely like a sitcom plot from the ‘80’s, but it’s really not.

 

Setting: Long Island, 1980’s

 

Plot: John Sutter lives an existence that’s a bit more complicated than you’d expect from the outside. From the outside, he’s a successful tax lawyer with a beautiful wife who lives in a mansion. Inside though, it’s a bit more complicated. He’s getting a bit bored with his life. His marriage blends two of the oldest (and therefore, most prestigious) families on the Gold Coast. The money (and the roof over his head) belong to his wife, because of the draconian pre-nuptial he signed. His salary, while comfortable, places him among the lowest earners in their circle of friends and acquaintances, while his last name and family history place him among the highest, in terms of status. His wife (based on the same family factors) is quite a bit lower on the social register, while she’s much wealthier. All of this is explained quite well, within the terms of the story.

 

Enter the antagonist. Frank Bellarosa  is the largest remaining head of the different organizations in the mafia, and he’s bought the estate next door to the Sutters.

 

In the beginning, John fights off Bellarosa’s efforts to reach out and start a friendship. In time (over the course of the book) John needs to call on Bellarosa for a favor. Italians love their favors, don’t they? Now, John owes Frank. Turns out, Frank may have purposefully caused the situation that forced John into needing a favor from Frank to start out with.

 

Just that last sentence might have given you an idea of how twisted this book can get, but wait, there’s more! Now, let’s add Susan Stanhope Sutter (John’s wife) into the mix, and she gets some sort of relationship going with Frank (we’re never point blank told whether it was a sexual relationship or not), and that complicates John’s life even more, making him reevaluate his marriage in addition to his career and the direction his life has taken up to this point.

 

Now, Frank is indicted for a murder that he (allegedly) did not commit, and he calls a favor in from John to defend him in the eventual court case. John’s a tax lawyer, but he would bring “blue blood” to the proceedings, along with being a member of one of the oldest families in America.

 

Criticisms: Parts can get a bit gruesome. There’s quite a few ethnic slurs thrown around. Stereotypes abound.

 

Wrap-up: I don’t know how Demille does it, but all his books are impeccably researched, and he knows what he’s talking about. He gives good information about the first families to crawl off the Mayflower, the social structure and geography of one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the United States, the mafia, law (including tax law), Italian culture – and that’s just this one book!

 

This book boils down, though, to one man’s journey from a happy normal life, to a state of mind where he sinks his own $300,000 boat to keep it out of the hands of the IRS (a felony, by the way), takes tours of mob areas of New York City with the head of a mafia family, and takes on the U.S. Attorney at a very personal level. It comes across as a decent into madness kind of journey, but presented in context, his actions (no matter how outrageous they are) are mostly within the boundaries of what we would consider “normal behavior”.

 

That’s one of the things that make this book such a joy to read, John comes across as a normal guy, and when he encounters situations which don’t meet his definition of “normal”, his behavior (while at times a bit aberrant) is the exact thing we would all like to do in his situation.

 

Overall, it makes you think, and makes you feel for John (and for Frank as well), as they’re pushed outside their comfort zones and the rains of reality wash off the patina to show their true colors.

 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid A.

Up Country – Nelson Demille

Summary: Evidence of a 30 year old murder has recently come to light. There are a few catches, though: There was only one witness to that crime, and that witness may have died in the intervening years. The murder happened in the aftermath of a significant battle in Vietnam. The witness was a combatant for North Vietnam. How do you find the witness, if he lived through the rest of the war? How do you pick the investigator to assign? 

Paul Brenner, recovering from the aftermath of “The General’s Daughter” ; in truth he retired after that debacle. He’s called back to active duty and coerced to go back to Vietnam (for a third time), only this time during peacetime. Why can’t diplomatic requests be put through to talk with the witness? Is his government lying to him? What’s so important about the dead man, or the murderer?

Is there any way that Paul can make it back from Vietnam a third time, especially with the information he discovers while investigating this murder?

Setting: Vietnam, 1990’s – flashbacks to 1968 and 1972

Plot: Paul Brenner (last seen in “The General’s Daughter”) is contacted by his old boss and asked to take one last assignment. Next thing he knows, he’s on a plane to Nam, for the third time in his career. He’s got contacts he’s supposed to meet up with, who will give him information and assistance, as required. Before he even leaves the airport though, he catches the eye of Colonel Mang, a fairly powerful member of the Vietnam National Police Force, and in the course of the story, brazenly pisses Mang off and starts getting in trouble before his assignment even truly begins.

Once free, he has to find his way from the very bottom of the country to the very top, avoiding detection and questioning (by Mang’s men) the whole way. He’s “aided” in his journey by his first contact, an ex-pat who speaks Vietnamese, and a few additional people he meets along the way. What happens when he finds the witness? Will the witness even be alive? Based on the information the witness has, will Paul be able to tell what’s really going on?

Criticisms: This was a hard book for me to read, as I have a great deal of empathy for Vietnam vets. This book gives a glimpse into some of the experiences of a Army infantryman, surviving jungle warfare any way he can. The book can feel a bit ragged, but Demille was an established writer when this book came out, and I believe that the narrative style used in this book was chosen on purpose. Some readers might find the emotions that this book dredges up to be a bit strong. My next read will be much lighter, possibly a comic book, with pretty pitchures.

Wrap-up: Nelson Demille is one of my favorite writers. He’s a Vietnam Veteran, and this is one of only a couple of his books that touches on his experiences in the war. I would give this book an A++++++++, if such a grade existed in my arbitrary scale. I did, however, mark the final grade down a bit for subject matter. His work in technically perfect, no runs, no hits, no errors. I have read this book at least 10 times, and this last time through, I caught one single outright mistake. One. In this entire book. He should have caught it, his editors should have caught it, his proofers should have caught it, I’ve never caught a single bald-faced, point-blank mistake by Demille before, in any book, in any form or any fashion. That’s how good he is. As far as the attributes of the book itself? This is a book about a tortured soul, and his journey to peace and redemption. It’s set in a war zone; if you’re staunchly anti-war, this book will reinforce your beliefs, based on the accounts of some of the atrocities committed by both sides. If you support the troops no matter what, this book will make you weep for the pain that the characters go through almost reliving these times with them. I cannot recommend a book any higher than this one, if you can stomach a true fiction war novel.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid A.  I’ll save the elusive A+ for a book with more universal appeal.