The Loo Sanction: A Novel

The Loo Sanction is the sequel to the Eiger Sanction and Jonathan Hemlock is at it again. It is a very enjoyable romp through London but not as exciting as the Eiger Sanction. Jonathan remains his acerbic self and his penchant for violence has not diminished. This story is more urbane and yet is a lesser adventure. The Eiger Sanction had such a great inertia that, in fairness, it would be hard to equal its drama. Perhaps, intentionally, Trevanian went for a less active sequel.

This book as The Eiger Sanction before it were training rides for the master piece by Trevanian ... Shibumi.Although both are not even close to what Shibumi would one day bring, this is the worst of the two training books. Eiger had the mountains and the climbs ... This one meddled in sex and exclusive clubs, but with not much depth ... So it is a nice "run after the hero" novel, way before Dan Brown, but not much more.I am a huge Trevanian fan ... I think Shibumi is the best novel of the 20th century (I truly do) , but of all his books this is the weakest.

I really enjoyed The Eiger Sanction for what it was, a partly camp yet well-written and absorbing American spy venture. What I liked best were the outsized, comical characters, the witty dialogue, and the deeply researched set piece on the great face of the Eiger.The Loo Sanction is a worthy followup, with similarly outsized, comical characters, witty dialogue, and deeply researched set piece -- this time involving art and depraved British politicians.To me it worked, it was fun, enjoyable, and made me wish Trevanian kept going with the series.What more do you want from a book like this?

In "The Eiger Sanction," Trevanian wound a fantastic plot and locale around a great character in Dr. Jonathan Hemlock: assassin, professor, art critic. In "The Loo Sanction," Trevanian seems to have completely lost the thread.Gone is the unique plot and locale. This novel comes off like a James Bond knockoff, complete with an ultra-sophisticated villain in Maximilian Strange, a quasi-villain/quasi-ally known as the Vicar, and a tweener villainess in Amazing Grace, who is a madam. Factor in a love interest that unfolds the same exact way as it did in "The Eiger Sanction" and you get a bad case of something pure and unique falling into a state of decay.On the plus side, there is no denying that Trevanian can write. In fact, the way he uses Hemlock as a conduit through which he funnels his humor, for me, was the saving grace of this novel. Hemlock is pretentious and the point of view necessarily reflects that. However, it gets to be a bit too much when nearly every character is a gifted, polyglot genius and walking dictionary with acute powers of insight.Rather than advancing the plot through action and tension, Trevanian fills page after page with bombastic soliloquy and colloquy -- which was entertaining in its own way for me, but it's not likely to be the case for everyone. It smelled of the lamp, or at least was an obvious example of overcompensation by its author, whose personal life -- sans the assassinations, etc. -- mirrors Hemlock: a gifted but poor street kid who grows up to become a professor and writer and makes sure by his overuse of vocabulary that everyone knows he's got a great brain -- all while maintaining that core of tough guy from the wrong side of the tracks.The book was good enough to get through, but I'm actually grateful that Trevanian never again revived Dr. Hemlock for future adventures. In one way it's a pity, in that there was a lot of potential there. But in the end, perhaps Trevanian was aware of his limitations in finding a creative, exciting way of again resurrecting Dr. Hemlock.If this honest review winds your watch, buy it. If not, spend your money and time elsewhere by finding something else to read.

Trevanian is one of my favorite authors. This one, though, is a little dated, and I didn't like the fizzling ending.

Good read

All three of Trevanian's absurdist takes on the spy genre (THE EIGER SANCTION, THE LOO SANCTION, SHIBUMI) are delightful reads. While THE LOO SANCTION may be a little less satisfying than the other two entries, it's nevertheless still quite bold, and is shot-through with Trevanian's marvelous sense of humor.

Very good condition!

The Eiger Sanction was one of my favourite books from back in the day but this sequel featuring the same central character was very disappointing with nowhere near the same level of action and certainly none of the colourful locations displayed in the first book.

Like stepping into a time-machine. Trevanian's hero may 'wow' the ladies, but now he seems about as cool as joining the Young Conservatives. Nauseating stuff really.

I just didn't find it as engaging as the other Trevanian books that I have read and the in the end story just seemed to fizzle out

OK

Poorly written compared to earlier works and others in the genre