Books by John Fraser

A novel set during a critical point in Soviet history, whose protagonists are young Soviet intellectuals, bright but not brilliant, confronting a future threatened with war and stagnation, but still with the impetus of post-Stalinist regeneration. It is not a chronicle of that period's debates between neo-Bolsheviks, Leninists, social and liberal democrats, Trotskyists, Westernisers and traditionalists. It depicts a more modest but more frequently encountered search for commitment, for a meaningful political and social life, in a vast country where light and darkness flicker and alternate unpredictably. Although it may be categorised as political fantasy, the real fantasy lies in the collapse of the aspirations which drove all the protagonists at the time.

Hard Places consists of three novellas, Red Snow, The Rock and The Sea. They concern human struggles with Nature and human natures. Red Snow involves efforts to have the better of chance by gaming, and the forms of self-discipline this requires. The Rock shows the eternal certainties of art crumbling into inexplicable absences and shady deals. The Sea evokes our longing for submersion in nature when we wish to conceal our misdeeds and rejections.

The latest literary tour-de-force from John Fraser. Three policy experts are at a conference, where their principals are swept away by a storm. One of the experts is held for ransom, but is released in time to join the others as they discuss the new, leaderless, dispensation. They try various strategies to achieve power - the ex-Yugoslav, suspected of war crimes, and possible under-age sexual misdemeanours, proposes infiltrating the bureaucracy, but is unsuccessful. The initiative seems to lie with Melinda, the best-connected expert, who is also an adventurous musician. They consider an incursion into the US, and China - both in crisis, with their populations and resources in disarray. They make various attempts at exploration - the third expert is involved in a complex inner odyssey, and seek inspiration from a young explorer, Niobe, and an academic, Delphine. The group, led by Melinda, eventually decide on an incursion into Southern China, with the aim of securing positions of power in the newly re-organised polity.

John Fraser's Medusa is a stunning fable for our times, in which the stories of Medusa, the Gorgon and the French ship Medusa are intertwined to create a Pilgrim's Progress for the 21st century.'Medusa is a trip, a bending of the legends. It is a symphonic poem, where at the end, we even hear a few notes of a hymn to joy. The fragments of myth, legend and belief drift round like harmonies that seek resolution. But this mode is post-modern, post-Christian; it is about the end - yet there is no end: it is story. The resulting tale is an apocryphal blast and a literary tour de force that uncannily captures the zeitgeist.' (Jean-Paul Bouler)'In Fraser's fiction the reader rides as on a switchback or luge of impetuous attention, with effects flashing by at virtuoso speeds. The characters seem to be unwitting agents of chaos, however much wise reflection Fraser bestows upon them; they move with shrugging self-assurance through circumstances as richly detailed and as without reliable compass-points as a Chinese scroll.' (John Fuller)

In Runners John Fraser delivers, in his unique, distinct voice, the story of a kind of redemption - even a kind of utopia - or as much of a utopia as we can possibly expect, given what we know about most of our political leaders ...An unelected leader buys the office of deputy mayor. Although this 'boss' is a monster, he also has a rare, enlightened side. Where other leaders cling to power, he runs - but instead of running for office, he runs from office; he and his friends become the Runners - the running dogs.Runners is a contemporary remake of Machiavelli's Prince with a nod to Gramsci's 'Modern Prince', the revolutionary party. It is a tale of complicity between leaders, the nature of political friendships and loyalties, the contradictions between leaders and electors, between democratic rhetoric and practice, the leadership and the base - the urban and feathered - the volatility, adaptability and motivations of leaders, and of the pursuit of justice in the personal, incongruous instance; the machismo of political culture.'In Fraser's fiction the reader rides as on a switchback or luge of impetuous attention, with effects flashing by at virtuoso speeds. The characters seem to be unwitting agents of chaos, however much wise reflection Fraser bestows upon them; they move with shrugging self-assurance through circumstances as richly detailed and as without reliable compass-points as a Chinese scroll.' (John Fuller)

The Red Tank is a contemporary literary novel by a dazzlingly inventive writer looking anew at the human project in the globalised 21st century as though from a Martian point of view, through myths, fables, utopias and dystopias of modern and future life.

A novel about political commitment and liberation, set around the year 1968 and reflecting the high season of Guevara in Bolivia and attempts to insert a revolutionary 'foco' in places where objective conditions were politically ripe, but where the subjective element, and the most rudimentary organisation, were absent. The would-be, self-transforming saviour pays with his life (and that of his comrades) in a situation where rectitude is on his side but the situation quite beyond his reach. Instead of violence, this political fable presents organisation, as against movimentismo, as a possible vehicle for the chiliastic transformation.

John Fraser's latest literary tour de force Enterprising Women is a sequence of stories of women in difficult circumstances, who contrive to avoid - and sometimes cause - the worst of consequences.In 'The Flies', the women are witness to violence and temptation, and although one of the heroines succumbs to alcohol, the others manage to maintain their extraneous, and independent, positions.In 'Landfall', the protagonist, a spymaster, survives the loss and betrayal of her male companions, maintains her scepticism regarding the value of her profession, and ultimately we presume she continues on her solitary path, undiminished. The hero finds employment and travel with a female entrepreneur, who joins another, philosophically minded, colleague, and together they prosper in a shadybusiness.In The Scorpions a conservationist confronts a potentially disastrous situation. Maybe she exaggerates the consequences - but she steers herself through it, and survives.Of Fraser, the distinguished poet, novelist, Booker Prize nominee and Fellow Emeritus at Magdalen College, Oxford, John Fuller, has written:'One of the most extraordinary publishing events of the past four years has been the rapid, indeed insistent, appearance of the novels of John Fraser. There are few parallels in literary history to this almost simultaneous and largely belated appearance of a mature ¿uvre, sprung like Athena from Zeus's forehead; and the novels in themselves are extraordinary.'Fraser is an English novelist, poet and university teacher who has lived in Rome since 1982. Originally interested in world politics and in the rich hopes and analysed regrets of failed revolutionary activity, in his recent work his settings have become more and more fantastic and apocalyptic. The limbo of putative activity and endless self-analysis that his characters arrive at is, in a paradoxical way, wonderfully absorbing and exciting. I can think of nothing much like it in fiction. Fraser maintains a masterfully ironic distance from the extreme conditions in which his characters find themselves. There are strikingly beautiful descriptions, veiled allusions to rooted traditions, unlikely events half-glimpsed, abrupted narratives, surreal but somehow apposite social customs.'Fraser's work is conceived on a heroic scale in terms both of its ideas and its situational metaphors. If he were to be filmed, it would need the combined talents of a Bunuel, a Gilliam, a Cameron. Like Thomas Pynchon, whom in some ways he resembles, Fraser is a deep and serious fantasist, wildly inventive. The reader rides as on a switchback or luge of impetuous attention, with effects flashing by at virtuoso speeds. The characters seem to be unwitting agents of chaos, however much wise reflection the author bestows upon them. They move with shrugging self-assurance through circumstances as richly-detailed and as without reliable compass-points as a Chinese scroll.'

Terrorism was once a topic limited to certain sectors of the world, such as the Middle East or South Africa. However, in recent years, it appears that no one is safe in any part of the globe. A growing number of countries must take measures to protect citizens and visitors from the threat of terrorism. The Unites States of America is the latest addition to this list. It has become evident in recent years that terrorism is no longer a localized event, but rather an increasing global problem. It has also become obvious that terrorism requires a global solution as well. Evidence has been mounting that terrorist groups are beginning to connect and form alliances. This gives them greater strength and greater resources. It seems they are finding common ground and are beginning to coordinate efforts. This will be the topic of the proposed research. The research contained in this dissertation supports the formation of terrorist coalitions by examining extensive information contained in United States Department of State Annual Reports on Patterns of Global Terrorism. It examines the recent trend towards former single terrorist organizations forming alliances in order to conduct large-scale global acts of terrorism. The findings of this report support the thesis that terrorist groups indeed are cooperating for the purposes of a common cause. The interconnectivity of financing and the sharing of training grounds for these groups are examined in detail. Better communications technology has played a significant role in the formation of these groups and the abilities of these groups to conduct coordinated acts of terrorism against multiple nations.

John Fraser's critical essays explore conflicting attitudes towards self-affirmation and social order. Important concerns that touch these essays are ideas of energy, power, and personal plenitude, and the way in which idealism and heroic intensity can sometimes lead to overstrain and collapse.

John Fraser explores a paradox about the USA: that a country dedicated to rationality, progress, equality and success has always had a strong attachment to the medieval ideas of nobility and chivalry and the high toned violence that goes with them.