Tom Clancy: An appreciation

Today, millions of young people who've never read his novels, and who weren't alive when the Soviet Union existed, storm Russian cities in the virtual worlds of video games that bear Clancy's name. In his novels, Clancy gave his readers the old-fashion escapism of richly detailed worlds where simple moral dramas play out to unambiguous endings - and where compassionate but tough American men use their courage and smarts to defeat evil empires and cruel warlords. Clancy came to the book world in midlife, after years as an insurance broker and military history buff. "The Hunt for Red October" opens with a sympathetic portrait of a Soviet naval officer that's colored with rich specificity: from the "Five layers of wool and oilskin" the officer wears at an Arctic submarine base, to his "Half Lithuanian" heritage and his father's past in "The Great Patriotic War," as World War II is known to Russians, with Clancy filling in the father's military back story with much accurate historical detail.

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