The Guest of Honor

by Irving Wallace

This is a thriller based on international intrigue, power and love. The plot revolves around a fictitious president of the United States and his obsession with the female leader of a small but strategically important SE Asian state, set against a background of East-West power pushing.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Romance, Indonesian Literature

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Irving Wallace was an American bestselling author and screenwriter. His extensively researched books included such page-turners as The Chapman Report (1960), about human sexuality; The Prize (1962), a fictional behind-the-scenes account of the Nobel Prizes; The Man, about a black man becoming president of the U.S. in the 1960s; and The Word (1972), about the discovery of a new gospel.

Wallace was born in Chicago, Illinois. Wallace grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was the father of Olympic historian David Wallechinsky and author Amy Wallace.

Wallace began selling stories to magazines when he was a teenager. In World War II Wallace served in the Frank Capra unit in Fort Fox along with Theodor Seuss Geisel - more popularly known as Dr Seuss - and continued to write for magazines. He also served in the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Force. In the years immediately following World war II Wallace became a Hollywood screenwriter. He collaborated on such films as The West Point Story (1950), Split Second (1953),and Meet Me at the Fair (1953).

After several years in Hollywood, he devoted himself full-time to writing books. Wallace published 33 books during his lifetime.

Reviews

[Frances Haas · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Guest of Honor" was an easy book to read, presented in a linear time line. The author parallels the lives of Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, the guest of honor. I had heard of Booker T. but did not know much about him. This book supplies a basic outline of his life and the incredible endurance he maintained to stay on a treacherous social ladder. He was a philosophical, stoic man. The year of the dinner was 1901. It became clear American society, especially the south, was not ready to admit blacks into social equality. The headlines responding to the dinner proudly portrayed negro "inferiority" as an uncontested fact, many northern papers such as the NY Times were also proudly prejudiced. That Booker T. was dubbed "The Negro Moses" must have rankled. The group also handled the question of whether or not there was current prejudice toward President Obama. The book provided a good discussion but was a little thin. It did what it set out to do: covered this outstanding political "scandal" of 1901, a Republican President bestowing an honor on a black man.

[Serena Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro me lo compre de oferta y es bastante entretenido, la trama esta bien llevada y poco mas puedo decir porque me lo lei hace siglos

7/10

[Ccfarmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was reading this story because I have a similar story ; or so I thought, that I want to publish, that I have dubbed Tiger Prince. By page 243 I was still believing the romance but not the story. Or maybe it is the other way around. Anyways, "The Guest of Honor" was a book I won't read again like I would Misty Simon's "Wicked Ink", the Dragonriders of Pern series, or "Anne of Green Gables".
What I learned/observed from reading this book. Character dimension and development. How Irving Wallace used it but I still felt that all the characters were flat. Is this a man's book for men? Kidnapping, is that a genre or just a # word? I started to like how things were going in the kidnapping section of this book.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a promising opening chapter that was well thought out and engaging and slowly descended into something that read like a hastily scrawled high school English assignment with a rushed and unrealistic conclusion. This is the first book by Irving Wallace that I have read, however, and I have read in other reviews that his spectrum spans trash and masterpiece, so I am more than willing to try another of Wallace's works.

[Donald Harwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A chick flick on papyrus. The president falls in love a foreign leader. YAWN. I didnt see much in Matt Underwood other than he was a lovesick pup. He didn't seem very presidential. He came off more as an anchorman which he was before politics. He struck me as one who lived and died with the TelePrompTer .

[Jay Jani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irving Wallace has written this in wonderful fashion. Anyone who has watched the TV series '24' will find this one on ditto similar lines. A bit impractical but yet the obsession of two Presidents, love, romance & thrill negates it all. Good one !

[Shrihari Chakrapani · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read. Found it quite different as the most powerful man on this planets falls in love with a president of a non-existent country and goes to any length to free her from her kidnappers. A time pass novel, and read if you have throw-away time.

[Guillermo Garcia glez · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's the perfect story of love, politics and flirtation ; i couldn't stop to read because the story is addictive

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book with a simple plot. If you want something easy which requires no brain power, then this is it. I read it when unwell atnd it fitted the bill perfectly.

[Bihter İyidir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yazarin dili cok akisi olsa da, hikayenin kliselerle bezeli olusu beni hayli guldurse de yine de pek dayanilir bir hikaye degil.

[Isabel Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Le he dado varias oportunidades a este autor pero simplemente hasta ahora no he leído de él nada q me haya encantado. Y esta novela no es la excepción, a pesar de q esta bien lograda y es bastante original. Tiene de todo, dese clichés baratos hasta buenos giros de tuerca. X ej., lo bastante cliché, la pareja presidencial, q vive de cara a la galería. De eso hay mucho en todo tiempo y en todo lugar. Un affair, de eso todavía hay más, de todos los colores y de todos los tamaños. Lo q me llamó la atención es q el papel de "la otra" la hace otra jefa de estado q además es de otra raza.
Para la época en q este libro fue publicado, eso no se veía venir a ningún nivel y me pareció una trama interesante. El problema es q se quedó allí y no fue más allá.
Una decepción.

[Dianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Glad I only paid a quarter. What a lousy novel.
I could tell from scene one who did it, and the scenes about the President making last-minute changes to his schedule were completely ridiculous and not reality based. Pitiful book. Isn't Irving Wallace some famous author? I don't know, but I'm going to find out because if so, I disagree with those who think so. He's junior high-level in his writing, at best.

[Jose Carrascosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half romance, half thriller, despite its plot holes and its sexism, the novel has many interesting characters and the story is quite fun. Not to be taken too seriously, good choice for summer reading at the beach or by the pool.

[Zoya Mulla · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor story line to be honest.

[TK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it near the end. In the end there are some unbelievable stuff, the author couldn't resist himself diving into the hole.

[Bondan Kartika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning, A worth 6 hours read while waiting for my electricity to come up

[Savita Kulkarni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little too far outside possibility. Also too much build-up leading to a very quick climax.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1989. Political fiction with a touch of romance.

[Cathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A married American president falls for the widowed President of Lampang and they decide together that their 'love' should result in an affair. Pure bull crap!

[em ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ending......qué?

[Margaret Pagnotta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the fact that the basic premise "strains credulity", the narrative is interesting, and most of the characters are likeable.

[Akshay Deodhar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hehe. Hehehe. Heh.

[Arantza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se nota que lo escribió un hombre XD

[Vedant Saxena · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book can be considered as a perfect example of how a book with promising start can lose the focus and direction after a few chapters.... The way it started, I thought of it as a mystery novel.... To my disappointment, it went on to become a love story.... Albeit it was an easy book to read, it was not as entertaining as it should have been....

[Lata · Rating 1 out of 5]

Irwing Wallace's writing is highly inconsistent. I can't believe this is the same author who wrote 'The Miracle' and 'The Seven Minutes'. It is a Mills and Boons novel featuring the Presidents of 2 countries. The US President behaves like a lovesick teenager.
The ending was ridiculous .. well, so was the whole book.

[Jessica J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

entretenido

[Rupesh Goenka · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is about romance between Presidents of two different nations..

[Siddharth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book a long time ago. It was a fairly smooth read and I remember finishing this inside a day. It was the first time I came upon the word "sarong".

That's all I recall, really.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book starts on one path and goes down another - what is bearable is that it is under 300 pages.