A Spy Thriller With an Unlikely Hero: A Disgraced Comedian
'Tragedy is when I cut my finger,' Mel Brooks once said. 'Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.' A similar comparison could be made about the thriller genre. The domestic thriller is driven by self-contained, cut-finger tragedies full of personal drama, while the international spy thriller raises the stakes, with no less than the fate of the world often dangling over the precipice.
Perhaps because of its exaggerated risks and us-versus-them story arcs, the spy thriller can feel like a relic of an age when we had more trust in government security apparatuses. Today, we tend to like our dangers closer to home, and our villains to be neighbors down the street.
In truth, the formula for good spy thrillers hasn't evolved much from its Cold War heyday (John le Carré still looms over these novels as obstinately as Sylvia Plath does over confessional poetry). But there are exceptions. Dan Fesperman, wielding a sharp eye for atmospheric detail and a finely tuned ear for comic relief, has proved to be one of the genre's most exciting contemporary writers. His latest novel, the deliciously fun 'Pariah,' revolves around perhaps the least apt candidate for espionage work ever committed to ink: Hal Knight, a movie-star comedian and former Democratic congressman who has been #MeToo-ed for delivering a sexist rant on a film set.
Hal is no Mel Brooks. His comedy is of the dumb, chauvinist, Neanderthal variety, and his films are beloved by 'the sorts of young men who spent most of their weekends at underage-drinking parties.' That's exactly the kind of track record that gets you voted into federal office these days, but Hal's political career lasted just six months before his public humiliation and cancellation.
As it turns out, one of Hal's biggest fans is Nikolai Horvatz, the authoritarian president of the Eastern European nation of Bolrovia: a clear stand-in for Hungary, complete with far-right, repressive, anti-immigrant policies. When Horvatz invites Hal to his country as an honored guest, the C.I.A. cajoles Hal into working as a covert asset to gather intel on the secretive 'tinpot dictator.'
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