Thu 2 Jan 2025
A 1001 Midnights Review: FREDERICK FORSYTH – No Comebacks.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[8] Comments
by Susan Dunlap
FREDERICK FORSYTH – No Comebacks. Hutchinson, UK, hardcover, 1982 Viking, US, hardcover, 1982. Bantam, US, paperback, 1983. Reprinted many times since.
The ten stories gathered here carry out the same theme as Forsyth’s novels, detailing the work of competent professional men who are single-mindedly committed to achieving their goals. Forsyth details their preparations for their missions with loving thoroughness, and follows their plans through to their logical conclusions.
Some of his heroes succeed; some don’t. But if they don’t, it is because of some strange quirk that the hero could not have foreseen. More often than not, human frailty is what produces the splendid final twists in a number of the stories.
“No Comebacks” is the cleverest example of this: The _signs of what is to happen to city of London “golden-boy tycoon” Mark Sanderson are obvious all along, yet the ironic climax is still surprising and leaves us with a satisfied smile. In “There Are No Snakes in Ireland” (which won the MW A Edgar for Best Short Story of 1983), it is the bigotry of certain Irish (in this case against an Indian student named Harkishan Ram Lal) that proves to be the true villain. As in this award-winning story, Forsyth also used his experiences while living in Ireland in “Sharp Practice,” a tale of a highly unusual poker game on a train. And in “A Careful Man,” an individual whose meticulousness affected his family in life does so even from the grave.
These stories arc more human than Forsyth’s novels, the characters more memorable as people, rather than technicians, and the tension runs just as high as in the author’s longer works.
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
January 3rd, 2025 at 3:55 pm
I’m in the minority in believing Frederick Forsyth was a better writer than John le Carre. I remember reading NO COMEBACKS in the early 1980s and sharing Susan Dunlap’s assessment that the characters are more memorable. Forsyth is an underrated writer who deserves a wider audience.
January 3rd, 2025 at 6:51 pm
Between you and me, George, as long as no one else is listening, I’m with you.
January 4th, 2025 at 12:31 am
Forsyth is a far better writer than Le Carre, and what he writes is far closer to reality than Le Carre’s public school bad boys.
“There Are No Snakes in Ireland” is the one of these that stuck with me, though all are good.
There was a limited anthology series, Two By Foryth (1984) based on this dramatizing two stories (“Privilege” and “A Careful Man”).
January 4th, 2025 at 1:42 pm
I’ve read this fun little compendium and found several of the tales memorable beyond what I ever assumed. Wish Forsyth had done more like it.
Now, when I cast my memory back I am not exactly sure where each and every title emerged from –didn’t he also do a second grab-bag of tales called, ‘The Good Shepherd’? I forget!
Anyway, the installments which stuck with me:
1. an RAF pilot on a training mission nurses a damaged plane back to England, and is (seemingly) helped by the spirit of a fellow pilot who perished in the Blitz
2. a Hemingway-like anecdote of a middle-aged US businessman who finds himself on a Caribbean fishing charter, fighting a giant marlin. It’s so exhilarating for him that he changes his life and stays on the island for good.
These two stories stand out among the rest of the fine assemblage. Exemplary, in their thoughtfulness and engagement. These two often resurface in my mind, years and years later.
However –as enjoyable as Forsythe was –I simply can’t agree in the slightest that he authored at the level of LeCarre. The two men are just too different to stand comparative ranking.
I can only give my own humble opinion here but for me, (apart from the marvelous ‘Jackal’ and a slender handful of his other early stuff), most of Forsythe’s bibliography falls into a muddle.
I tried hard to enjoy things like ‘Fourth Protocol’ and ‘Devil’s Alternative’ but it was a stretch. Nothing really “wrong” with these tales …but somehow just ‘perfunctory’ reads, in spite of themselves. Forsythe fell prey to predictableness in his own way –not as bad as Higgins or Ludlum –but still disappointing.
Whereas the sheer range of LeCarre –observable over his first thirty years –is undeniable. I admit that LeCarre’s failing is that he seems never to have been able to deliver a straightforward action scene. Something F. Forsythe or Wilbur Smith could do so effortlessly.
Still –during that first career interval of his –JLC trotted out never-ending changes of style and mood. He could do a murder mystery, (‘A Murder of Quality’), historical espionage (‘A Perfect Spy’), but then look at strange little gems like, ‘A Small Town in Germany’, or even his experiment with romance ‘The Naive & Sentimental Lover’.
The guy could simply write anything he set his mind to. So rather than nestling alongside Forsythe or Follett, I’d place him (and Deighton) more in the rank of traditional Brit artisans: Golding, Greene, Maugham, Shute, Burgess, Durrell, Fowles, or Paul Scott.
I’ve no doubt Frederick Forsythe was a better writer than the confines of action-espionage allowed him to display. Wish’d he’d flexed himself more, as he did with these short-form exercises (‘No Comebacks’).
There was somehow more enthusiasm evident in his voice when he penned all these little tales, than I found in many of his full-length thrillers.
January 4th, 2025 at 2:02 pm
Another point of view spoken up for, and well done. Thanks, Lazy!
January 5th, 2025 at 1:06 pm
Ty ty –for the kind reception of my layman’s remarks. I’m by far not as well read in the genre as any of you sirs.
But I’m a big fan of both LeCarre and Forsyth. They are certainly a ‘study in contrasts’ though.
Forsyth, so much better at tension, action, and atmosphere. LeCarre, more cerebral & psychological.
JLC’s books too –perhaps suffer from so often being set in dreary London and Berlin. Whereas Forsyth HURLS readers into exotic landscapes like Africa and the Med.
Anyway I’m not merely prattling on here, there’s a reason for this follow-up. To alleviate my guilt at leveling any criticism at FF, I’m posting one of my favorite FF-themed links.
This legendary short flick from Claude LeLouch is always so stellar, that if anyone hasn’t seen it, they’ll surely thank me.
“C’etait Un Rendez-vous” (1976). It’s as Jackal as one can get. Crossing Paris in eight minutes. Best viewed full screen!
https://youtu.be/QvzM_eRKubQ
January 5th, 2025 at 7:06 pm
Here’s a one word review: WOW!
January 6th, 2025 at 1:26 am
Wheee! Yep. That’s one little bit of cinema verite’ I revisit whenever dull modern life grinds me down. I re-roll it for myself at least 2x a year.
Can you imagine? Strapping a 35mm movie cam on the front grill of a hi-performance sports car and rocketing like a bat-outta-hell across town? No touching brakes? Avg speed 120mph? The mind boggles. Couldn’t be attempted today.
For a long time I thought the car used was Ferrari but it seems to have been a Mercedes 330L or 350L or something, which is still not chopped liver. One of the best-rated machines of its time.
Anyway I just luv the whole idea. Really evokes Paris, and freedom.