Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy is a prolific “techno-thriller” writer, not only in sales but in the loyalty of his fans, among whom presidents and vice-presidents are numbered. To read a Tom Clancy novel is to begin to know the writer himself and his alter ego, Jack Ryan. This text examines both the work and the man who is reflected in it: his knowledge, beliefs and attitudes. In Clancy’s eight novels, discussed and analysed in separate chapters, we see both the emerging hero and the changing author. Garson provides a close examination of each of Clancy’s eight novels, helping the reader with explication of Clancy’s wide-ranging and often difficult subject matter. One of the most topical contemporary writers, Clancy has written of the Cold War, terrorism, the Vietnam War, the drug culture and trade wars. A biographical chapter discusses Clancy’s life, career and the critical response to his work. A chapter on genre places Clancy in the popular tradition. Each novel is examined in a separate chapter, with sections on plot development, characters, style and themes.
Garson also offers an alternative critical approach to each novel, which gives the reader an additional perspective from which to read and analyse it. A complete bibliography of Clancy’s work, critical sources, and a listing of reviews of all of his novels complete the work.

Author Biography

HELEN S. GARSON is Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is author of The Short Fiction of Truman Capote (1992), Truman Capote (1981), and numerous articles about Truman Capote. She has written about John le Carre, John Hawkes, Flannery O’Connor, gothic, spy, and detective novels, pornography, popular culture, and American women novelists.