Eclipse: Summary and book reviews of Eclipse by Richard North Patterson, plus links to an excerpt from Eclipse and a biography of Richard North Patterson.
Eclipse
by Richard North Patterson
Hardcover: Jan 2009,
384 pages.
Paperback: Sep 2009,
560 pages.
Damon Pierce’s life has just reached a defining moment: a gifted California lawyer, he’s being divorced by his wife and his work often seems soulless. Then he receives a frantic e-mail from Marissa Brand Okari—a woman he loved years ago—and decides to risk everything to respond to her plea for help.
Marissa’s husband, Bobby Okari, is the charismatic leader of a freedom movement in the volatile west African nation of Luandia, which is being torn apart by the world’s craving for its vast supply of oil. Bobby’s outspoken opposition to the exploitation of his homeland by PetroGlobal—a giant American oil company with close ties to Luandia’s brutal government—has enraged General Savior Karama, the country’s autocratic ruler. After Bobby leads a protest rally during a full eclipse of the sun, everyone in his home village is massacred by government troops. And now Bobby has been arrested and charged with the murder of three PetroGlobal workers. Still drawn to Marissa, Pierce agrees to defend Bobby, hoping to save both Bobby and Marissa from almost certain death. But the lethal politics of Luandia may cost Pierce his life instead.
Culminating in a dramatic show trial and a desperate race against time, Eclipse combines a thrilling narrative with a vivid look at the human cost of the global lust for oil. Here is Richard North Patterson at his compelling best, confirming his place as our most provocative author of popular fiction.
Simplicity is something to which Patterson never succumbs, even though at times it might feel a blessing. But in the cosmos of Eclipse there are almost more strata of complex desire, motivation and intention than it is possible to track. And each desire, motivation and intention eclipses something else until no character is able to see things plainly. It is what sets a Richard North Patterson thriller apart from its competitors on bookstore shelves and keeps him hitting the New York Times bestseller list. (Reviewed by Donna Chavez).
Washington Post
He brings his knowledge to the book with a sense of urgency far beyond the plot at hand, depicting complex legal issues and the larger geopolitical situation with authority and clarity.
Kirkus Reviews
A satisfying fable that pits a hero who deeply believes in the rule of law against a violent, lawless regime that holds all the cards.
Library Journal
Patterson once again brings a timely, controversial subject - America's dependence on foreign oil - to the forefront in this troubling yet engrossing read. Highly recommended.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Patterson has exerted all his considerable skill in creating a nightmare atmosphere that will cling to readers long after the last page is turned.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Maren Compelling, Intelligent, Informative--Excellent Always a Richard North Patterson fan, I never-the-less reached a new level of respect--and yes, awe--for the author after reading this powerful and disturbing novel about an African freedom fighter, Bobby Okari, caught between the corrupt forces... Read More
In his acknowledgments, Richard North Patterson confirms that Eclipse is
loosely based on the life and death of Nigerian writer and activist
Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.
Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) was born Kenule Benson Tsaro-Wiwa in Bori, Rivers
State (a coastal state in the south of Nigeria,
map).
He was the son of Jim Beesom Wiwa, a businessman and community chief of the
Ogoni people,
an ethnic minority whose homelands have been targeted for oil extraction since
the 1950s. The Ogoniare one of the many indigenous people of the
Niger Delta region. Their 404-square-mile homeland, known as Ogoniland, is
located in Rivers State on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea and is home to about
half a million people,
At the age of thirteen, he won a scholarship to Government College in
Umuahia in the South-East of Nigeria, where he was a model pupil who enjoyed the
English way of life (Nigeria was a British colony until 1960). After
graduating from the University of Ibadan, he taught...
A new novel from the winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.
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Kirkus Reviews
of 5
by Maren
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