Robert Ferrigno - Prayers for the Assassin (2006)
Reviewed by David J. Montgomery
Every once in a while, a novel comes along that is so dazzling, so audacious that it seizes you by the scruff of your neck and forces you to sit up and take notice. Robert Ferrigno's stunning new political thriller Prayers for the Assassin is just such a novel.
Ferrigno imagines a world in which the United States has been devastated by years of war and depression, in which the American people have become so disillusioned that they are willing to consider radical new solutions to age-old problems.
It is a world in which terrorists, allegedly acting on behalf of Israel, have detonated nuclear bombs in New York City and Washington, destroying the country's financial and political centers and plunging the nation into chaos and civil war.
Out of that darkness has risen a new spirit of faith and a new devotion to God. But it is not the Christian tradition that has been part of this country's history since the beginning. Rather, the United States of Ferrigno's future has taken a different path, undergoing an Islamic revolution and becoming a moderate Muslim nation.
As Prayers for the Assassin opens, it is 25 years after that initial transformation. The new Islamic States of America still resemble the old United States in many ways (for example, they still have the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards), but with profound differences.
Having grown up in this changed nation, the story's protagonist, Rakkim Epps, knows no other world. He is a Fedayeen warrior, one of the Islamic Republic's most skilled and deadly soldiers. A faithful Muslim, he gladly served his country and risked his life on the most dangerous missions. But after being forbidden to marry the woman he loved, he turned his back on it all.
Now that woman is missing and her uncle, the powerful and much-feared head of State Security, has asked Rakkim to find her. Rakkim doesn't know it yet, but her life is in grave danger, and all of his considerable training and skills will be required to bring her back alive.
These rich and intricate details combine to form a dense and breathtaking tapestry of intrigue, all the more powerful for its freshness and novelty. Ferrigno has imagined a brave new world, and his story is all the more commanding because of it.
Much of the potency of Prayers for the Assassin comes from its plausibility. Certainly the events he posits are extreme. But they're not so extreme that they defy credibility. The way he explains the conversion of the United States, detailing it as a calculated series of events, makes it seem almost as if it could happen, and that's good enough to accept as the backdrop of a thriller novel.
Ferrigno's writing has always been sharp, as in such outstanding novels as Scavenger Hunt and The Wake-Up. But here he's working at an even higher level, with compelling characters, crisp plotting, and tense action and suspense.
Somewhat surprisingly for a thriller such as this, Prayers for the Assassin handles the subject of the Islamic faith with real feeling, insight and nuance. Ferrigno shows great respect for and understanding of the beliefs of his characters, which adds a profound resonance to the story. (This was borne out recently when a Turkish publisher purchased the rights to distribute the book in that Muslim nation.)
So many genre novels - most of them, even - tell the same basic story over and over. They are but tired variations on a tired theme. But Prayers for the Assassin is different. No matter how many books you've read, you've never read one like this before.
It would be easy for such a novel to veer off into the absurd or the preposterous, or simply degenerate into silliness. Prayers for the Assassin never does. It is sharp, fascinating and wildly entertaining, cover to cover. If you read just one book this year, let it be this one.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
