Introduction

The Macedonian Tendency: The Novel

(hopefully … to be a major motion picture)

Preface: Copywrite: David Edenden, 4th, Oct 2006

This novel is a work in progress on the web. As I write this story, any links that might be of interest to the novel would be appreciated. I am especially interested in real individuals at work in the Balkans during the Thirties and Forties with information on the Web. Send your stories to the comment section of this blog. You don't have to have the exact details, just the mood and basic facts would be helpful. See my posts for an example of what I want. Blogs are a Good Way of Saving Family (and Macedonian) History.

My two favorite modern mystery authors are Robert Ludlum and John le Carre. Eric Ambler, who started writing in the Thirties, is also interesting to me because of his novels on the Balkans. His novel, The Schirmer Inheritance, which is set in Florina during the Greek Civil War, has some nice local color of ethnic Macedonian partisans.

The “Macedonian Tendency” was originally thought of as a name for a novel. I always liked the Robert Ludlum titles: The Bourne Identity, The Holcroft Covenant, The Osterman Weekend and The Chancellor Manuscript. The Macedonian Tendency seemed to fit right in and has a good ring to it.

Ludlum and le Carre are at opposite ends of the spectrum. With Ludlum, the reader is taken along on a vast thrilling roller coaster ride. Like some rides, you may want to close your eyes and skip a few pages because it won’t really matter. It is the process of reading the improbable plot that provides the entertainment.

My model for the novel, however, is John le Carre because of his ability to weave a probable story with complexity, double identities and double crosses. You can’t miss a page or you will be lost, like in a fog. I will foucs on the behavior of “outside forces” at work in the Balkans. Too many articles have been written with the view that most problems in the Balkans are the result of “ancient hatreds”. This is not true. Two people can always find an accommodation with each other, unless a third party is determined to sow discord: see Jean Paul Sartre’s “No Exit”.

These outsiders will have to distinguish between those who are pro-Communist vs. anti-Communist, pro-Greek vs. pro-Bulgarian vs. Macedonian nationalist. Sometimes, these people could be in the same family, sometime even within the same person

The main character is a naïve young woman, a recent Harvard University graduate, who has been recruited to work for the CIA, circa 1990, before the collapse of Yugoslavia. (I swear, I had this character already formed in my mind before I read about Lindsay Moran). She is intensely religious which means she believes in God and … the devil. Her first assignment is as a desk officer for Yugoslavia, specializing in (you guessed it) Macedonia. All the characters will be fictional but real people will make their appearance when she read newspaper accounts, CIA field reports and prepares classified documents for her superiors

She is not aware of it, but she has some secret family ties to the Balkans since her grandfather was parachuted into the Balkans during WW2 to help in the struggle against the Nazi’s and then against the communists (and Macedonians) during the Greek Civil War. Captain Evans, N. G. L. Hammond and Horace Lunt, will all make an appearance in some fashion.

A Macedonian partisan group in Greece will be working with American agents during WW2 and against them during the Greek Civil War. A few will eventually immigrate to the United States. There will be a Jewish partisan from Florina, who will also find himself in the US after the Greek civil war.

There will be betrayal, division, lies and despair. There will also solidarity, unity, truth and hope. It will be a lot like Macedonia and its history.