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Topaz
On the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis, American and French intelligence agents are plunged into a maze of Cold War intrigue
In Paris, 1962, French intelligence chief André Devereaux and NATO intelligence chief Michael Nordstrom have uncovered Soviet plans to ship nuclear arms to Cuba. But when Devereaux reports his findings and nobody acts—and he is targeted in an assassination attempt—he soon realizes he’s tangled in a plot far greater than he first understood. The two agents, along with a small band of Cuban exiles and Soviet defectors, chase leads around the globe in a quest to save NATO, themselves, and perhaps the world itself.
Topaz is a fast-paced but deeply informed thriller.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Leon Uris including rare photos from the author’s estate.
In Paris, 1962, French intelligence chief André Devereaux and NATO intelligence chief Michael Nordstrom have uncovered Soviet plans to ship nuclear arms to Cuba. But when Devereaux reports his findings and nobody acts—and he is targeted in an assassination attempt—he soon realizes he’s tangled in a plot far greater than he first understood. The two agents, along with a small band of Cuban exiles and Soviet defectors, chase leads around the globe in a quest to save NATO, themselves, and perhaps the world itself.
Topaz is a fast-paced but deeply informed thriller.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Leon Uris including rare photos from the author’s estate.
408 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1967
487 people are currently reading
2129 people want to read
About the author
Leon Uris
87 books1,627 followersLeon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 - June 21, 2003) was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem." (His brother Aron, Leon Uris' uncle, took the name Yerushalmi) "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."
Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, after having failed English three times. At age seventeen, while in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Uris enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a radioman (in combat) at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand from 1942 through 1945. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945.
Coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. In 1950, Esquire magazine bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa he produced the best-selling, Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie, which was extremely popular with the public, if not the critics. Later he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.
According to one source, in the early 1950's he was hired by an American public relations firm to go to Israel and "soak up the atmosphere and create a novel about it". That novel would be Exodus, which came out in 1958 and became his best known work. Others say that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in 1971. Uris' novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Uris' subsequent works included: Mila 18, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post WWII Germany; Trinity, an epic novel about Ireland's struggle for independence; QB VII, a novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp ; and The Haj, with insights into the history of the Middle East and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.
He also wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Uris was married three times: to Betty Beck, with whom he had three children, from 1945 through their divorce in 1968; Margery Edwards in 1969, who died a year later, and Jill Peabody in 1970, with whom he had two children, and divorced in 1989.
Leon Uris died of renal failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island, aged 78.
Leon Uris's papers can be found at the Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of The Haj and Mitla Pass, as well as manus
Leon Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish-American parents Wolf William and Anna (Blumberg) Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States. He derived his surname from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem." (His brother Aron, Leon Uris' uncle, took the name Yerushalmi) "He was basically a failure," Uris later said of his father. "He went from failure to failure."
Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, after having failed English three times. At age seventeen, while in his senior year of high school, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Uris enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a radioman (in combat) at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and New Zealand from 1942 through 1945. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, a Marine sergeant; they married in 1945.
Coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. In 1950, Esquire magazine bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously. Drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa he produced the best-selling, Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U.S. Marines in the Pacific. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie, which was extremely popular with the public, if not the critics. Later he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.
According to one source, in the early 1950's he was hired by an American public relations firm to go to Israel and "soak up the atmosphere and create a novel about it". That novel would be Exodus, which came out in 1958 and became his best known work. Others say that Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. It was a worldwide best-seller, translated into a dozen languages, and was made into a feature film in 1960, starring Paul Newman, directed by Otto Preminger, as well as into a short-lived Broadway musical (12 previews, 19 performances) in 1971. Uris' novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Uris' subsequent works included: Mila 18, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising; Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin, which reveals the detailed work by British and American intelligence services in planning for the occupation and pacification of post WWII Germany; Trinity, an epic novel about Ireland's struggle for independence; QB VII, a novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp ; and The Haj, with insights into the history of the Middle East and the secret machinations of foreigners which have led to today's turmoil.
He also wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Uris was married three times: to Betty Beck, with whom he had three children, from 1945 through their divorce in 1968; Margery Edwards in 1969, who died a year later, and Jill Peabody in 1970, with whom he had two children, and divorced in 1989.
Leon Uris died of renal failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island, aged 78.
Leon Uris's papers can be found at the Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin. The collection includes all of Uris's novels, with the exception of The Haj and Mitla Pass, as well as manus
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 194 reviews
August 15, 2020
”’Look up Wilson and Roosevelt’s declaration-of-war speeches to the congress and work up a draft...in case we need it,’ the President said.”
Nothing suspicious about all that!!
The Cuban Missile Crisis is, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, the closest we have come to World War Three. The citizens in America and Russia were not the only nervous people; the whole world was nervous. The struggle for power, as history has shown, never contains itself just to the principles involved. It bleeds into every corner of the world, or in this case, the radioactive fallout drifts where the wind will take it. The Russian President Khrushchev was convinced he could intimidate the young, brash American President Kennedy.
Well, if you know your history, you know who...blinks.
When Kennedy turns to his aide and asks him for those speeches given by Wilson and Roosevelt, even though I know he never uses that speech, it still sends chills down my spine because it really shows how close the world came to being annihilated.
John Forsythe plays Michael Nordstrom in the 1969 movie.
This story begins with the defection of Boris Kuznetov, a highly placed Russian official who learns he is about to be executed, but instead of placidly accepting his fate he approaches Michael Nordstrom, an American intelligence officer, with an offer of information for his life and the lives of his family. Once in America he will only talk to the French intelligence officer Andre Devereaux.
Kutznetov reveals that there is an operation called Topaz, involving highly placed KGB agents in the French intelligence community. What I didn’t know is that Topaz is based on the true events involving the Martel Affair, or more interestingly referred to as the Sapphire Affair.
This is a steaming pile of radioactive information to have land on Devereaux’s plate, but the Americans need him to do something else for them. He needs to go to Cuba and confirm that those shapes in the U2 overflight pictures are truly what they think they are. Andre is French, and he can just say no, but there is a Little Dove in Cuba whom he would like to see by the name of Juanita de Cordoba, whose husband was a hero of the revolution.
Getting into Cuba is not a problem. Getting out of Cuba with the information about the missiles turns out to be extremely difficult.
Frederick Stafford is Andre Devereaux in the movie version of Topaz.
Let’s make a quick list of Andre’s problems.
1) He might end up in one of the many, many prisons that have been created since the revolution in Cuba. Viva la revolucion! Well, for some. The problem with most revolutions is that the ones who kicked the bastards out become the new bastards.
2) Rico Parra, a powerful Cuban official, wants The Little Dove for himself. He is pathological in his desire to possess her.
3) Andre’s wife, Nicole, leaves him and moves back to France because he doesn’t pay enough attention to her in Washington DC.
4) President Pierre La Croix doesn’t trust the Americans and doesn’t trust Andre because Devereaux believes that France’s future has to be tied to America. La Croix has Napoleonic visions of where he believes France’s future lies.
5) Who can he trust? There are highly placed KGB moles in his own government. Those same people will most certainly want him dead or discredited or, better yet, both.
6) Andre’s daughter is involved with a writer who has tweaked the noses of the wrong people with his incendiary writing. Telling the truth to a near dictator like La Croix is never safe.
7) Andre has narcolepsy, which when he is really tired or stressed can be temporarily disabling. It is a harbinger of more health issues on the horizon.
The Hitchcock cameo...can you spot his rotundness?
It is no wonder that Alfred Hitchcock decides to make a movie of the book. He stays reasonably faithful to most of the part of the book set in the 1960s. Leon Uris actually helped with the script, but he and Alfred butt heads over the character development of the villains in the story, and another writer, more conducive to Hitchcock’s ideas, is found. In the later part of the book, Uris devotes some time writing prologues about Devereaux’s adventures during WW2. This gives the reader some background, not only on Devereaux, but also the people he is most closely associated with. The very people who now are the top suspects to be the KGB moles in his government.
Dany Robin plays Nicole Devereaux in the movie.
This is really an intriguing piece of Cold War writing with a convoluted series of plots that kept me puzzling over potential outcomes. The only misstep that dates the book is some statements made by Andre’s wife, Nicole, about how she should have given herself over to her husband. I read them out loud to my wife hoping she would see the logic, but all I received was a series of eye rolls and complaints about feeling nauseous. Like most people, Nicole does want her spouse to conform to her vision of what she wants him to be--someone powerful, but less involved in the day to day activities of keeping the world safe for democracy. I actually thought that Uris does a reasonably good job presenting a balanced view of her, but some of those statements she makes later in the book doesn’t ring true.
With all this extra background, now I’m off to rewatch the movie. It was a commercial bomb and did not resonate with audiences. I have a feeling that I will watch it with different eyes this time.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Nothing suspicious about all that!!
The Cuban Missile Crisis is, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, the closest we have come to World War Three. The citizens in America and Russia were not the only nervous people; the whole world was nervous. The struggle for power, as history has shown, never contains itself just to the principles involved. It bleeds into every corner of the world, or in this case, the radioactive fallout drifts where the wind will take it. The Russian President Khrushchev was convinced he could intimidate the young, brash American President Kennedy.
Well, if you know your history, you know who...blinks.
When Kennedy turns to his aide and asks him for those speeches given by Wilson and Roosevelt, even though I know he never uses that speech, it still sends chills down my spine because it really shows how close the world came to being annihilated.
John Forsythe plays Michael Nordstrom in the 1969 movie.
This story begins with the defection of Boris Kuznetov, a highly placed Russian official who learns he is about to be executed, but instead of placidly accepting his fate he approaches Michael Nordstrom, an American intelligence officer, with an offer of information for his life and the lives of his family. Once in America he will only talk to the French intelligence officer Andre Devereaux.
Kutznetov reveals that there is an operation called Topaz, involving highly placed KGB agents in the French intelligence community. What I didn’t know is that Topaz is based on the true events involving the Martel Affair, or more interestingly referred to as the Sapphire Affair.
This is a steaming pile of radioactive information to have land on Devereaux’s plate, but the Americans need him to do something else for them. He needs to go to Cuba and confirm that those shapes in the U2 overflight pictures are truly what they think they are. Andre is French, and he can just say no, but there is a Little Dove in Cuba whom he would like to see by the name of Juanita de Cordoba, whose husband was a hero of the revolution.
Getting into Cuba is not a problem. Getting out of Cuba with the information about the missiles turns out to be extremely difficult.
Frederick Stafford is Andre Devereaux in the movie version of Topaz.
Let’s make a quick list of Andre’s problems.
1) He might end up in one of the many, many prisons that have been created since the revolution in Cuba. Viva la revolucion! Well, for some. The problem with most revolutions is that the ones who kicked the bastards out become the new bastards.
2) Rico Parra, a powerful Cuban official, wants The Little Dove for himself. He is pathological in his desire to possess her.
3) Andre’s wife, Nicole, leaves him and moves back to France because he doesn’t pay enough attention to her in Washington DC.
4) President Pierre La Croix doesn’t trust the Americans and doesn’t trust Andre because Devereaux believes that France’s future has to be tied to America. La Croix has Napoleonic visions of where he believes France’s future lies.
5) Who can he trust? There are highly placed KGB moles in his own government. Those same people will most certainly want him dead or discredited or, better yet, both.
6) Andre’s daughter is involved with a writer who has tweaked the noses of the wrong people with his incendiary writing. Telling the truth to a near dictator like La Croix is never safe.
7) Andre has narcolepsy, which when he is really tired or stressed can be temporarily disabling. It is a harbinger of more health issues on the horizon.
The Hitchcock cameo...can you spot his rotundness?
It is no wonder that Alfred Hitchcock decides to make a movie of the book. He stays reasonably faithful to most of the part of the book set in the 1960s. Leon Uris actually helped with the script, but he and Alfred butt heads over the character development of the villains in the story, and another writer, more conducive to Hitchcock’s ideas, is found. In the later part of the book, Uris devotes some time writing prologues about Devereaux’s adventures during WW2. This gives the reader some background, not only on Devereaux, but also the people he is most closely associated with. The very people who now are the top suspects to be the KGB moles in his government.
Dany Robin plays Nicole Devereaux in the movie.
This is really an intriguing piece of Cold War writing with a convoluted series of plots that kept me puzzling over potential outcomes. The only misstep that dates the book is some statements made by Andre’s wife, Nicole, about how she should have given herself over to her husband. I read them out loud to my wife hoping she would see the logic, but all I received was a series of eye rolls and complaints about feeling nauseous. Like most people, Nicole does want her spouse to conform to her vision of what she wants him to be--someone powerful, but less involved in the day to day activities of keeping the world safe for democracy. I actually thought that Uris does a reasonably good job presenting a balanced view of her, but some of those statements she makes later in the book doesn’t ring true.
With all this extra background, now I’m off to rewatch the movie. It was a commercial bomb and did not resonate with audiences. I have a feeling that I will watch it with different eyes this time.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
February 6, 2023
I remember Leon Uris as a very good novelist. His Mila18 in the early sixties introduced me to the horrors of Nazi anti-semitism. Although I forgot the story line years ago, the general viewpoint Uris provided has colored my attitudes ever since. I don't recall reading any other Uris novels until a few weeks ago when I picked up Topaz. I first thought I was simply getting a fictionalized version of the Cuban missile crisis. I was okay with that, but I was generally familiar with the circumstances.
Things changed when I was well into the book and realized that the major plot involves Soviet infiltration of the French intelligence community. That was fascinating. I knew that the Soviets significantly infiltrated US and, especially, UK intelligence, but I totally missed the fact that France was significantly targeted as well.
Topaz' premise is that Soviet-generated disinformation was a major factor in the development of French antipathy toward the US during the sixties. Without some real evidence, I can't accept this. There were certainly other causal factors. France's failure to fight Germany to the death in 1940 caused the British and some Americans to consider France a conquered enemy in 1944 and 1945 and there were plans to treat the Nation accordingly. This probably fueled some continued French resentment. Add to this the US pressure to resist the Viet Minh and memories of how slow the UK and US were to come to French aid in the two world wars. Charles de Gaulle certainly had reason to fear he might be left standing alone against the USSR.
Topaz did not impact my thinking the way Mila 18 did, but it really was a good, although dated, story. I found that all the major characters had real life counterparts. I recommend it to anyone who might enjoy a spy story set in the sixties, written from a Cold War perspective.
Things changed when I was well into the book and realized that the major plot involves Soviet infiltration of the French intelligence community. That was fascinating. I knew that the Soviets significantly infiltrated US and, especially, UK intelligence, but I totally missed the fact that France was significantly targeted as well.
Topaz' premise is that Soviet-generated disinformation was a major factor in the development of French antipathy toward the US during the sixties. Without some real evidence, I can't accept this. There were certainly other causal factors. France's failure to fight Germany to the death in 1940 caused the British and some Americans to consider France a conquered enemy in 1944 and 1945 and there were plans to treat the Nation accordingly. This probably fueled some continued French resentment. Add to this the US pressure to resist the Viet Minh and memories of how slow the UK and US were to come to French aid in the two world wars. Charles de Gaulle certainly had reason to fear he might be left standing alone against the USSR.
Topaz did not impact my thinking the way Mila 18 did, but it really was a good, although dated, story. I found that all the major characters had real life counterparts. I recommend it to anyone who might enjoy a spy story set in the sixties, written from a Cold War perspective.
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December 9, 2023
I first read this in the late 1960's and I thought then that it was an excellent book about the Cuban missile crisis. I have recommended it since as one of Leon Uris's finest stories, after Exodus, of course!
I've followed USA politics since the late 1950's and I lived through this crisis as a newly married young man, reading every word I could about the scary confrontation. Although he initiated the installation of the missiles on Cuba, eventually Khrushchev blinked and JFK's and the USA's strength shone through, avoiding WW3, or worse. It was a truly frightening time.
I've followed USA politics since the late 1950's and I lived through this crisis as a newly married young man, reading every word I could about the scary confrontation. Although he initiated the installation of the missiles on Cuba, eventually Khrushchev blinked and JFK's and the USA's strength shone through, avoiding WW3, or worse. It was a truly frightening time.
August 27, 2021
Topaz is another riveting book from one of my favorite authors since I was in high school, Leon Uris. I read Exodus when it was published in 1958 and became an instant fan not to mention all of the times lining up at the theater to see Exodus on the big screen (and of course, Paul Newman). What an impressive body of work left by this beautiful man and I am still working my way through all of these wonderful books and enjoying them all immensely, what a master storyteller.
Topaz has at its heart the burgeoning Cuban Missile Crisis with a young president in the United States facing down a challenge at the height of the Cold War that many thought would be the beginning of World War III. Uris's dedication to research explored the French-American intrigue in 1962 with such characters as the French intelligence chief Andre Devereaux and NATO intelligence chief Michael Nordstrom as they interrogate a defector from Russia and uncovering Soviet plans to ship nuclear arms to Cuba. The severity of the situation is dramatically brought out as the President is working on his pending speech to the nation on the Cuban crisis with his speechwriters:
Topaz has at its heart the burgeoning Cuban Missile Crisis with a young president in the United States facing down a challenge at the height of the Cold War that many thought would be the beginning of World War III. Uris's dedication to research explored the French-American intrigue in 1962 with such characters as the French intelligence chief Andre Devereaux and NATO intelligence chief Michael Nordstrom as they interrogate a defector from Russia and uncovering Soviet plans to ship nuclear arms to Cuba. The severity of the situation is dramatically brought out as the President is working on his pending speech to the nation on the Cuban crisis with his speechwriters:
"Look up Wilson and Roosevelt's declaration-of-war speeches to the Congress and work up a draft. . . . in case we need it," the President said.
November 27, 2021
This intriguing novel is set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 . It revolves around four remarkable people : Michael Nordstrom , the American Chief of ININ , Inter-NATO Intelligence Network ; Boris Kuznetov , top Russian KGB defector ; Andre Devereaux , the chief of the French Secret Service SDECE and the captivating and beautiful Cuban aristocrat Juanita De Cordoba (who heads a resistance network against the Tyrannical Castro regime)
We are taken form the streets of Paris and Copenhagen to Washington DC to the hell-on earth that is Castroite Cuba soon after the 1959 Revolution that swept the Communist regime to power
Great intrigue is underway as one of the NATO allies is being manipulated to act in Soviet interests and one man is determined to stop this before the free world is destroyed
While John F Kennedy is simply referred to as the young President one can be certain that the Imperial President of France Pierre De La Croix is based on none other than Charles De Gaulle as only one man (former leader of the Free French during World War II) dominated France during the 1960's
We are taken form the streets of Paris and Copenhagen to Washington DC to the hell-on earth that is Castroite Cuba soon after the 1959 Revolution that swept the Communist regime to power
Great intrigue is underway as one of the NATO allies is being manipulated to act in Soviet interests and one man is determined to stop this before the free world is destroyed
While John F Kennedy is simply referred to as the young President one can be certain that the Imperial President of France Pierre De La Croix is based on none other than Charles De Gaulle as only one man (former leader of the Free French during World War II) dominated France during the 1960's
November 26, 2016
It's been years since I read a Leon Uris novel. I think "Mila 18" was the last one I read. Great writer. There is a certain " black and white TV era" feel to this novel that I really liked. Early 1960's, spies, the Cold War. Still a couple of Uris novels I have on my list to read. He's just a terrific writer.
January 28, 2024
Audible sale (#11 of 40) 12 hous 23 min. Narrated by David de Vries (A) This book required a reader fluent in French.
3.5 stars
I enjoyed Exodus by Leon Uris and wanted to listen to this book of political espionage set during the Cuban missle crisis in 1962-63, which I remember from the news during my early years in high school. I had forgotten how intense those months were. It was interesting to see this troublesome time in history presented not from an American point of view but from the viewpoint of the French. Of course, the president of France had a different name, but his history as a leader of the Free French during WWII much resembled Charles de Gaulle.
Leon Uris chose to use Russia using disinformation to influence and disrupt world politics even in the 1960s.
I feel the novel would've been more cohesive if the history of the relationships between five of the characters during WWII had been given as introduction in the novel rather than as a flashback toward the end of the story. I enjoyed the plot and the resolution of the mystery as to the identification of the French traitor. This novel must have made for riveting reading when it was published in 1967.
I was uncomfortable with the profanity used by certain characters, but they were not the main characters. There was also a scene of graphic violence.
3.5 stars
I enjoyed Exodus by Leon Uris and wanted to listen to this book of political espionage set during the Cuban missle crisis in 1962-63, which I remember from the news during my early years in high school. I had forgotten how intense those months were. It was interesting to see this troublesome time in history presented not from an American point of view but from the viewpoint of the French. Of course, the president of France had a different name, but his history as a leader of the Free French during WWII much resembled Charles de Gaulle.
Leon Uris chose to use Russia using disinformation to influence and disrupt world politics even in the 1960s.
I feel the novel would've been more cohesive if the history of the relationships between five of the characters during WWII had been given as introduction in the novel rather than as a flashback toward the end of the story. I enjoyed the plot and the resolution of the mystery as to the identification of the French traitor. This novel must have made for riveting reading when it was published in 1967.
I was uncomfortable with the profanity used by certain characters, but they were not the main characters. There was also a scene of graphic violence.
August 10, 2010
What was the worst part of this book? The one-dimensionally cliche spy-novel characters? The unrelenting misogyny? The wistful yearning for the Batista days in Cuba? It's no accident, I guess, that even as a Uris reader I have never heard of this book. EXODUS, sadly, seems to have been the exception, rather than the rule. To believe these characters, the only greater threat to mankind than Communism is women, and how horrible they are that they dare to express their unhappiness when their men have affairs, either of the business or the romantic variety, both of which they apparently need like air and water. The actual plot about espionage got largely buried beneath the whining - give me a break!
February 20, 2021
I read the spanish edition of this book in Cuba, where this author was phrohibited (there are many authors prohibited in communist cuba), and I read it with a cover. I was born after the misile crisis and found this book fascinating. The edition I read was one of the few copies in the island (back when I lived there). A merchant marine was able to conseal it and get it in the country, it crossed many hands, including mine. I had to read it very quickly because the list of interested parties was very long. Lucky me that I left that godforsaken country almost 30 years ago, and I bought the book here. Thirty years of reading any book I want without fear of beign jailed for reading "subversive" materials. Communism SUCKS.
April 29, 2016
When I saw the title "Topaz"the first thing that came to my mind was precious stone but on a closer observation i find out it was about espionage.
I normally refer to the like of Leon Uris,James Clavell and some few others authors as the 'Old Masters of the Craft,
They hardly disappoint you;Leon Uris painted a picture of a high level espionage between world powers and in doing this he weaves the story believably with suspense and a flow that will make the reader want know what happened next or perhaps keep the reader guessing until the last PAGE.
I LOVE THIS BOOK!
I normally refer to the like of Leon Uris,James Clavell and some few others authors as the 'Old Masters of the Craft,
They hardly disappoint you;Leon Uris painted a picture of a high level espionage between world powers and in doing this he weaves the story believably with suspense and a flow that will make the reader want know what happened next or perhaps keep the reader guessing until the last PAGE.
I LOVE THIS BOOK!
August 21, 2014
This is my third Leon Uris book and I am never disappointed. This takes the reader into the world of post WWII espionage. As with the his other books, Uris does a lot of back stories on the characters. When I read the summary of this book it stated it was about the Cuban Missile Crisis. But it really it is more about espionage between the US, France, Cuba and Russia. How did the information on the missiles reach our government, who were the people who collected and moved the information. I couldn't put it down till the last page.
May 9, 2021
Rating: 2.75 stars
Topaz is a political drama about the Soviet spying of French Intelligence Agency over the USA and NATO during the times of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
This was the sixth title by Leon Uris that I read, and I would put it right at the bottom of my list in terms of my liking, satisfaction and enjoyment.
Topaz is a political drama about the Soviet spying of French Intelligence Agency over the USA and NATO during the times of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
This was the sixth title by Leon Uris that I read, and I would put it right at the bottom of my list in terms of my liking, satisfaction and enjoyment.
October 3, 2015
Some of us have been longing to read something like this. Alas! We've had tbe opportunity through Leon Uris' novel'Topaz'. It is an old book, but the contents are as interesting today as the day it was first put on paper.
Espionage! Espionage! Espionage!
America: They think that Russia is shipping offensive missiles into Cuba.
Russia: A reluctant former KGB operative defects and claim tbat he has very important information that could help America and her NATO counterparts in subduing the Soviet Union.
France: It has a very insecure intelligence department. It's full of leaks from the inside and used by Russia to get information relating to the other sister countries of the NATO pact.
Cuba: An unstable country, recovering from the revution which saw the rise of Fidel Castro to power and the downfall of Batista and his goverment.
The men at the center of all this are Boris, the defector, the French diplomat to the USA and intelligence officers ib the United States Government.
Espionage! Espionage! Espionage!
America: They think that Russia is shipping offensive missiles into Cuba.
Russia: A reluctant former KGB operative defects and claim tbat he has very important information that could help America and her NATO counterparts in subduing the Soviet Union.
France: It has a very insecure intelligence department. It's full of leaks from the inside and used by Russia to get information relating to the other sister countries of the NATO pact.
Cuba: An unstable country, recovering from the revution which saw the rise of Fidel Castro to power and the downfall of Batista and his goverment.
The men at the center of all this are Boris, the defector, the French diplomat to the USA and intelligence officers ib the United States Government.
March 27, 2020
Not thrilled. A lot of detail about characters was provided that weren’t core to the story was provided. This might have been one reason why the novel seemed to plod along, and not be gripping. I have thrillers and spy novels by the likes of Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy, Nelson DeMille, and others, and they all seem to be page turners. This one didn’t.
Also, when the secret was revealed in the end, it was a complete surprise. All the evidence was just laid out bare, at the end. There was no accumulation of clues. This book didn’t keep me guessing. I have yet to see the Hitchcock movie; however, I’m told it is not one of his best. If Alfred Hitchcock can’t save your material, it could be the source material.
Also, when the secret was revealed in the end, it was a complete surprise. All the evidence was just laid out bare, at the end. There was no accumulation of clues. This book didn’t keep me guessing. I have yet to see the Hitchcock movie; however, I’m told it is not one of his best. If Alfred Hitchcock can’t save your material, it could be the source material.
June 14, 2020
This is not the sort of thing I typically read, a '60s novel about international espionage, and I was very vague in my knowledge of the Cuban missile crisis. But I DID read it, because of wanting to understand the Hitchcock movie version better (generally regarded as one of his lesser works). I won't claim that I understood all the details, but it is extremely well-written and researched, and has a very definite ring of truth about it.
October 25, 2015
When I want a good old potboiler, there are a few good authors upon whom I can rely. Leon Uris is one of them. In Topaz he manages to combine stories about the Cuban Missile Crises, Soviet infiltration of French intelligence agencies and some WWII history into a well told tale of Cold War drama. Actions and events are Uris’s forte. He recreates the tension and intrigue of the times very well. The book is fast paced and fairly linear with only a brief flashback to WWI to flesh out the main character and his colleagues in French intelligence. Character development is strong only for the main character and his wife. The gray men of the CIA, the Soviet apparatchiks and French bureaucrats are all fairly indistinct but this may be intentional and, with only a few exceptions, this is not too much of a drawback. The only part of the book that I didn’t like was the 1960’s era psychobabble regarding the protagonist’s relationship with his wife but it is true to the times so you cannot fault the author for not developing his own psychology for the occasion. All in all this is a classic that weaves disparate elements into a fictional story that accurately captures the zeitgeist of the Cold War
October 30, 2021
This book was very disjointed for me. It's about a spy ring that takes place in the USA, Cuba, and France. At the heart of the book is a Frenchman named Andre. However, it takes a while to introduce him to us so we're always a little distant from him. And the plot was a little complex for me - Soviet missiles in Cuba, a Soviet spy defecting to America and revealing a Soviet plan to bring about the downfall of Free France. I just didn't want to follow all those plotlines and so I got myself confused easily.
This was actually my second read of the book. One scene stood out from the first reading and upon reading it a second time I was astounded at how little it actually meant to the plot.
Not one of Uris's best.
This was actually my second read of the book. One scene stood out from the first reading and upon reading it a second time I was astounded at how little it actually meant to the plot.
Not one of Uris's best.
July 30, 2024
eponymous sentence:
p51: The secret of Topaz.
period:
p15: "...As long as they have guards on my family they know I will return, so it is normal for me to be away for a few hours, perhaps to make an intelligence contact, perhaps to shop, perhaps even to visit a woman But I am a devoted family man and I always come back."
grammar:
p256: With the evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba proved beyond doubt, the crisis heightened.
Not Leon's usual fare (and also not the usual length--which is refreshing) but passable.
p51: The secret of Topaz.
period:
p15: "...As long as they have guards on my family they know I will return, so it is normal for me to be away for a few hours, perhaps to make an intelligence contact, perhaps to shop, perhaps even to visit a woman But I am a devoted family man and I always come back."
grammar:
p256: With the evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba proved beyond doubt, the crisis heightened.
Not Leon's usual fare (and also not the usual length--which is refreshing) but passable.
August 14, 2014
The Cuban Missile Crisis is heating up. But nevermind that! What about Andre and Nicole? Can their marriage be saved?!?
The answer is no, because author Leon Uris knows nothing about women, especially how to write them.
The answer is no, because author Leon Uris knows nothing about women, especially how to write them.
September 23, 2023
Topaz
Another great yarn, no doubt with considerable fiction, but also with a tremendous about high levels moles in France and the Cuban missle crisis. Hard to put down as is his usual.
Another great yarn, no doubt with considerable fiction, but also with a tremendous about high levels moles in France and the Cuban missle crisis. Hard to put down as is his usual.
July 27, 2020
Thoroughly enjoyed every page. And it's even based on real facts. If you like history and espionage, def-ly read this book. Leon is excellente!
July 8, 2024
So good that I immediately found and watched the old movie. Enjoyed them both immensely.
October 19, 2009
This is a very interesting book on a variety of levels. The story line sits around and wanders back and forth through the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But while Uris does a decent job of reconstructing the basic facts which finally led to the showdown between Russia and the Kennedy Administration, he also gives the reader great insight into why there consistently seems to be so much tension between France and the United States. He does this in numerous ways starting before WWII and after reading the book I had a much firmer grasp on why the French and the Americans always seem to be a little frustrated by each other. While the material and the novel are quite dated, this book clearly shows you that you don't have to read the "current" stuff to learn something via fiction.
February 25, 2024
This is an engrossing cold war tale that reflects its time and place. While the ending is somewhat ambiguous, the politics are not. Uris wrote a novel that was harshly critical of French politics and actions in the 1960s. His fictional president of France was a thinly veiled Charles de Gaulle.
Built against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, this novel is essentially a mole hunt within French security forces. While it doesn't contain all of the classic elements as defined a few years later in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, this novel works well. Topaz avoids red herrings, but is weakened some by the extreme level of political commentary.
Built against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, this novel is essentially a mole hunt within French security forces. While it doesn't contain all of the classic elements as defined a few years later in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, this novel works well. Topaz avoids red herrings, but is weakened some by the extreme level of political commentary.
February 22, 2019
Betty is reading this in bed S06E05 (The Flood) after she cannot watch the TV anymore following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
This, pulp read she doesn’t have to think about. Interesting, and maybe I’m reaching here, because the book is so full of stereotypes and prejudice (as Exodus was earlier in Mad Men S01E06) particularly towards ‘communists’ in this case.
The book also, no surprise here, has an affair central to the story with the exotic and orientalist Cuban lover character and the protagonist special agent loner with principals, Don, er, I mean Deveroux.
Not a great book but fun.
This, pulp read she doesn’t have to think about. Interesting, and maybe I’m reaching here, because the book is so full of stereotypes and prejudice (as Exodus was earlier in Mad Men S01E06) particularly towards ‘communists’ in this case.
The book also, no surprise here, has an affair central to the story with the exotic and orientalist Cuban lover character and the protagonist special agent loner with principals, Don, er, I mean Deveroux.
Not a great book but fun.
June 5, 2018
Trite. The story is completely predictable and the women are cardboard cutouts and the crappy writing of the men appreciating womens' figures and whatnot may have been acceptable when this book was written but it's not now. There's certainly not enough quality to redeem it.
November 10, 2019
Good for the historical context, ok story, but the writing style wasn’t for me. Yes, I stayed engaged as I progressed through the book, but the traitor wasn’t hard to pick amongst the long list of characters. Attitudes to marriage and women generally have not aged well.
April 1, 2022
Closer to 2.5. Entertaining in parts but very, very of its time, in terms of racist and sexist stereotypes, and uncritical pro-Americanism and anti-Communism. Leon Uris writes a lot like his contemporary Arthur Hailey, but Uris isn't even as "fun bad" as Hailey can be.
March 29, 2021
A Cold War novel. Always a good read. I really get into his characters.
August 7, 2014
not to bad. 1960's thriller, the Cuban Missile crisis, with the a French spy taking a lead role.
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