Book Review: The Crook Factory

It’s hard to write a book review for a Dan Simmons book without addressing Simmons’ mastery of so many genres. From reviews I’ve read of some of his newer books, I know some fans and readers have felt that he’s lost a bit of his touch from his earlier works, and I’ll be the first to admit slogging my way through The Terror, but it’s impossible as an author myself to ignore just how impressive it is to be able to write in any genre. But I could write an entire entry for Dan Simmons’ writing, and I will later, so I won’t waste any further time on Simmons in general.

That being said, The Crook Factory is once again very different from any of his other books I have read. The story follows FBI Special Agent Joe Lucas as he is tasked with an assignment from FBI Director Hoover himself to go down to Cuba to keep an eye on the prolific American writer, Ernest Hemingway, during World War II. It seems that the writer has created his own little amateur network of espionage. As a top field agent, Lucas can’t see any valid reason for playing babysitter to a delusional writer and his drama thirsty friends. But of course, things are not as they seem, and Lucas and Hemingway do indeed find real trouble and espionage among the Americans, British, and Nazis.

Though I love fiction, there’s something about reading or watching a fictionalized account of something that really took place. When you’re watching a movie based on an underdog team and an improbable comeback, the fact that it actually took place keeps you from walking away from the story saying, “Yeah, right.”

This is also the case in The Crook Factory. The book is considered historical fiction, and a note at the end of the book says that 95% of the situations found in the book are true, while no one truly knows the whole story.

There were several moments while reading the book that I found myself wanting to put it down to look up the events and the life of Ernest Hemingway because the stories told in The Crook Factory are just so ridiculous if they’re true. If Hemingway is half the man described in the book, he truly is the most interesting man in the world. He’s a grizzled, sun-baked, actress wooing, grenade throwing, ocean sailing, Cuban charming… literary legend. Any character based on him would seem too far-fetched.

Simmons’ writing is high quality, and the style moves back and forth between biopic and spy thriller. In one excruciating scene where Lucas “questions” a Nazi agent, Simmons demonstrates great restraint and subtlety, forgoing shock-writing to allow just enough details to paint the picture of the torture without creating an explicit scene.

Simmons also tells the story in an unusual way. The narrator is Joe Lucas, the FBI agent, but it’s clear that the protagonist is Ernest Hemingway. In this way it is very much like The Great Gatsby. I didn’t see much of a character arc with Lucas, though he begins to learn about himself by just being in close proximity to Hemingway. Hemingway doesn’t truly have a character arc either; he’s adventurous, stubborn, and an enigma at the beginning of the book as well as the end. But it doesn’t matter. The story is engaging; the characters are fascinating.

There were times when I didn’t know who characters were, but it didn’t bother me. The ending wasn’t spectacular, leaving a lot of questions unanswered, but it fit the story and the characters.

But I enjoyed this book immensely, and I would highly recommend it. I give this book a 8.5 out of 10 in the Mark of Approval.