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James Clavell
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James Clavell's Whirlwind Hardcover – January 1, 1988

by James Clavell (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 2,266 ratings
"Whirlwind" is the story of three weeks in Tehran in February 1979: three weeks of fanaticism, passion, self-sacrifice and heartbreak. Caught between the revolutionaries and the forces of international intrigue is a team of professional pilots. They are ordered to flee to safety with their helicopters. Two of them, both Europeans, have Iranian wives whom they love beyond safety and politics.
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  1. Book 5 of 6
    The Asian Saga
  2. Print length
    1147 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Contemporary Books
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 1988
  6. ISBN-10
    1555600506
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1555600501
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Contemporary Books; First Edition (January 1, 1988)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1147 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1555600506
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1555600501
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.17 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 2,266 ratings

About the author

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James Clavell

James Clavell

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James Clavell, the son of a Royal Navy family, was educated in Portsmouth before, as a young artillery officer, he was captured by the Japanese at the Fall of Singapore. It was on this experience that his bestselling novel KING RAT was based. He maintained this oriental interest in his other great works: TAI-PAN, SHOGUN, NOBLE HOUSE and GAI JIN. Clavell lived for many years in Vancouver and Los Angeles, before settling in Switzerland, where he died in 1994.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
2,266 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book to be a wonderful read with fascinating insights into Persian culture, and one review notes how it captures the spirit of the Iranian revolution. The story quality receives mixed reactions, with some praising its complex excitement while others find the plot difficult to follow. Customers describe the book as hard to follow at times, with too many characters and a slow pace.

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45 customers mention "Readability"38 positive7 negative

Customers find the book to be a wonderful read, with one customer noting it is compelling for the last 150 pages.

"...An exciting read!" Read more

"...James Clavell is a great teller!" Read more

"...This, as are pretty much any Clavell books, is great...." Read more

"...It was a wonderful book when I first bought it in the 80's and the Blackstone edition is wonderful...." Read more

12 customers mention "History"12 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's historical insights, particularly its fascinating portrayal of Persian culture, with one customer noting how it captures the spirit of the Iranian revolution.

"...fan and decided to reread Whirlwind; it's classic Clavell: culture mix and complex excitement...." Read more

"...This, as are pretty much any Clavell books, is great. It gives a graphic view of the turmoil and chaos surrounding Western expulsion from Iran with..." Read more

"...book is still very much worth reading, as it gives fascinating insights into Persian culture of the late 1970s..." Read more

"...Interesting time period and location but it gets lost in fragmented story line." Read more

6 customers mention "Eye opening"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book eye-opening, providing great insight, with one customer describing it as illuminating.

"...understood the Middle East situation and this book has been an eye opener for me...." Read more

"...and they are great reads. Smart, great characters, lots of history and wonderful stories. Whirlwind, not so much...." Read more

"As someone who remembers this era well, I found this book illuminating. It tied up the Noble House saga wonderfully." Read more

"This fictional history gives great insight into the current mideast problems with Iran." Read more

32 customers mention "Story quality"22 positive10 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story quality of the book, with some praising it as a great saga with complex excitement, while others find the plot difficult to follow.

"...to reread Whirlwind; it's classic Clavell: culture mix and complex excitement...." Read more

"...Plenty of action and detail as well as links to "the Noble House" and characters as is common throughout most of Clavell's books...." Read more

"...Similar to the rest of the Asian saga books it ends rather abruptly without much wrap up." Read more

"...the one hand, its length (1147 pages) notwithstanding, it’s the most action-packed and fastest-paced Clavell novel of the four I’ve read, but OTOH it..." Read more

12 customers mention "Character variety"5 positive7 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character variety in the book, with some appreciating the great characters while others find there are too many to follow.

"I liked this book overall but it has so many characters that it is hard to root for any one of them...." Read more

"...and they are great reads. Smart, great characters, lots of history and wonderful stories. Whirlwind, not so much...." Read more

"...I feel there were to many characters to keep track of and to much going on for the short time period the book was written...." Read more

"Enjoyed the length of the book and how the characters tie the story together as well as flashbacks to previous books authored by Clavell." Read more

8 customers mention "Author quality"5 positive3 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the author of the book, with some finding them accomplished, while one customer notes it's not up to the author's usual standards.

"...the publisher and the Clavell family has finally found a publisher worthy of his talent. I got the single volume edition of Shogun too...." Read more

"Being a Huge James Clavell fan, this book is not up to his usual standards. It is good...." Read more

"I'm sure this is a great read. James Clavell is a wonderful author. But once again, this publisher has sold me a book with pages missing at the end...." Read more

"...Clavell is a great writer of the far east and China." Read more

8 customers mention "Pace"3 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with several noting that it drags on at points.

"...Way too long!!! Really drags on at points. A good, but burdensome read. Difficult to stick with it to the end." Read more

"...notwithstanding, it’s the most action-packed and fastest-paced Clavell novel of the four I’ve read, but OTOH it’s also the slowest and most..." Read more

"This book seem to drag on slowly. Hard to keep up with the characters in this book. I'm glad I finished this book...." Read more

"...The dialogue, pace, and narrative were superior to some of the other books, notably Gai Jin (my least favorite of the series)...." Read more

14 customers mention "Difficulty to follow"0 positive14 negative

Customers find the book challenging to follow, with several mentioning it's hard to follow at times.

"...-good” story, as several key characters die rather abruptly and unceremoniously...." Read more

"...and different oil rigs and cities scattered around Iran was also hard to follow...." Read more

"...Whirlwind, not so much. Undefined characters...impossible to follow, disconnected plot...." Read more

"...More like an extremely tedious non sequitur that featured a few familiar but minor characters in a somewhat larger role, but the story was just..." Read more

Missing pages
2 out of 5 stars
Missing pages
Book was missing pages from 1121-1126. Aside from that was a good book.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Lohengrin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Cultures, helicopters, luv, and Islam
    Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I'm another Clavell fan and decided to reread Whirlwind; it's classic Clavell: culture mix and complex excitement. The main Western characters are oil refinery helicopter pilots in Iran during its 1979 revolution. I wish Clavell made the helicopter terminology a bit more meaningful: 206's, 212's, etc, never meant anything to me. A good chunk of the book is about Iranian government and/or religious official trying to force the pilots to fly for them, which got a bit tedious. At 1252 pages, it's long, and it's easy to get a bit lost. I used to novel's wikipedia list of characters to help keep track of them.

    Central to the novel's collection of characters are two couples, each consisting of a Western male and an Iranian female and the dynamics of each very different from another.

    As is typical for Clavell the culture mix includes: Iranians, Turks, Kurds, Palestinians, Japanese, Australian, British, German, French and American characters. One may conclude that Clavell is critical of the Islamic religion which often comes off as fatalistic, superstitious, and narrow minded. However, one of his main Western characters is dramatically converted to Islam and there are important moments when the characters exchange ideas.

    An exciting read!
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Kindle Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    I liked this continuation of the Noble House story, although it wasn't in the same location as the Asian books it was based in the middle east.
    James Clavell is a great teller!
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  • Ron
    5.0 out of 5 stars Been waiting a long time!
    Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I first read this book many years ago and have been waiting for the Kindle version for years. This, as are pretty much any Clavell books, is great. It gives a graphic view of the turmoil and chaos surrounding Western expulsion from Iran with the return of Ayatollah Khomeini and the consequences thereof. Plenty of action and detail as well as links to "the Noble House" and characters as is common throughout most of Clavell's books.
    DO NOT CONFUSE THIS BOOK WITH THE BOOK "Escape", which is a heavily edited and condensed version supposedly originally intended for a mini-series.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Diane Abplanalp
    5.0 out of 5 stars Just replaced my lost book
    Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I just purchased the hardbound edition of James Clavell's Whirlwind. It was a wonderful book when I first bought it in the 80's and the Blackstone edition is wonderful. I can't say enough good things about the publisher and the Clavell family has finally found a publisher worthy of his talent. I got the single volume edition of Shogun too. I'm a happy camper.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Christian D. Orr
    3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, but challenging and frustrating at times.....
    Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Four novels in James Clavell’s Asian Saga down, one (“Gai-Jin”) to go. I first started reading “Whirlwind” when it was newly released back in 1987 when I was a mere 12 years old (but at that point, already a firmly entrenched Clavell fan from having read “King Rat” and “Noble House” and watched the “Shogun” TV miniseries), but got lost in the shuffle and didn’t get around to finishing it. So, about 2 or 3 months ago, all these years later, I finally re-started it from scratch AND finally finished just now, whew!

    Of all the Asian Saga books, it’s the one I can relate to most personally, as I was already alive as the events of “Whirlwind” took place—granted, I was only 4 years old in 1979, but by 1980 I was already paying attention to world events on the news, and by the time the book was published I was quite aware of the events in then Ayatollah Khomeini-ruled Iran, this awareness being gleamed not just from mainstream media sources but from my Dad’s travel experiences in Iran and that of schoolmates whose families had fled the tyranny of the Khomeini regime. What’s more, now that I’m older and wiser and more well-traveled (I haven’t been to Iran, but have been to several other Middle Eastern countries depicted in the novel, including Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait, and the UAE), this novel resonates with me just that much more.

    What a paradox: on the one hand, its length (1147 pages) notwithstanding, it’s the most action-packed and fastest-paced Clavell novel of the four I’ve read, but OTOH it’s also the slowest and most challenging read of the bunch (I can’t blame that on the length of the book, as I finished the equally voluminous “Shogun” and “Noble House” considerably quicker). This was a book that I read in fits & starts, i.e. I’d zip right along at some points and get frustratingly bogged down at other segments. I’d attribute the bogging down to confusion and having to re-read to grasp everything Clavell is trying to say, and I’d further attribute that confusion to:
    (1) While every Asian Saga novel has its fair share of two-faced plotters, double agents, and double dealers, such characters and their accompanying complicated sub-plots seem to exist to an exponentially greater degree in “Whirlwind,” amongst Westerners, Soviets, and Iranians alike….it makes one’s head spin trying to keep track of who’s pro-Shah, pro-Khomeini, pro-Marxist, pro-Western, and so forth. A Cast of Characters or Dramatis Personae would’ve been tremendously helpful (it heartens me to see that Mr. Clavell—God rest his soul—finally did include such a list in “Gai-Jin”)
    (2) Mr. Clavell (again, R.I.P.) has a somewhat maddening tendency to jump back-and-forth between present story and flashback within the space of a few sentences within the same paragraph (or within a few paragraphs of the same sub-segment of a chapter). If you’re trying to read this book with less than 100% energy level and alertness, you’re gonna have a few “WTF?” moments as you go back and re-read those segments for clarification.

    That said, the book is still very much worth reading, as it gives fascinating insights into Persian culture of the late 1970s (and this culture’s interactions with Westerners, Soviets, other Middle Easterners, and Japanese alike). With 20-20 hindsight, one reads it with a sense of foreboding, knowing that as the action is taking place (again, 1979) that within a short space of time, the Ayatollah Khomeini will soon drag the once-great Iranian (or Persian, if you prefer) nation into the Dark Ages, especially when it comes to women’s rights (I couldn’t help but feel pity for female characters such as the lovely Sharazad and Azadeh as their efforts and those of their real-life female Iranian counterparts would prove to be for naught for the remainder of Khomeini’s reign of terror), and the mullahs’ fanatical religious fundamentalism, using “As God’s wants” as a convenient and constant excuse for stupid, ignorant, and barbaric behavior; the Japanese character Yoshi Kasigi (a direct descendant of the Kasigi Yabu character from “Shogun”) sums it up best on page 1108 when he muses “How can anyone deal with these lunatics who use their beliefs as a coverall and ‘God’ whenever they wish to close a legitimate line of logic. They’re all made, blinkered!”

    And of course, it’s with 20-20 hindsight that the reader realizes that Iran is headed for even further disaster via the looming 1980s war with Iraq. (In retrospect, 25 years after the Ayatollah’s passing, things in Iran seem to have improved somewhat, but there is still a long way to go.) I
    From a nostalgia standpoint, it’s enjoyable as a reader to be “reunited” (as it were) with several “Noble House” characters in various degrees of major and minor rolls, such as Andrew Gavallan, Robert Armstrong, Ian Dunross, “Profitable” Paul Choy, and Gregor Suslev, and well as backstory on other “Noble House” characters who don’t actually put in an appearance in “Whirlwind.”

    A few technical nitpicks:
    (1) On page 1106, the CIA agent Wesson says that “Japan’s our [the USA’s, that is] only ally in the Pacific…” Er, what’re South Korea and the Philippines, chopped liver?
    (2) Clavell makes several references to characters openly ordering alcoholic beverages in Kuwait….er, if I’m not mistaken, hasn’t Kuwait always been a “dry” country….or were that country’s drinking laws more lax back in the 1970s? (Thanks in advance to any fellow reader out there who can enlighten me.)
    (3) While the author correctly captures the resentment of Gulf Arabs at the “Persian Gulf” label, I’m not sure how accurate he is when one of his Kuwaiti characters refers to it as the “Islamic Gulf;” from my observations, Kuwaitis, Emiratis, Saudis, Bahrainis, and Qataris prefer to call it the “Arabian Gulf.”
    (4) Though I don’t remember the page number(s), at least once in the book, Clavell refers to Abu Dhabi and “the Emirates” as if they were separate sovereignties, when in fact Abu Dhabi had been the capital of the independent UAE since 1971.
    (5) On pp. 701-702, he uses the terms "revolvers" and "automatic(s)"interchangeably. I'd expect such ignorance from a civilian journalist, but not an ex-military officer like Clavell!
    (6) On p. 675, he incorrectly dates the Rape of Nanking as taking place in 1931 (which was actually the invasion of Manchuria) rather than '37.
    On a side note, not a nitpick, just an observation: without going into too much detail (for the sake of avoiding a spoiler) this is definitely not a storybook romance or Hollywood-ish “feel-good” story, as several key characters die rather abruptly and unceremoniously.

    Last but not least, if “Whirlwind” had been made into either a theatrical motion picture or a TV miniseries back in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I would’ve cast Sean Connery as Andy Gavallan, Dolph Lundgren as Erikki Yokkonen, Tommy Lee Jones as Conroe “Duke” Starke, John Rhys-Davies as “Rod” Rodrigues (as homage to his portrayal of Rodrigues’ Portuguese ancestor in “Shogun”), Gil Gerard as CIA officer Wesson, and Roger Moore as Roger Newbury.

    All that said, one more time. R.I.P. and God bless, James Clavell. You are missed.
    30 people found this helpful
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  • Wendy greenwolf
    5.0 out of 5 stars History with story told through fictional characters
    Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    A wonderful read, had a hard time putting it down.
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  • David Graham
    4.0 out of 5 stars Too many characters
    Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    I liked this book overall but it has so many characters that it is hard to root for any one of them. It was similar to Gai-jin in that a lack of a central protagonist made it tedious. The constant jumping around between Tehran and different oil rigs and cities scattered around Iran was also hard to follow. Similar to the rest of the Asian saga books it ends rather abruptly without much wrap up.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • F. Lash
    5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than many reviewers stated
    Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I was almost compelled not to buy this last instalment of the Asian Series due to some of the reviews, but had to give it a shot and am so glad I did. The dialogue, pace, and narrative were superior to some of the other books, notably Gai Jin (my least favorite of the series). This book will make you bless God you weren't born in a country where women are treated like animals, and where fanaticism rules the day. It's like The Gulag Archipelago in that after reading it you want to kiss the ground you are standing on if you reside in a country where you are allowed to worship (or not worship) as you please, attain an education and pursue happiness in your own way. People who think government should control every aspect of our lives would be disabused of that notion if they were required to read both this and the Gulag Archipelago.
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Malus-Awaz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Libro che coinvolge.
    Reviewed in Italy on January 1, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Storia romanzata della rivoluzione iraniana, appassionante, scritto benissimo.
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  • Dwayne
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great story line
    Reviewed in Canada on March 27, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Good long book
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  • Leo
    4.0 out of 5 stars Il tipico romanzo di Clavell
    Reviewed in Italy on February 6, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Se vi sono piaciuti gli altri romanzi di JC, vi piacerà anche questo
    Come sempre, un punto di vista occidentale (e ulteriormente anglo-centrico) rispetto ad una cultura orientale, ma sempre dotato di una notevole capacità di penetrazione della psicologia "aliena", e proprio per questo utile oltre che piacevole
    Notevole la capacità per un autore che si è sempre concentrato sulle culture estremo-orientali di penetrare certi aspetti psicologici e culturali di un ambiente completamente diverso
    Da italiano (sapendo come ci vedono e come ci giudicano e cosa non vedono e cosa non capiscono di noi gli anglosassoni di diverse provenienze) apprezzo la profondità di quanto sa capire e descrivere, e perdono volentieri il resto
    Come gli altri romanzi, ottimo e abbondante, certe parti si sarebbero potute tagliare o ridurre, ma fa parte dello stile dell'autore
    Nulla di particolare da dire (per una volta!) sulla qualità della digitalizzazione dell'e-book kindle
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  • zheididebale
    5.0 out of 5 stars Whirlwind
    Reviewed in France on December 22, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Une histoire fantastique, peu crédible et pourtant passionnante. Une lecture divertissante. Les protagonistes manquent d'humanité et leurs raisons du combat restent flous. Si l'Iran vous intéresse lisez ce livre.
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  • Les West
    5.0 out of 5 stars James Clavell - a master of suspense
    Reviewed in Australia on April 21, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    From beginning to end James Clavell keeps you on the edge of your seat. A story of loyalty, courage and love in a setting of upheaval, where the man who is your friend one day is your enemy the next, where human life has little value against the promises of martyrdom.
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