European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 25, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Book Clancy sums up persian Gulf War with More chaos by Bob Shacochis los Angeles times Kall of you despondent desert storm junkies cheer up a the adventure continues for a whopping 800 pages none of this wham Bam thank you Saddam stuff. The sum of All fears is the perfect Panacea for anyone experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the persian Gulf War unwilling to Trust the White House to co produce the sequel. Whoever spends the Bucks on Tom Clancy a sixth novel should be Able to figure out How decent people become drug addicts since Clancy is to storytelling what a voracious crack habit is to cocaine firing narcotic blasts of 100 percent pure plot right Down your pipes. And yet if you Are hankering for a Little escapist lit from the Guy forget it his to is to animate the newspapers enriching the radioactive wastes of International headlines with the intent of making himself the unequal cd superpower of the Best Selling universe. To Start with our noblest aspirations our prettiest dreams for the latest of our splendid Little wars have come True. Is the world a safer place now you bet. And it would be even safer muses our hero Jack Ryan Deputy director of Central intelligence a if we could just do something about the israeli Side. It would be Nice he thought to set the whole area to  Nice yeah. Count me in. Jack has a terrific idea which he flouts before the presidents chief of staff and National Security adviser. What if we turn Jerusalem into an International City of god an ecumenical Doz administered by representatives of the three most trouble making religions with dibs on the place and persuade the Vatican to help us broker the Deal get the Swiss guard to police those holy mean streets permanently station an armoured . Armoured cavalry regiment on israeli soil give Back the occupied territories and that s that and Earth can take a Well deserved vacation from the routine of 9-to-5 car Deighton so Amista hits drug Oil theme in South America by Ross Thomas los Angeles times in Amista his 23rd novel Len Deighton has deserted his beloved Berlin and the aftermath of the cold War for a putative marxist revolution in the impoverished hut mythical South american country of Spanish Guiana. A. Deighton Calls this chilling novel of he Truyal and deception Amista which is an acronym for the pipe dream until the arabs finally Wise up do the Martin Luther King thing the Gandhi thing organize a non violent sit in even singing a we shall overcome to protest the plan of 10 fundamentalist rabbis to rebuild Solomon a Temple. While the can cameras Roll the israeli police fire rubber bullets into the demonstrators who react even As they Are dying with another chorus of the civil rights Anthem. A Cross wired israeli Captain goes berserk murdering a Young pales a Tinian Leader in cold blood close up and personal for All the Home viewers to see. Oops. Israelis claim to moral superiority flies. Right out the geopolitical window. A a country whose police murder unarmed people has no legitimacy a pontificates the . National Security adviser. A we can no More support an Israel that does things like this than we could have supported so Moza Marcos or any other tin pot  not exactly words resonating with truth but Jack Ryan a Vatican initiative called project pilgrimage a jumps to the top of the list on Washington a dance card. The russians come on Board Natch. The saudis the Swiss. President Bob Fowler a Quayle like clone destined to become the great peacemaker and later in the clutch the Crown Prince of Inadequacy does some Plain talking a we let Israel know that they either play Ball or face the consequences and that we re not kidding this  Israel acquiesces. The Deal is Cut the applause is euphoric. But hold on. There is a 50-Kiloton Fly in the ointment. Not everybody it seems appreciates the new world order. For instance at least four terrorists nostalgic for the cold War Harbor a death wish for the zionist promised land. In the ensuing confusion Washington and Moscow prepare to nuke the daylights out of each other. If Clancy could Only write As astutely As he narrates if he found people As compelling As he finds facts and mechanisms and systems a weapons Cybernetics intelligence gathering systems a then perhaps Clancy would be our Tolstoy rather than a Michener of the spook Parade the Stephen King of National Security affairs. His characters Are front Page people never penetrating their stereotypes never shedding their prepackaged traits and images and they can offer a Reader no More emotional involvement than you might invest in a Good super. Bowl team that a not your own. A lot of men Are required to prove their manhood Here which i suppose explains Why Clancy foreshadows his plot development with All the subtlety of a female dog in heat. And speaking of females the author apparently does no to like them much especially the Smull breasted variety. Still the scope is awesome few writers have rebel group movie into de accion marxists whose objective is to depose Spanish Guiana a despot and replace him with one of its own. But the Backwater revolt is sputtering and would not provoke much More than an International Yawn were it not for its two main resources. The first is its principal Cash crop coca the essential ingredient of cocaine and the second is the Semi secret discovery of a Pool of Oil so vast it almost makes Kuwait seem like a dry Hole. Two Rich and powerful forces Are concerned even obsessed with Spanish Guiana s political future. In los Angeles a Cabal of drug Barons swears it will maintain a steady flow of coca paste no matter who rules the Small South american country. In Washington the president and his nefarious advisers Are equally determined that Spanish Guiana s Oil once refined will be pumped into american Gas tanks. It is not quite that blatant because the Oil also Sas Lyndo Doriston Tom Clancy writes the sum of All fears. The muscle for it and who wants to read Virgil at the Beach anyway when you can dig into Clancy a stash and blow your head right off with blockbusting excitement what in a saying is whatever your sex the sum of All fears will Appeal to the most boy part of you. The sum of Alt fears is on Sale in hardback edition at stars and stripes bookstores Lor $15.95. The paperback edition is on order for $6.99. Will serve a higher purpose. As one of the president s advisers notes the Oil monies could wean Spanish Guiana a current ruler a away from the drug revenues. It could give him a legitimate Revenue. And the Oil would give us a lever. Hell have to lean on the drug growers or we could turn off the Oil Money  some might argue that such advice would never be heard in the White House but Deighton a fictional president seems no less feckless than were actual presidents of recent memory. He is vain petulant cunning paranoid and the Only quirk that truly distinguishes him from other White House tenants is that he Speaks in Complete sentences a most of the time. Amista is a Good and sad novel about people who Are sucked Down into the mire of International politics and espionage. Amista is on order at stars and stripes bookstores Tor $16.45. Nage. Everybody agrees Nice. Yet its the same old Page 8 a sunday August 25, 1991