Without Remorse

By Tom Clancy

In a patriotic mood with the upcoming Memorial Day, I read Without Remorse by Tom Clancy. The first installment of the Jack Ryan series, I actually read this novel before in middle school but wanted to refresh my memory while working through the rest of the series.

That being said, this novel is another brilliant example of why more people should read Clancy. While usually Clancy is considered a cheesy airport read for his lack of long-flowing descriptions, this novel (quite beautifully) proves itself to be anything but with a thorough examination of war-- both on and off United States soil-- and how there are wars going on at home, right on our own streets. By mixing half military/CIA novel and half murder mystery, Clancy examines both the chaos of the Vietnam War as well as the chaos of the opioid crisis and shows that the frontline "soldiers" to solve these worldly problems are everyday people who decide to show another human being simple kindness and humanity. The deciding factor of what side you’re on depends on solely on your choice; what side will you choose?

Mixing these heavy questions with the main thrill ride so characteristic of Clancy, he creates a large cast of characters that keep the reader engaged in multiple side plots. While this serves the novel well to keep the reader invested, there are moments where the reader must revert back to earlier passages to decipher who is who. A simple but effective other writers do to combat this common issue with complicated plots is to include a brief line of reference to the character’s backstory as a means of reminding the reader. There are moments where Clancy neglects to do this (possibly because he might have felt this would bog down the story), but while it made it difficult, it wasn’t enough to be too apparent.

Without Remorse successfully grabs the reader and refuses to let go until well after the 750 paperback pages are over with enough twists and turns to make the resolution unpredictable. From the busy streets of Baltimore to Langley to Vietnam to Quantico and even Pittsburgh, Clancy keeps the ball accelerating with gruesome revenge, espionage, and combat. Proving once more his skill in the military fiction genre he restructured. His attention to research is possibly one of his greatest assets. With enough well-researched background, Clancy has the kind of strong authorial command over his work that readers not only trust his words enough to suspend their disbelief but also engage with the text on a deeper level to truly engage with his thematic patterning.

While a common misconception is that strong voice equates Godly direction over your characters, the truth is that a writer must make his characters as close to real people as he can get. This means, rather than documenting only their movements on paper, he must give them proper interiority and reasoning to spur their actions into motion. Almost as if the character chose what to do entirely on their own. With wonderful interiority and short bursts of beautiful insight, Clancy allows the reader to see not only the senselessness of involvement in foreign conflicts but why the military personnel agreed to fight for our freedoms through the eyes of lifelike characters.

Such blending of quality craft and engaging morals make Without Remorse a hell of a read. I would like to recommend this book to any writer looking for assistance with how to properly execute structure over a longer novel while maintaining rich thematic patterning.

I dedicate this post to the many men and women who paid the ultimate price this Memorial Day.