THACKARA, James 1944-

PERSONAL: Born December 7, 1944, in Los Angeles, CA; son of James Justin (a banker) and Elle Louise (a historian; maiden name, Schmid) Thackara; married Davina Laura Anne (an art historian), July 7, 1975 (divorced, 2001); children: Leila Anne, Theresa. Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1967.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Gillon Aitken, Gillon Aitken Associates Ltd., 29 Fernshaw Road, London SW10 0TG, England.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Ahab's Daughter, Abacus (London, England), 1989.

America's Children, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 1984, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2001.

The Book of Kings, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 1999.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A London underground epic.

SIDELIGHTS: James Thackara's novel The Book of Kings is a lengthy novel that took the author twenty years to write. It is a sweeping story of life in Europe at the time of World War II. The story begins in 1932 Paris, where four male students at the Sorbonne share an apartment. David von Sunda and Johannes Godard are both German, but vastly different in background and outlook; Duncan Penn is a rich American; and Justin Lothaire is a French-Algerian and an aspiring author, whose character is based on Albert Camus. The rise of Hitler and Mussolini put an end to their idyllic student days. Philosophy student Godard believes the Nazi propaganda; Penn falls on the battlefield; and von Sunda and Lothaire find themselves pitted against each other in love and war.

"Every breath drawn by Mr. Thackara's young men has some significance," wrote a reviewer for Economist. The critic added, "Their lives, over the 40 years of the mid-century, range across Europe, Russia and even South America, taking in the very worst that the century had on offer." Citing the high moral tone of the book as a strong point, the Economist writer admitted, "Moral writing is not fashionable," and suggested that the author's sweeping style was also something of an anachronism. "If your taste is for the lean and the spare, this is not the novel for you. But there are many . . . who will turn the last page only to start reading this book once more ."

Thackara told a more limited story in America's Children, a biographical novel about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist at the head of the drive to develop an atom bomb. Although he was acclaimed for his work, Oppenheimer's victories proved hollow, for he was tormented by guilt over the horrors inflicted by the weapons of mass destruct ion he helped to create. Furthermore, after the war's end, Oppenheimer gradually fell from grace due to suspicions cast on him by anti-Communist forces. The so-called father of the bomb eventually had to give up his key to the atomic laboratories. Thackara's fictional account is based on solid research, and the results are worthwhile according to Donna Seaman, who wrote in Booklist, "With fine psychological acuity and an exalted sense of drama, Thackara charts Oppenheimer's terrible journey." A Publishers Weekly writer praised America's Children as "lyrical—at times breathlessly so—and grandiloquent," a novel marked by "genuine sincerity and passion."

Thackara once told CA: "My paternal family goes back to a general of the American Civil War, while my mother, the daughter of a runaway nun, was brought up in Shanghai, China. By the time I reached Harvard, I had attended eight schools and traveled through or lived in many countries. London has provided me, as it did Joseph Conrad, with a locus for this fragmented experience. There I have known intimately many figures of Russian and South American dissidence, as they flourish in the capital of refugees."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Book, May, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 70; March, 2001, review of America's Children, p. 74.

Booklist, March 1, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 1104; March 1, 2001, Donna Seaman, review of America's Children, p. 1229.

Books in Canada, September, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 41.

Book World, May 30, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 4.

Boston Globe, June 7, 2001, Richard Dyer, review of review of America's Children.

Economist, June 26, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 99; March 8, 2003, review of America's Children.

Globe and Mail, May 8, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. D13.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 481.

Library Journal, May 1, 1999, Marc A. Kloszewski, review of The Book of Kings, p. 113; February 15, 2001, Kloszewski, review of America's Children, p. 203.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 30, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 11.

New York Times Book Review, May 2, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 10; May 13, 2001, William Ferguson, review of America's Children, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, March 8, 1999, review of The Book of Kings, p. 49; January 29, 2001, review of America's Children, p. 65.

Times (London, England), October 18, 2000, Malcolm Bradbury, review of The Book of Kings.

Times Literary Supplement, May 18, 1984; March 14, 2003.