Home »
The always interesting Daniel Silva
Book Review
By Derryll White
Silva, Daniel (2023). The Collector.
“To hope and to act, these are our duties in misfortune…” – Boris Pasternak
One of the nicest things about reading Daniel Silva is the continuing education one receives on the works of the master painters – Van Gogh, Titian, Vermeer. These are art objects we travel to museums far away to see. Silva brings the sense of them to the reader’s lap, along with a wealth of background information.
As well, the author has a pleasing command of international politics, at least the back-door view from a Jewish perspective. Gabriel Allon, art restorer and former legendary spy and boss of Israeli intelligence, works his way through the network of international art thieves in search of “The Collector.”
There are surprises. South Africa had a nuclear weapons programme? Silva states it did, dismantled under international supervision in 1989. The author pulls no punches as he charts Vladimir Putin’s journey to fabulous wealth and world domination. He does the work to demonstrate to the reader the evil that exists in the world. We don’t need fabled orcs and trolls as we have human monsters walking among us. Daniel Silva is always interesting.
********
Excerpts from the book:
UKRAINE – “There are no good men left in Russia, Allon. They’ve all fled the country to avoid the mobilization.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“That my country is losing this war? That my fellow citizens are being fed into a meat grinder? That they will soon be freezing to death because they don’t have proper supplies? Yes, Allon, I’m disappointed. But I’m also afraid of what comes next.”
RUSSIANS – “Not me, Sergei. I love everyone.”
“Everyone except Russians,” said Morosov.
“Are you referring to the people who massacred more than four hundred and fifty innocent civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha? Who are deliberately firing missiles into shelters crammed with women and children? Who are using rape as part of their military strategy?”
“We Russian know only one way to fight a war.”
PUTIN – “And what about our misadventure in Afghanistan?”
“The Red Army withdrew in May 1988, and three years later the Soviet Union was gone.”
“The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century, according to Vladimir Vladimirovich. He won’t lose the war in Ukraine because he can’t lose it. Which is why I’m so worried about what comes next.”
THE INNER CIRCLE – “He’s also alarmed by some of the things the Russian president’s closest security and intelligence advisers, the so-called siloviki, are whispering into his ear. To describe the men around the Russian president as hard-liners is a dangerous understatement. The current director of the SVR is an unstable sociopath, or so my in-house shrinks tell me. But the real problem is Nikolai Petrov, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council. Nikolai’s wrapped around his own axle. He’s a true paranoid ultranationalist radical. Nikolai thinks the war in Ukraine is part of a broader struggle between traditional Christian values and the decadent, homosexual West. Nikolai thinks the Ukrainians are nonhumans and that Vladimir should have dropped the bomb on Kyiv a long time ago. Nikolai thinks Russia can win a nuclear war against the United States. Nikolai,” said Carter, lowering his voice, “scares the living shit out of me.”
HAPPINESS – “They’re the happiest peope in the world, the Danes. Did you know that?”
“Second happiest,” said Gabriel.
Lavon was incredulous. Who’s happier than the Danish people?”
“Finns.”
“I thought Finns were the most depressed.”
“They are.”
“So how can they be the happiest people in the world and the most depressed as well?”
“It’s a statistical anomaly.”
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
