THE GOOD SON: Michael Gruber

A somewhat implausible thriller, though it has its moments of interest, especially when dissecting the relationship between the West and the Islamic world. The book centers on a kidnapping taking place in Pakistan by Taliban style terrorists. A group of peaceniks, hoping to bridge the gap between terrorism and the West, ignorantly travels to the outskirts of Karachi, get kidnapped, and then are ransomed for their one billionaire hostage, a clone for Bill Gates I suppose. Ironically, one of the women kidnapped is Sonia, a former circus child/performer, who, in order to get out of her closeted life, jumps at the chance to marry Farid, a wealthy Pakistania, here in America to study. She returns with him to his family in Pakistan, to their dismay, has a child Theo, who she promptly leaves, to follow a holy man in to Northern Asia. The marriage dissolves, though she returns for a time, to see her son/step family, and continue ties with Theo’s best friend, the family’s caretaker’s son.
We leave the kidnapping to follow her son Theo, who we find was a child/mujadeen, fighting the Russians, before his mother, realizing who he is, has the US govt kidnap him and return him to America. He becomes Americanized, goes to college, eventually enlists in the army, and becomes part of an elite Special Forces group. When he finds out about his mother’s kidnapping, he creates a faux crisis on the internet, with help of his cousins, alerting the CIA to the possible bomb making capabilities of the group who kidnaps his mother, hoping the US will intervene.

This ruse works, though a CIA expert, Cynthia Lam, a voice recognition expert, realizes it’s a hoax, tries to convince her superiors of its inauthenticity. Theo’s cousins realize this, disrupt her bank account, email, and deposit a large amount of money in her account , making it look as if she is working for terrorists. The CIA arrest her, interrogate her, until they realize it’s a mistake, but too late. Theo ends up heading a group who rescue his mother, but he finds that the terrorist leader is none other than his best friend, a mole for the CIA in Pakistan. No one is what they seem, clearly, and his mother has been a covert operative for many years. Theo finds this unsettling to the say the least, is retired from the Special Forces for his charade, returns to Pakistan to work for his rich relatives as security, and it ends with him meeting up with Cynthia Lam, and we are led to believe they will end up together and in love.
Much of the interest of the novel rests in the kidnappers, their torturing of Sonia, who ability to connect with her kidnappers, by being able to interpret their dreams, a some what bizarre and hard to believe quality. It is an effective vehicle to humanize the terrorists, to offer insight into their lives, to their needs and desires, their motivation. She eventually saves all but two of the kidnapped Westerners, and orchestrates the decision of who is sacrificed to the demands. She seems to be in control but is also tortured and almost dies as a result.

The book makes you wonder why we (the US and West) have ever gotten involved in this part of the world, as we end up creating only havoc, hatred, death for many of the inhabitants of these parts of the world, witness Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan. It also makes clear that though part of the motivation may be noble, there are always the other sides, those who use this war to make money, to gain power, to manipulate the lives of the ‘other.’, who do most of the suffering. Gruber understands this about as well as any writer, and uses his characters to voice these opinions, especially Sonia as she spars with her kidnappers over theory and philosophy, part of the reason Grub er has her kidnapped and become their dream’s interpreter. It’s not a great book but it did keep my interest till the end.