The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon (4.5)
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time! While the
start of the book is creepy and hard to read (when is brain-washing easy?), the
middle and end are riveting. After seeing the movie years ago (Frank
Sinatra/Angela Lansbury version, of course), I had forgotten many of the twists
and turns that make the book so enjoyable. Without giving too much away, the
story follows a hero from the Korean War who has returned to his extremely
dysfunctional family. Quickly the story flashes back to his patrol and how the
troops were really were kidnapped and brainwashed by Chinese and Russian
agents. The reader is not sure what the end game is for the spies, but it seems
clear that the hero is being set-up to murder someone important at their
behest. The tension and intrigue are thick as you follow his interactions. One of
the interesting bits of writing is how dislikable the main character is –
normally a turn-off for most readers. Condon did a good job of having a
character (i.e. horrible mother) to blame for his lack of empathy and a real
hero (Major Marco) to follow.
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