Clavell's fifth novel in his Asian saga (King Rat, Tai-Pan, Shogun,
Noble House) is a 1,216-page superblockbuster adventure story set
in revolutionary Iran, between February 9 and March 4, 1979, long
before the hostage crisis but with Shah Pahlavi just having left
the country and Khomeini waiting in the wings. Scot Gavallan, son
of the chairman and managing director of S-G, a Britishrun
helicopter company servicing the government-owned oil fields in
Iran, has his hands full trying to keep his fleet operational.
Guerney Aviation, the American helicopter outfit, has pulled out of
Iran, to cut its foreseeable upcoming losses. S-G's operations have
doubled with the American pullout, but its corporate headquarters
in Hong Kong (where S-G is secretly owned by the vast Noble House
conglomerate run by Linbar Struan) also sees a British pullout
ahead, since the fanatical revolutionaries will undoubtedly
nationalize the fleet and bring financial ruin to S-G. Can Scot get
his big international team and their choppers safely out of Iran?
In the whirlwind wrath of God upon the infidels in Iran, the
rioting madness of political and religious mobs, and the blades of
the whirlybirds seeking escape in Gavallan's Operation Whirlwind
(by the birds being secretly dismantled and stripped via Jumbo jet
freighter), the novel is well-titled. Among the blast of subplots
are the tragic love of pilot Tom Lochart for the ravishing Muslim
Sharazad, with their memorably explosive last kiss; the struggle of
Andrew Gavallan, Scot's father, with Linbar for control of Noble
House and a takeover by Scot; the story of the loving Azadeh and
her pilot husband, the giant, knife-bearing Finn Erikki Yokkonen's
resistence to KGB agent Fedor Rakoczy, and then, Rakoczy's own
descent into horror. Aside from length, Whirlwind is an
achievement, distinguishable from dozens of zippy page-turners this
year by the density of its experience of modern, tortured Iran.
Tremendous readership assured. (Kirkus Reviews)
'James Clavell does more than entertain. He transports us into
worlds we've not known, stimulating, educating, questioning . . . a
wonder of detail' Washington Post 'The author handles the plot with
all the confident authority of a ring-master, keeping a half-dozen
themes and a formidable cast of characters moving along at a
cracking pace. By the end I was breathless and lost in admiration
at the sheer professionalism of it all' Sunday Telegraph Whirlwind
is the story of three weeks in Tehran in February 1979: three weeks
of fanaticism, passion, self-sacrifice and heartbreak. Caught
between the revolutionaries and the forces of international
intrigue is a team of professional pilots. They are ordered to flee
to safety with their helicopters. Two of them, both Europeans, have
Iranian wives whom they love beyond safety and politics. 'So
abundant in sub-plots, characters, intrigue and atmosphere that its
1,000-plus pages seem barely adequate. Some of the most enjoyable
reading around' Daily Mail
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