Sun 7 Sep 2014
Reviewed by Marvin Lachman: ROBERT LUDLUM – The Road to Gandalfo.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[10] Comments
IT’S ABOUT CRIME
by Marv Lachman
by Marv Lachman
ROBERT LUDLUM – The Road to Gandalfo. Bantam, paperback, 1982. First published as by Michael Shepherd, Dial Press, hardcover, 1975.
I’ve never been able to finish a Robert Ludlum novel, and Bantam’s reprint of The Road to Gandolfo, a book he published in 1975 as Michael Shepherd, was no exception.
It starts with a promising premise, a plot to kidnap the Pope. However, things go rapidly downhill with indifferent narrative, uninteresting characters, and what the publisher (probably meaning it as a compliment) calls “serpentine plotting.”
There are no snakes in the plot; that hissing sound you heard was this reviewer. Meanwhile, Mr. Ludlum continues to smile on his way to the bank.
— Reprinted from The MYSTERY FANcier, Vol. 8, No. 5, Sept-Oct 1986.
September 7th, 2014 at 12:58 pm
I was sent a review copy of The Scarlatti Inheritance by whoever was in charge of such things at TAD back in those days. I recall reading it twice (once to enjoy and again to work out the review). I must have written a rough draft after each reading because someone read them and said that each time my review got less positive. After all these years I have no memory of the book. I later read The Bourne Identity after seeing the movie and recall noticing differences between the two media. It’s the movie I still remember today. Sort of.
September 7th, 2014 at 2:03 pm
Mr. Ludlum may not still be smiling on the way to the bank, but his estate surely is.
September 7th, 2014 at 3:00 pm
The fact that the books about Jason Bourne keep appearing even after his creator’s death would make that certain.
September 7th, 2014 at 3:31 pm
I managed to force my way through a couple of Ludlum novels. They were not memorable or enjoyable in any way. I never could figure out how he got to be such a big success. There are hundreds of writers in this field that I have liked. Ludlum wasn’t one of them.
September 7th, 2014 at 5:44 pm
THE SCARLATTI INHERITANCE was a good minor Helen MacInnes imitation and THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND was interesting, but I only read Ludlum off and on. There were a few good ones, including Bourne which was also a good miniseries with Richard Chamberlain, but for the most part I couldn’t tell them apart.
Generally the imitators (David Morrell, Robert Littell, Thomas Gifford, and Eric Van Lustbader come to mind, imitators in the sense they were contesting for the Ludlum audience) were better than the original.
I do understand why they were bestsellers though. Ludlum was a good promoter, he wrote fairly simple prose, his world was straight forward, and his complex plots were more convoluted in the telling than hard to follow. There was little irony and evil was defeated, not merely fought to a standstill. Certainly he was the first American writer to really crack the spy story market at that level.
Ironic that Eric Van Lustbader, a much better writer, is the man behind Bourne now. I suppose it is hard to let a cash cow die.
September 8th, 2014 at 5:47 am
I read three in the 1978-85 period, of which Bourne Identity was the most memorable.
September 8th, 2014 at 2:29 pm
I never really thought much of Ludlum one way or the other, but I did think that he was the first author to really understand how to use the modern media. Back in the late 70s I remember seeing TV advertisements for the book THE MATARESE CIRCLE. You often got adverts for movies or other TV series, but a BOOK? It seemed such an oddity then, I imagine that he sold a lot of copies on those adverts alone.
September 8th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
Ludlum, prior to his success in the book business, was an actor, and later producer-artistic director at The Playhouse on The Mall in Paramus, New Jersey. And quite capable. I met him briefly in 1965. He was kind and courteous. A gentleman.
September 8th, 2014 at 7:14 pm
If I’m not a huge fan of Ludlum’s work I still admire that he took the skills he did have an earned millions of fans. To some extent he took those acting and producing skills and applied them to playing and creating the bestselling author persona. His enjoyment of it seemed real.
I re read SCARLATTI a few months ago and it holds up well. He brought the skills of a novelist to a genre neglected by American writers or consigned to a ghetto of hard boiled private eye style spies who paled in comparison to the Bonds and other British creations (sorry Hamilton and Helm fans).
Without Ludlum I’m not sure we would have had Robert Littell, the best and most serious American spy novelist, and for my money a far truer and far better writer than Le Carre’s obtuse prose. Ludlum created the market for the American writers who followed him in the bestselling spy novel genre.
Perhaps because the role he played was actually him he seemed one of the more genuine of the best selling breed.
As I said there are several Ludlum’s I enjoyed over much of his career. He made at least one major change in his approach turning from amateurs to pros as protagonists, it is not usual for a writers best period to come in the middle as his did. He learned and he got better before he was caught in the trap of his own success.
And I agree he was a very nice man. He sent me quite a few signed review copies, usually with a personal note and not just one from his agent or publisher. He cared about his readers, and even at the end never gave the impression of just churning them out for the money.
September 9th, 2014 at 3:08 pm
While I may not go out and read Ludlum any time soon it is interesting that he does have his merits and was able to use his skills as an actor in his career as a writer.