Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon

Started: 8/7/07
Finished: 8/9/07
Year: 2003 (this edition)
Pages: 311
Genre: Thriller
Grade: C
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "A human time bomb is turned loose on an unsuspecting nation in The Manchurian Candidate, a stunning and startling novel first published in 1959. This unnerving psychological thriller is at once a spy story, a love story, a savage satire, and a fascinating tale of megalomaniacal motherhood and anticommunist hysteria.
"Sergeant Raymond Shaw, brainwashed secretly and then freed with the rest of his patrol after being captured in Korea, comes home an unwitting hero and Congressional Medal of Honor winner to be idolized by America. Only the Communists who indoctrinated him know when and how he will explode, and they alone control his actions as the fateful hour approaches.
"Murder and violence, terror in its most deceptive forms, greed without disguise, and a weird recurrent nightmare move the characters at a breathtaking pace through the capitals of the world as the novel races toward its spectacular climax. Richard Condon displays a wild vitality, a wonderful imagination, and an unerring sense of the ridiculous in this classic novel of suspense."
Opinion: Not as good as some reviewers have said it was. I've seen the movie but I'll have to watch it again.

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