Monday, June 18, 2012

Book #35: Patriot Games by Tom Clancy

This is officially the third time I've read this book--but I just keep loving it. Tommy and I started listening to it in the car on our drive across the country, and only just finished it as we drove to and from Fresno to visit his grandma this weekend. I don't know how we left a month in the middle of our reading, except that we'd already listened to it before and knew how it was ending--it's very intense and really gets your excitement. I've only read one other Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan book (the South American drugs one) but every time I read one, I want to read more. They're so easy to get sucked in by and to get really invested in. Even though they're reasonably long, they're quick reads and have a lot of interesting insights about the CIA and government operations (even though it's fiction of course). It's generally not quite so fight-y/gory as the Bourne books either.

One thing I kept laughing about is how Clancy gives some of the WORST metaphors to describe things. He always says stuff like "His face was that of a man who had escaped a load of fear and shame," or something like that. HOW does that help me visualize what that man's face looked like? What the heck does that face even LOOK like? That's the worst description ever--it's just stating exactly what just happened and not bothering to be creative about it. He had a pretty good one later in the book though--something like, "He smiled like a lion surveying a pack of crippled antelope." Now THAT'S an image I can be interested in. Good work there, Clancy--keep up the attempts at being more creative.

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