Patriot Games
Patriot Games
By Tom Clancy
Happy Independence Day, folks.
This month’s novel took me a bit more time for reflection. But after reading Tom Clancy’s novel Patriot Games, I think it’s safe to say that there’s a lot which can be discussed about this work. I know some reading this might be cringing because it’s genre fiction (I’ve also read some wonderful literary fiction and poetry this month.), but I think it’s important because its point still applies to the world around us today.
The second novel ever written by Tom Clancy, published in1987, Patriot Games examines the idea of terrorism, specifically what it is and what the best course of action is to stop it. Merriam-Webster defines this act as, “the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion,” and most often, we associate this term with murder and fear. (And we’re right to do so; people are almost always harmed, the public gets scared because of the potential danger.)
But if terrorism is murder, what is the gain?
Clancy answers this question by suggesting that terrorism is a form of war—barbaric, yes, but war nonetheless—because its aim is to make a political point by using fear as a weapon. Mixing this heavy examination of the concept with a fast-paced story that takes the reader from London to Annapolis, Ireland, Libya, and even Langley, Clancy weaves a thrilling and beautifully structured novel that also pin-points the most common method of “winning” these “patriot games”—intelligence.
Clancy suggests that knowing everything you can about your enemy and where they’ll strike can allow you to prepare and be ready. But as the novel progresses, he goes a step further, displaying (quite beautifully, I might add, with wonderful thematic passages) that our armed forces and intelligence agencies are not the only players in these “patriot games”—that we, as the general public, are as much players as anyone because acts of terror can occur anywhere at any moment and that there is no guarantee we won’t be caught in it.
That leads to Clancy’s second (and seemingly most important) method of “winning”—courage. Since anyone could be a possible target, we (the people) are the ones that have to decide for ourselves whether or not we’ll allow their weaponized fear to dictate our lives. By examining these concepts, Clancy not only thrills his readers with perhaps the bloodiest climax out of all his novels I’ve read yet but also empowers them with this point, finally leaving us at the end with a subtle reminder of what the stakes are, why we play the patriot games, and what separates us from the terrorist’s level (our willingness to do the right thing and preserve justice).
I think this book is important because it’s an example that any work—if given proper time and effort by the writer—can become art. Not everyone may agree with that, and that’s okay. When I was in grad school, I had encountered one particular stick in the mud of a professor who once called my beloved horror fiction a “genre based solely on a gimmick” rather than a space where a writer may make art which also entertains. This un-named person laughed at me for what kind of fiction I wanted to write, and this has forever stuck with me (The title of my critical thesis “Eat Your Heart Out Naysayers: It’s Literary Horror” was a jab at anyone who agreed with his philosophy.). I think what this person—and some others who look down upon genre fiction—fail to realize is that what separates art from non-art is effort. Clancy clearly did the work to create some beautiful emotional and intellectual connections in his thematic patterning. It resonated with me, and I’m sure it has resonated with some other readers.
And to me, that’s art no matter how you slice it.
Overall, a terrific read; Patriot Games is the kind of novel which starts (literally) with a boom and doesn’t stop. The last two-hundred pages flew by. Highly recommend reading this one, folks; you won’t be sorry.