Mother Of All Potboilers

By Paul Gray

Few writers have more cause for mourning the end of the cold war than Tom Clancy. Starting with The Hunt for Red October (1984), his five thrillers, heavy on technology and all bearing directly or aslant on the threat of superpower confrontation, have sold 28 million copies. His Clear and Present Danger appeared in 1989 and, astonishingly, went on to become the top-selling novel of the '80s.

But the onetime insurance salesman scribbles on, apparently undaunted by the prospect of world peace, although Jack Ryan, Clancy's doughty, repeat- performance hero and deputy director of the CIA, admits to a few worries: "Look, I'm not one of those right-wing idiots who moan for a return to the Cold War, but then, at least, the Russians were predictable."

Ryan says this near the beginning of Clancy's sixth novel, The Sum of All Fears (Putnam; 798 pages; $24.95), which, because of its weight and bulk, will probably not become a runaway best seller; it will become a lumberaway best seller.

Why this should be so is difficult to understand. Clancy's plot may be charitably described as complex, although "cluttered" or "give me a break" also come to mind. Ryan meets with White House officials awestruck by his brainpower. "I've heard of still waters running deep, fella," the National Security Adviser tells Ryan. "But never this deep." The Middle East comes up for discussion, and Ryan opines that the main problem in the area is . . . religion. The White House boys are dazzled. No one, apparently, has ever seen the conflict between Jews and Muslims in this light. Religion? And then, Ryan has an idea: Let's enlist the Vatican in proposing a peace settlement that will satisfy the three major religions in the Middle East.

Ryan's plan slowly, oh, so slowly, gains ground, not only in Washington and Rome but also in Israel and various Arab states. The CIA man is modestly gratified: "It would be nice, he thought, to set that whole area to rest." But there are evil people who do not want Ryan's plan to succeed, and they are . scattered from the Middle East through Europe and North America. This exfoliating network of malcontents also has access to a fearsome means of getting the U.S. and what remains of the Soviet Union back at each other's throats, with nuclear conflagration as a distinct and concluding possibility.

From a storytelling point of view, it was better when all the bad guys were in the Kremlin and the good guys in the Pentagon. Transitions between the two camps were a snap. Now, Clancy has to hop back and forth between so many far- flung conspirators that it is often impossible to tell where a scene is occurring and who is talking (an old problem for Clancy, since all his characters sound exactly the same). Presumably, hundreds of thousands of readers will wade through this interminable novel to find out if Jack Ryan can once again save the world. What they should know before they begin -- not that it will make the slightest difference -- is that The Sum of All Fears is the mother of all potboilers.