Wonder if they'll ever make a miniseries or film based on Whirlwind

Just saw this miniseries for the first time, saw Shogun long ago, haven't seen the film versions of Tai-Pan or King Rat, but read all the books (mainly back in the 90s).

But probably the most riveting Clavell book I've read is Whirlwind, set in Iran in the weeks of the 1979 revolution. It is similar to Noble House in the day-by-day pacing, and framed within the context of the Struan Company saga--specifically its subsidiary in Shah-era Iran which supplied helicopters and other equipment to service oil rigs. After the Shah fled and big (and very uncertain) changes were afoot with the return of Khomeini from exile, the company personnel were basically in a race against time to get themselves, and as many company assets as they could, out of Iran. Plus there were Iranian characters, many very conflicted about where they stood or what faction (there were more than one involved in the revolution and its power vacuum--from leftists to hardcore theocrats) they should go with. MI6 (Crosse, and IIRC Armstrong) and KGB operatives also have some fingers in the increasingly messy pie. The book was a very tense and hard-to-put-down drama about a historical event that hasn't really been covered much (if at all--none that I know of) in film--and in Clavell fashion, he gives some detailed and fascinating cultural insight. Most Americans in particular know (or remember) only the American hostage crisis that took place there in the following several months--the events of the book all precede that.

I think a film (or better, miniseries) version of the book is long overdue.


Understanding is a three-edged sword.