Sweet Reason by Robert Littell

First published in 1974

Robert Littell has made a career of writing excellent espionage novels. Sweet Reason, his second novel (after The Defection of A.J. Lewinter), is a departure from that niche. This 1974 novel is a war story, or more accurately a war comedy: not as outrageously funny (and not nearly as profound) as Catch-22, but in the same satirical vein, and funny enough.

The U.S.S. Eugene F. Ebersole, a rusty, leaky, dilapidated destroyer commissioned during World War II, is dispatched to the Vietnam War by mistake. The novel takes place during the first three days after its arrival at Yankee Station. On Day One, the crew mistakenly sinks a junk (the captain proclaims a military victory and recommends himself for the silver star) and the destroyer plows into a downed jet during a rescue attempt (the pilot "was probably dead anyhow," the captain muses). Day Two begins with a Congressman boarding the destroyer for a photo op. To make sure the Congressman gets on the news, the destroyer finds a target to shoot at -- with unfortunate results. On Day Three, the sonar operator thinks he's spotted a submarine and the captain gives orders to sink it but ... well, you get the idea. Meanwhile, anonymous typewritten messages from "The Voice of Sweet Reason" appear, complaining of racial segregation aboard ship and urging the crew not to maintain the ship's engines or to fire its guns: a plea for mutiny that some crew members embrace.

The humor in Sweet Reason is amusing more than laugh-out-loud funny and the characters are a bit one dimensional despite the backgrounds Littell invents for them. As an indictment of war's folly or of career military officers, Sweet Reason succeeds, but only in a rather obvious way and not as well as other novels that have covered the same ground. The ending is a bit over-the-top. While Sweet Reason is an easy, sometimes entertaining read, Littell was wise to stick to espionage novels, where his authorial abilities are more triumphantly displayed. (If you want to read Littell at his best, you should try The Sisters, a novel that tells a grimly serious story with a wonderful comic touch.)

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Adventures of the Artificial Woman by Thomas Berger

Published by Simon & Schuster on April 27, 2004

This thin novel skates into a guarded recommendation because of its amusement value.  Ellery Pierce makes robotic contraptions that a movie like Jurassic Park might use.  Having had little luck with women, he uses his talent (and workshop) to craft one of his own design.  Perhaps he made her too well, because she has little use for him while pursuing a fleeting career in Hollywood (rising to the pinnacle before crashing to the soaps) and then running for the presidency, on a write-in ballot no less.

The concept of an artificial partner, designed to give the creator what he (or she) wants without all the hassle of an actual human being, has a certain comic appeal,.  The robot rejects the creator's dominion, behaves with vexing independence ... a cute but unoriginal concept.  Unfortunately, Thomas Berger does nothing new or meaningful with the idea; worse, he makes the artificial woman into a political bimbo, a robotic Chauncey Gardiner.  At its best moments, the novel delivers some chuckles; it aggressively fails to do anything else.  A novel like this could illustrate the superficiality of basing judgment on appearance or offer insight into relationships between real men and women.  Berger instead opted for a simple, unimaginative story that is intermittently funny.  Take it for what it is if you choose to take it at all.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS