Anderson, Scott 1959-

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Anderson, Scott 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born 1959; father worked for the U.S. State Department. Education: University of Iowa, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY.

CAREER:

Journalist and author. Has worked as a magazine war correspondent; co-owner of the Half King (restaurant).

WRITINGS:

(With Jon Lee Anderson) Inside the League: The Shocking Exposé of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American Death Squads Have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League, Dodd, Mead (New York, NY), 1986.

(Compiler, with Jon Lee Anderson) War Zones, Dodd, Mead (New York, NY), 1988.

The 4 o'Clock Murders: The True Story of a Mormon Family's Vengeance, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1993.

Triage (novel), Scribner (New York, NY), 1998.

The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1999.

Moonlight Hotel (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Vanity Fair, Harper's, Esquire, and the New York Times.

ADAPTATIONS:

Film rights to Triage have been sold to Mario Kassar Productions/Paramount Pictures.

SIDELIGHTS:

Journalist Scott Anderson worked for many years as a foreign war correspondent for such newspapers and magazines as the New York Times and Harper's before starting a side career as an author of nonfiction and novels. Having reported on conflicts in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and Central America, he has naturally used this expertise and knowledge in many, though not all, of his fiction and nonfiction works. One of the exceptions is his The 4 o'Clock Murders: The True Story of a Mormon Family's Vengeance, about a fundamentalist Mormon and polygamist named LeBaron who ordered the killing of friends and family. His more recent works have centered on conflicts involving Muslim nations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Anderson's The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny is a biography of the controversial figure who regularly thwarted government protocols to lend aid to people in war-torn nations. He had managed many successes in countries around the world until 1995, when he disappeared in Chechnya. Presumed dead, Cuny was declared to be a victim of foul play, and Anderson speculates that he was ordered murdered by Chechnya's government, which suspected he was a spy. Following Cuny's life from his home in Texas, to his disappointment at being rejected by the Marines, and his resolve to make up for this by becoming a self-proclaimed "master of disaster" who aided helpless civilians wherever they might be, Anderson "has used the disappearance to write a mystery story, straight out of a plot from a novel by John le Carre," remarked Richard Beeston in the New York Times. Beeston added that the book "works best, though, as biography." Nation writer George Kenney similarly observed that The Man Who Tried to Save the World "reads more like a suspense novel than a biography." Kenney added: "Anderson does a good job of laying out the range of possibilities [about Cuny's demise]: Cuny was a paid, deep-cover official of the US government; a government-directed but unpaid, unofficial agent; or a regular source with unique, highly prized access to areas of interest. Anderson suggests that the reality was a fuzzy combination of the latter two." In Publishers Weekly a critic observed that Anderson tries to analyze Cuny's character but "succumbs to some facile psychologizing." On the other hand "he does much better" in trying to unravel what happened to Cuny in Chechnya.

Both of Anderson's first two novels, Triage and The Moonlight Hotel, are set in the 1980s and are commentaries on the horrors of war in the Middle East. Triage is about photojournalist Mark Walsh, who returns to New York City after suffering from wounds while reporting on the Kurdish conflict in northern Iraq. Although his body heals, his psychological wounds run far deeper, the result of his feelings of guilt following the death of a comrade. The story also jumps back in time to the Spanish Civil War, during which Joaquin Morales got his experience as a psychiatrist treating soldiers; now the grandfather of Mark's girlfriend, he tries to treat the shell-shocked journalist. A Publishers Weekly critic described the debut novel as "austere, moving." Although the reviewer faulted Anderson's tendency to summarize his characters' feelings in a style reminiscent of a newspaper article, the critic felt the author is at his "best during Mark's reminiscences of battle." Valerie Sutherland remarked in an Education Age assessment, "Ultimately, Anderson's argument in Triage suggests that no one can survive unscathed by war, no matter how distant." She added: "This novel dramatises just how far the repercussions of war reverberate, through both time and space."

Moonlight Hotel is set in the fictional country of Kutar. Here, Anderson paints a scenario that has many similarities to what has been occurring in recent years in the Middle East; there are obvious grim parodies that comment on the arrogance of American policies. Kutar is a former British colony that is now a tiny independent nation. At the beginning of the book, there are some tensions among various ethnic tribes, but the country is relatively peaceful until American Colonel Allen Munn decides to convince Kutar's president to send military forces into the hills surrounding the capital to rout out rebels. The result is a strong backlash from the rebel faction, which attacks the capital, isolating the government, American forces, and British diplomats alike. Violence escalates into heavy bombing, with thousands of innocents dying brutally while Colonel Munn spouts off ineffectual military double-speak and euphemisms about the casualties he caused. A number of critics found the novel's early parts to be somewhat weak, but many reviewers felt that when Anderson arrives in territory with which he is personally familiar—the effects of bombings and other violence in urban settings—the novel takes on a realistic edge. "In a longish first gear, the book has the feel of good genre fiction: seduction scenes, an honorable, bright and idealistic hero," in British diplomat David Richards, commented Alan Furst in the New York Times. "But as the narrative plays out, the novel leaves genre country behind and moves into far more serious territory." When it comes to images of war, Furst asserted, "Anderson knows exactly what he's talking about." Vanessa Bush, writing for Booklist, called the novel a "deft, penetrating look at the shift from the age of diplomacy to the age of the generals in the 1980s," while a Publishers Weekly contributor declared it a "fascinating satire of American imperialism and hypocrisy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1998, Gilbert Taylor, review of Triage, p. 196; May 15, 1999, David Pitt, review of The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny, p. 1646; May 15, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of Moonlight Hotel, p. 21.

Education Age, May 5, 2001, Valerie Sutherland, "Battle Scars," review of Triage.

Esquire, June, 1999, Greil Marcus, "Neurotics A-Go- Go," review of The Man Who Tried to Save the World, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2006, review of Moonlight Hotel, p. 307.

Nation, July 26, 1999, George Kenney, "Spy or Savior?," review of The Man Who Tried to Save the World, p. 25.

New York Times, May 23, 1999, Richard Beeston, "Master of Disaster," review of The Man Who Tried to Save the World; June 4, 2006, Alan Furst, "In the Greene Zone," review of Moonlight Hotel.

Publishers Weekly, November 30, 1992, review of The 4 o'Clock Murders: The True Story of a Mormon Family's Vengeance, p. 41; August 31, 1998, review of Triage, p. 45; April 19, 1999, review of The Man Who Tried to Save the World, p. 49; March 6, 2006, review of Moonlight Hotel, p. 46.