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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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032089
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03208900.069
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1990-09-17
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BOOKS, Page 85Fatal SchismBy R.Z. Sheppard
FATHER AND SON
by Peter Maas
Simon & Schuster; 316 pages; $18.95
The Guinness Book of World Records does not have to look
further than the sponsor's backyard to find a candidate for the
oldest struggle for independence. One character in Peter Maas'
richly layered novel of Paddys and Provos says the Irish have been
going at it since the 12th century. Tragedies tend to turn into
romances over that length of time. Rough madness is temporized by
art.
Or at least good craft. Maas, who has skillfully dovetailed
law-and-disorder in best sellers like Serpico and The Valachi
Papers, proves adept at joining history to melodrama and to
convincing plot twists with slightly implausible characterizations.
A middle-aged New York City adman named McGuire turns into a
modified James Bond to investigate the disappearance of a
headstrong son, a Harvard student who was mixed up with running
guns to the I.R.A. McGuire's metamorphosis may strain credulity,
but his motives are authentically rooted in strong parental
emotions.
These play well against the political passions of terrorists
in Northern Ireland and their Irish-American supporters. Fanatical
hatred tends to homogenize characters while removing their
interesting elements. Their actions, however, are hard to ignore.
A daring raid on a Boston National Guard armory nets the boyos a
cache of M-16s, 40-mm grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and a
wardrobe of flak jackets. Getting this arsenal to Belfast involves
the cooperation of members of Boston's Irish underground and I.R.A.
sympathizers in the U.S. Customs Department.
The heroic adman learns that his son was set up to preserve
the effectiveness of a British-run mole in the I.R.A. Maas cuts a
clear line between his sympathy for the Irish cause and his
aversion to cold-blooded violence. There is ice, too, in the veins
of Britain's counterterrorists, and hypocrisy in the Republic of
Ireland, whose constitution includes all of the Emerald Isle in its
national territory. As one insider puts it, "It was an open secret
that given its domestic economic woes, the last thing the
republic's leadership wanted was to take on the burden of the six
northern counties." This is a good story well told, with verve,
pathos and unavoidable complexity.