{"id":16134,"date":"2021-12-10T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16134"},"modified":"2021-12-10T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-11T00:00:00","slug":"the-loo-sanction-by-trevanian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=16134","title":{"rendered":"‘The Loo Sanction,’ by Trevanian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jonathan Hemlock,<\/strong> who appeared in Trevanian\u2019s earlier novel, The Eiger Sanction <\/em>(which was filmed by Clint Eastwood), is a retired American art professor and world-famous critic. But he had a secret life as a \u201ccounter-assassin\u201d for an espionage agency referred to, not so subtly, as the \u201cCII.\u201d He hated both his employers and his targets, but the job made it possible for him to indulge his passion for collecting Impressionist masters. As The Loo Sanction<\/em> begins (1973) he\u2019s retired and spending a year in London on a cultural visit for the embassy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he\u2019s kidnapped by a British Intelligence agency known as \u201cthe Loo,\u201d roughly equivalent to the one he used to work for. He doesn\u2019t want to work for them, but is extorted into doing so by threats against people he likes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His job, he\u2019s told, is to steal a package of films, films made secretly at an ultra-secret London sex club. The owner of these films will be in a position to blackmail the entire British government into doing what he wants (Jonathan can almost see the head of the Loo \u2013 the most hypocritical Church of England vicar imaginable \u2013 salivating at the prospect of controlling them).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan will come up against a formidable enemy, a grandiose crime lord who is both an aesthete and a sadist. Along with a supporting cast of equally appalling psychopaths. He will barely survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of people won\u2019t survive. Generally, the better you like a character in this book, the more likely they are to die horribly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trevanian can be amusing in his acerbic comments, at least when I agree with him. But the story of The Loo Sanction<\/em> is a story of unremitting cynicism, where every ideal is laughable and all institutions are not only corrupt but satanically vile. The plot gets crueler and crueler as it goes along, and finally ends in Hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have rarely disliked a book as much as I disliked The Loo Sanction<\/em>. I\u2019m not even going to link to it on Amazon. Someone depressed or suicidal could possibly happen on it, and I don\u2019t want to risk the consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Hemlock, who appeared in Trevanian\u2019s earlier novel, The Eiger Sanction (which was filmed by Clint Eastwood), is a retired American art professor and world-famous critic. But he had a secret life as a \u201ccounter-assassin\u201d for an espionage agency referred to, not so subtly, as the \u201cCII.\u201d He hated both his employers and his targets, … Continue reading ‘The Loo Sanction,’ by Trevanian<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[3978,3977],"class_list":["post-16134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-the-loo-sanction","tag-trevanian"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16135,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16134\/revisions\/16135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}