‘What’s the toughest decision you’ve to make this week?’ Dumas’ masterpiece is essential reading for today’s millennials
Co-written by the former US President Bill Clinton and the thriller writer James Patterson, is a novel that delves into the dystopian theme of global diplomacy. An excerpt.
tains that implacable expression, though I can imagine a hint of I-told-ya-so in her narrowed eyes.
“Congressman Kearns, this is a matter of national security. It’s not a game of gotcha. This is serious business. Whenever you’re ready to ask a serious question, I’ll be happy to answer.”
“An American died in that fight in Algeria, Mr President. An American, A CIA operative named Nathan Cromartie, died stopping that anti- Russia militia group from killing Suliman Cindoruk. I think the American people consider that to be serious.”
“Nathan Cromartie was a hero,” I say. “We mourn his loss. I mourn his loss.”
“You’ve heard his mother speak out on this,” he says.
I have. We all have. After what happened in Algeria, we disclosed nothing publicly. We couldn’t. But then the militia group published video of a dead American online, and it didn’t take long before Clara Cromartie identified him as her son, Nathan. She outed him as a CIA operative, too. It was one gigantic shitstorm. The media rushed to her, and within hours she was demanding to know why her son had to die to protect a terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, including many Americans. In her grief and pain, she practically wrote the script for the select committee hearing.
“Don’t you think you owe the Cromartie family answers, Mr President?”
“Nathan Cromartie was a hero,” I say again. “He was a patriot. And he understood as well as anyone that much of what we do in the interest of national security cannot be discussed publicly. I’ve spoken privately to Mrs Cromartie, and I’m deeply sorry for what happened to her son. Beyond that, I Wearer of many hats- philanthropist, entrepreneur, computer scientist, engineer, teacher-Sudha Murty has above all always been a storyteller extraordinaire. Bringing together her best-loved stories from various collections alongside some new ones and a thoughtful introduction, here is a book that is as multifaceted as its author. won’t comment. I can’t, and I won’t.”
“Well, in hindsight, Mr President,” he says, “do you think maybe your policy of negotiating with terrorists hasn’t worked out so well?”
“I don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
“Whatever you want to call it,” he says. “Calling them. Hashing things out with them. Coddling them—” “I don’t coddle—” The lights flicker overhead, two quick blinks of interruption. Some groans in response, and Carolyn Brock perks up, writing herself a mental note.
He uses the pause to jump in for another question.
“You’ve made no secret, Mr President, that you prefer dialogue over shows of force, that you’d rather talk things out with terrorists.”
“No,” I say, drawing out the word, my pulse throbbing in my temple, because that kind of oversimplification epitomises everything that’s wrong with our politics, “what I have said repeatedly is that if there is a way to peacefully resolve a situation, the peaceful way is the better way. Engaging is not surrendering. Are we here to have a foreign police debate, Congressman? I’d hate to interrupt this witch hunt with a substantive conversation.”
I glance over to the corner of the room, where Carolyn Brock winces, a rare break in her implacable expression.
“Engaging the enemy is one way to put it, Mr President. Coddling is another way.”
“I do not coddle our enemies,” I say. “Nor do I renounce the use of force in dealing with them. Force is always an option, but I will not use it unless I deem it necessary. That might be hard to understand for some country club, trust-fund baby, who spent his life chugging beer bongs and paddling pledges in some secret-skull college fraternity and calling everybody by their initials, but I have met the enemy head-on in a battlefield. I will pause before I send our sons and daughters into battle, because I was one of those sons, and I know the risks.”
Jenny is leaning forward, wanting more, always wanting me to expound on the details of my military service. Tell them about your tour of duty. Tell them about your time as a POW. Tell them about your injuries, the torture. It was an endless struggle during the campaign, one of the things about me that tested the most favorably. If my advisers had their way, it would have been just about the only thing I ever discussed. But I never gave in. Some things you just don’t talk about.
“Are you Pres—”
“No, I’m not finished. I already explained all of this to House leadership, to the Speaker and others. I told you I couldn’t have this hearing. You could have said, ‘Okay, Mr President, we are patriots, too, and we will respect what you’re doing, even if you can’t tell us everything that’s going on.’ But you didn’t do that, did you? You couldn’t resist the chance to haul me in and score points. So let me say to you publicly what I said to you privately. I will not answer your specific questions about conversations I’ve had or actions I’ve taken, because they are dangerous. They are a threat to our national security. If I have to lose this office to protect this country, I will do it. But make no mistake. I have never taken a single action, or uttered a single word, without the safety and security of the United States foremost in my mind. And I never will.”
My questioner is not the least bit deterred by the insults I’ve hurled. He is undoubtedly encouraged by the fact that his questions have now firmly found their place under my skin. He is looking at his notes again, finished, Mr at his flow chart of questions and follow-ups, while I try to calm myself.
“What’s the toughest decision you’ve to make this week, Mr Kearns? Which bow tie to wear to the hearing? Which side to part your hair for that ridiculous combover that isn’t fooling anybody?
“Lately, I spend almost all my time trying to keep this country safe. That requires tough decisions. Sometimes those decisions have to be made when there are many unknowns. Sometimes all the options are flat-out shitty, and I have to choose the least flat-out shitty one. Of course, I wonder if I’ve made the right call, and whether it will work out in the end. So I just do the best I can. And live with it.
“That means I also have to live with the criticism, even when it comes form an opportunistic political hack picking out one move on the chess board without knowing what the rest of the game looks like, then turning that move inside-out without having a single clue how much he might be endangering our nation.
“Mr Kearns, I’d like to discuss all my actions with you, but there are national security considerations that just don’t permit it. I know you know that, of course. But I also know it’s hard to pass up an easy cheap shot.”
In the corner, Danny Ackers has his hands up, signaling for a time-out.
“Yeah, you know what? You’re right, Danny. It’s time. I’m done with this. This is over. We’re done.”
I lash out and whack the microphone off the table. I knock over my chair as I get to my feet. Extracted from ‘ The President is Missing’, by Bill Clinton and James Patterson, published by Penguin Random House
What makes a literary work a c l a s s i c ? The readers’ opinion or a prominent literary figure’s certification? Or could it be, as many literary critics suggest, the enduring relevance of its motifs and message, beyond the space and time it portrays? By this yardstick, this French work definitely qualifies with its themes of friendship, duty, gallantry, honour, integrity and loyalty amid pressures and perils.
Among the world’s bestknown historical novels, Alexandre Dumas’ Les Trois Mousquetaires, or The Three Musketeers (as we know it), has long been a favourite for not only readers but also filmmakers, with more than two versions made all over the world between 1903 and 2013.
The title is a little misleading—for there are actually four musketeer—though the actual hero, d’Artagnan, only becomes one a little over midway through the book.
But still, he and the three characters—Athos, Aramis, and Porthos— with their motto of “Tous pour un, un pour tous” (“All for One, One for All”), never fail to enthuse us as they live, love, dare across the backdrop of early 17th century France, where King Louis XIII reigned and his Prime Minister, Cardinal Richelieu, ruled.
The story starts with d’Artagnan, a member of an aristocratic family now in reduced circumstances, leaving his home in southern France for Paris to join the King’s Musketeers. However, on the way, he gets into a brawl with a noble stranger and while he is knocked senseless, his letter of introduction to the commandant of the King’s Musketeers is stolen.
Reaching Paris without further incident, d’Artagnan secures an appointment with the Commandant, M. de Treville, who is giving a stern rebuke to The Three Musketeers, based on hearsay accounts of a scrap between them and the Cardinal’s Guards, but changes his stand after hearing their version. D’Artagnan is received civilly but de Treville, a bit suspicious after hearing the story of his roadside affray and the loss of the letter, tells him he cannot join the Musketeers directly and proposes he join a grooming academy first.
As he is writing his letter of introduction, d’Artagnan catches a glimpse of the enemy stranger passing and rushes out to confront him. In his haste, he manages to offend Athos, Porthos and Aramis and has to duel them. As they gather in a deserted place—as duelling is banned—Athos and the others are amazed to see that this youth is willing to fight all three of them consecutively. But even before they cross swords, a party of the Cardinal’s Guards appear and seek to arrest them, and our heroes join forces to repulse their rivals. An elated M de Treville tells the King, who is also delighted and commands they be brought before him. But there is a delay and, meanwhile, d’Artagnan gets into another duel, which becomes a pitched battle between the Musketeers and the Cardinal’s men, in which the former again win handsomely. He is eventually inducted in a Guards regiment, and promised that he will be made a Musketeer soon.
With these first few chapters that serve to show how a bond forms between the three veterans and d’Artagnan, the main story begins when his landlord seeks his help in rescuing his young wife, a handmaid and confidante of the queen. While this is done (and our hero falls in love with her), it also gets him embroiled in court intrigues—between the King, his neglected wife, Anne of Austria, (who is in an affair with the English Prime Minister, the Duke of Buckingham) and the Cardinal.
The next 600-odd pages tell us how our heroes manage their finances (military pay was poor and infrequent), and more importantly, carry out a perilous mission for the queen—in which d’Artagnan eventually must travel alone to London— and try to foil the Cardinal’s strategems, especially those by his beautiful but lethal aide, the Milady (who has a past with one of them and becomes d’Artagnan’s sworn enemy).
This is enlivened by set pieces, like that of Athos’s gambling feats and Aramis’s thesis, their wager in war, d’Artagnan’s two interviews with the Cardinal, and the ominous finale of dealing with Milady.
The quartet’s story continues in at least two other massive books but these don’t convey the magic of the initial work, and are also much darker.
Inspired to write the story after coming across an old book in which he found the names of the four who were historical characters, Dumas, however, reinvented their lives, making them a philosophical ensemble—Aramis (realist), Porthos (apathetic), Athos (cynic), and d’Artagnan (optimist)—while working in his views about whimsical imperial politics, religious corruption and so on.
Translated into English within two years, though a bit pruned in view of conventional mores about sexuality— which made some major stretches incomprehensible. Recent versions have remedied this.
But above all, The Three Musketeers is a paean to friendship, beyond age, background or temperament. That makes it not only a classic but an essential read for today’s distracted and self-seeking youth. IANS
Translated into English within two years, though a bit pruned in view of conventional mores about sexuality— which made some major stretches incomprehensible.