Reading Something New

I decided that after many years of the Tom Clancy hype, I’d try reading one of his books again. The first time, I think I started with Clear and Present Danger. It was about ten years ago that I tried it, and I just couldn’t get into it. My husband advised me to try Patriot Games instead, and it’s moving much quicker.

I thought it would be interesting to compare men’s military spy/thriller fiction (whatever you want to call it) with romance. One of the trickier aspects of writing romance is getting inside the male mindset and yet making it appealing to women. We love alpha males, but they can’t be too cavemen in their demeanor or we’d toss the book against the wall.

Clancy creates a likable character in Jack Ryan, but I just about fell over when I read a few lines about the wife’s character, Cathy Ryan. As a surgeon, she has that no-nonsense air about her, and that part I could buy. When Jack Ryan is wounded and their four-year-old daughter is present at the scene, I had a bone to pick with the dialogue Clancy chose. In her efforts to save Ryan’s life, Cathy yells at a policeman (in regard to her daughter), “Get her away from here.”

Maybe it’s the mom in me overreacting, but I would NEVER say that about my kid. I might yell to the policeman, “Take her, please.” Or to my child, “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” I wouldn’t yell, “Get her away from here!” To me, it just sounds harsh.

Now, I could COMPLETELY buy it if a father said that. Not a mother. My husband and I had a disagreement. He claims that a doctor wouldn’t care about her child–that all she’d be thinking about is saving her husband’s life. It’s true that you would be thinking about your husband bleeding on the pavement, but I’d be just as concerned about my 4-year-old wandering into the path of a stray terrorist.

I won’t belabor the issue, but it was interesting to see how a man would write the character of a woman. It’ll be interesting to see as the book progresses, whether he pulls her off in a convincing manner.

What’s your opinion on Tom Clancy novels?