A Dangerous Friend - by Ward Just (Paperback)

About the Book

In a major novel by the author of "Echo House, " set in Indochina in 1965, Sydney Parade, a trained political scientist, runs away to Saigon in an effort to become something larger than himself. There he begins to understand something of the complexities of Western survival in the Third World.

Book Synopsis

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME AND THE LOS ANGELES TIMES - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

"A literary triumph that transcends its war story. . . its greatness will stand the test of time."--San Francisco Chronicle
"A master American novelist." --Vanity Fair

A Dangerous Friend is a thrilling narrative roiling with intrigue, mayhem, and betrayal. Here is the story of conscience and its consequences among those for whom Vietnam was neither the right fight nor the wrong fight but the only fight. The exotic tropical surroundings, the coarsening and corrupting effects of a colonial regime, the visionary delusions of the American democratizers, all play their part.

A few civilians with bright minds and sunny intentions want to reform Vietnam--but the Vietnam they see isn't the Vietnam that is. Sydney Parade, a political scientist, has left home and family in an effort to become part of something larger than himself, a foreign-aid operation in Saigon. Even before he arrives, he encounters French and Americans who reveal to him the unsettling depths of a conflict he thought he understood--and in Saigon, the Vietnamese add yet another dimension. Before long, the rampant missteps and misplaced ideals trap Parade and others in a moral crossfire.

Review Quotes

"Emotionally wrenching and always beautifully observant, this is a work in the Graham Greene tradition." --Entertainment Weekly "Extraordinary...Mr. Just's novel makes you want to run screaming into the street to protest retrospectively the war he has so movingly recreated."--The New York Times "Spectacular . . . Truly visionary." --Boston Globe "A powerful story beautifully told."--Newsweek "Its greatness will stand the test of time . . . One hundred years hence, A Dangerous Friend will remain a beautiful, beautiful book."--The San Francisco Chronicle --

About the Author

Ward Just is the author of fourteen previous novels, including the National book Award finalist Echo House and An Unfinished Season, winner of the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Award. In a career that began as a war correspondent for Newsweek and the Washington Post, Just has lived and written in half a dozen countries, including Britain, France, and Vietnam. His characters often lead public lives as politicians, civil servants, soldiers, artists, and writers. It is the tension between public duty and private conscience that animates much of his fiction, including Forgetfulness. Just and his wife, Sarah Catchpole, divide their time between Martha's Vineyard and Paris.