Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Thunder's Mouth Press (2003), Edition: First Edition, Paperback, 320 pages
Description
The classic thriller about a hostile foreign power infiltrating American politics: "Brilliant . . . wild and exhilarating." --The New Yorker A war hero and the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Sgt. Raymond Shaw is keeping a deadly secret--even from himself. During his time as a prisoner of war in North Korea, he was brainwashed by his Communist captors and transformed into a deadly weapon--a sleeper assassin, programmed to kill without question or mercy at his captors' signal. Now he's been returned to the United States with a covert mission: to kill a candidate running for US president . . . This "shocking, tense" and sharply satirical novel has become a modern classic, and was the basis for two film adaptations (San Francisco Chronicle). "Crammed with suspense." --Chicago Tribune "Condon is wickedly skillful." --Time… (more)
Media reviews
10 of the Greatest Cold War Spy Novels
“This marriage of spy novel and political thriller is a dark satire that dared to suggest the ‘commies under the bed’ tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy only did the cause of Communism a huge favor. At the dawn of the sixties, Condon explored such
Show More
concepts as sleeper agents, brainwashing, and homegrown political assassination. His bad guys are ostensibly KGB agents (with North Korean accomplices), and his hero a war-traumatized military man, now an intelligence officer, whose best friend has been transformed into a programmed assassin. But the real villain is a Red Queen of a controlling mother whose king is a bargain-basement McCarthy headed for the White House. The John Frankenheimer-directed film (1962) is a classic in its own right, but Condon put it all together in this amazing novel.” Show Less
Time, a magazine whose editors, after all, have daily experience with overcooked prose, was not wrong in seeing something splendid in the badness of Condon’s book. “The Manchurian Candidate” may be pulp, but it is very tony pulp. It is a man in a tartan tuxedo, chicken à la king with shaved
Show More
truffles, a signed LeRoy Neiman. It’s Mickey Spillane with an M.F.A., and a kind of summa of the styles of paperback fiction circa 1959...
It is not, in Condon’s vision, the Communist world on one side and the free world on the other. It is just the manipulators and the manipulated, the conditioners and the conditioned, the publicists and the public. In such a world, it’s probably better to be the publicist, if you can deal with the ulcers. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member aryadeschain
It is difficult for me to think of a way to describe this book because, to be honest, I'm not sure of what I think of it. I would say that it is a good book, just as long as you're in no rush to finish it. It's easy to get lost within everything that happens, but The Manchurian Candidate is, in a
Maybe the reason why I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would is because I expected it to focus on the horrors of war and in psychological torture, which is what I was actually searching for. Instead, I got a book that did not keep up with my expectations and still had a pretty good story with extremely elaborate characters. While I did not particularly sympathize with any of them and feel that some of them could have had more attention, the amount of details imbued in the main characters was astonishing. Other than Raymond's mother, most of the characters did not get too much physical description, but on the other hand, each had their own complicated psychological issues, which made them, if not likeable, quite impressive.
I would say that The Manchurian Candidate is more of a political book than a psychological thriller. And this is not a bad thing at all.
Show More
way, a very intelligent book.Maybe the reason why I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would is because I expected it to focus on the horrors of war and in psychological torture, which is what I was actually searching for. Instead, I got a book that did not keep up with my expectations and still had a pretty good story with extremely elaborate characters. While I did not particularly sympathize with any of them and feel that some of them could have had more attention, the amount of details imbued in the main characters was astonishing. Other than Raymond's mother, most of the characters did not get too much physical description, but on the other hand, each had their own complicated psychological issues, which made them, if not likeable, quite impressive.
I would say that The Manchurian Candidate is more of a political book than a psychological thriller. And this is not a bad thing at all.
Show Less
LibraryThing member 5hrdrive
Completely surprised me. I expected a good political thriller, I didn't expect excellent writing. The characters are fully fleshed out and the dark comic elements were delightful. Really enjoyable and highly recommended.
LibraryThing member wagner.sarah35
I liked this book overall, but I did struggle to get into the story at the start. As the story developed, I started to recognize some of the characters' historical parallels (i.e. John Iselin and Joe McCarthy) and the plot quickly became convoluted. I struggled with the character of Raymond's
Show More
mother who pulls the strings from behind the scenes as she pursues political power - I wanted to understand her motivations more, because I felt there should be more to her story than a bad family background and the simple desire for power. Overall, a good story and well worth the read given the number of cultural references to this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member csweder
I think I'd really like to give the book 4.5 stars...but I don't get that option. This is a great book. I watched both of the movies before reading it, so I knew some of the twists that were going to happen--which didn't stop me from totally enjoying them when they came. I was actually turned on to
Why can't ALL books be this way?
Show More
this book from a [author: Dean Koontz] book--[book: False Memory]. Awesome book. I feel as if I read it in 2 sittings: last weekend and this weekend. It's that good, to where you don't want to put it down. Why can't ALL books be this way?
Show Less
LibraryThing member lsh63
This book took me a while to get into, but once I really got into it, I enjoyed it very much.
Sgt. Raymond Shaw is an ex-prisoner of war, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, stepson of a high profile senator ,and a brainwashed assassin. I can see why this book was considered to be quite
His former commanding officer Ben Marco, tries to help Raymond as well as deal with his own problems.
By the way, both versions of this movie were excellent, the original has great performances by Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey the remake stars the wonderful Meryl Streep (she is amazing at everything) and the very good Denzel Washington.
Sgt. Raymond Shaw is an ex-prisoner of war, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, stepson of a high profile senator ,and a brainwashed assassin. I can see why this book was considered to be quite
Show More
disturbing when it was first published in 1959 at the peak of the Cold War.His former commanding officer Ben Marco, tries to help Raymond as well as deal with his own problems.
By the way, both versions of this movie were excellent, the original has great performances by Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey the remake stars the wonderful Meryl Streep (she is amazing at everything) and the very good Denzel Washington.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CBJames
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon was listed as one of the top ten best bad books of 1959 by Time Magazine. That's a good way to describe the novel--it's a very good bad book.
Today, the story is known primarily from the two movie adaptations: the ill-fated 1962 version starring Frank
She's so mean, she cannot be named. She's simply Raymond's mother throughout the book. If she had a name, any reader who happened to have a mother with that name would soon need therapy.
Because this is a good bad book, Raymond's mother's meanness is part of the fun. We are horrified by what she does but also a bit delighted, too. Watching her manipulate both her husband and her son, one into the U.S. Senate, the other into marriage, all so she can get herself one step closer to the White House which she will rule as a pupper master, is a guilty pleasure. Even guilty pleasures are still pleasures. Think of her as a modern day Lady MacBeth. If she has to force a few people into suicide to gain power, it's just the price she has to pay. If one of those people is her own son, it's a heavy price, but one that must be paid none-the-less.
Image from Wikipedia
There's a plot about communists brainwashing American soldiers that was once topical but seems silly now. While we do feel for Raymond and want him to find a means of escape, when his mother is off-stage we're impatient for her to return. As the layers of her corruption are revealed, the reader's jaw drops a little more, and the pages keep turning. Raymond's mother is what makes The Manchurian Candidate a good book.
However, she's also what makes it a bad book. While she is fun to hate for a while, ultimately she's too much a collection of symptoms without a motivation. Why is she doing all she does? Lust for power is understandable, but Raymond's mother's lust includes blackmail, procuring, murder, treason, and one more sin that I won't spoil. Something too extreme for the 1962 movie adaptation. A character this corrupt needs more depth. What she does is not much more extreme that what Lady MacBeth does. But Lady MacBeth gets a mad scene which brings her back within the realm of sympathetic, believable humanity. Raymond's mother just gets meaner and meaner. As she does, her character becomes harder and harder to believe, making The Manchurian Candidate a very good bad book.
Today, the story is known primarily from the two movie adaptations: the ill-fated 1962 version starring Frank
Show More
Sinatra and Angela Landsbury and the 2004 version starring Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep. I can speak only for the Sinatra/Landsbury version which is terrific. Angela Landsbury plays the meanest mother ever to appear on screen. But, as mean as she is, she's June Cleaver next to the mother as written in the novel.She's so mean, she cannot be named. She's simply Raymond's mother throughout the book. If she had a name, any reader who happened to have a mother with that name would soon need therapy.
Because this is a good bad book, Raymond's mother's meanness is part of the fun. We are horrified by what she does but also a bit delighted, too. Watching her manipulate both her husband and her son, one into the U.S. Senate, the other into marriage, all so she can get herself one step closer to the White House which she will rule as a pupper master, is a guilty pleasure. Even guilty pleasures are still pleasures. Think of her as a modern day Lady MacBeth. If she has to force a few people into suicide to gain power, it's just the price she has to pay. If one of those people is her own son, it's a heavy price, but one that must be paid none-the-less.
Image from Wikipedia
There's a plot about communists brainwashing American soldiers that was once topical but seems silly now. While we do feel for Raymond and want him to find a means of escape, when his mother is off-stage we're impatient for her to return. As the layers of her corruption are revealed, the reader's jaw drops a little more, and the pages keep turning. Raymond's mother is what makes The Manchurian Candidate a good book.
However, she's also what makes it a bad book. While she is fun to hate for a while, ultimately she's too much a collection of symptoms without a motivation. Why is she doing all she does? Lust for power is understandable, but Raymond's mother's lust includes blackmail, procuring, murder, treason, and one more sin that I won't spoil. Something too extreme for the 1962 movie adaptation. A character this corrupt needs more depth. What she does is not much more extreme that what Lady MacBeth does. But Lady MacBeth gets a mad scene which brings her back within the realm of sympathetic, believable humanity. Raymond's mother just gets meaner and meaner. As she does, her character becomes harder and harder to believe, making The Manchurian Candidate a very good bad book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Barb_H
Audiobook. Enjoyed the story very much. It was a bit hard to get into at first though. Creepy to think what if something like this would really happen.
LibraryThing member .Monkey.
This was a really entertaining book. Its win as "best bad book" does suit it. It's a fun read, you can get swept up in it, trying to figure out who's behind everything and all that. But admittedly, it has its problems. Raymond's Mother is less of a person than a devil-in-disguise, really. She is so
Show More
horrible, she kind of loses all credit of being even part of the human race. Far beyond "sociopath." Even so, it's highly enjoyable. Show Less
LibraryThing member Roycrofter
I recently read about the plagerism controversy surrounding this book. In my edition, Condon addresses the issue (plagerism) in chapter 23, page 311, where he describes how the New York newspapers lead paragraphs of the Jordan-Shaw marriage compare to the plot of Romeo and Juliet which
Show More
(Shakespeare) had taken from the Italian of Massucio do Salerno. As much as I knew about this book as I reread it and the two movies, it is a beautifully crafted thriller. Read it for the social and political commentary. Show Less
LibraryThing member csweder
I think I'd really like to give the book 4.5 stars...but I don't get that option. This is a great book. I watched both of the movies before reading it, so I knew some of the twists that were going to happen--which didn't stop me from totally enjoying them when they came. I was actually turned on to
Why can't ALL books be this way?
Show More
this book from a [author: Dean Koontz] book--[book: False Memory]. Awesome book. I feel as if I read it in 2 sittings: last weekend and this weekend. It's that good, to where you don't want to put it down. Why can't ALL books be this way?
Show Less
LibraryThing member RicDay
This actually inspired book burning by some enraged (and confused!) readers. Terrific tale.
LibraryThing member john257hopper
I disliked this novel. There were some interesting and chilling Cold War themes, though I cannot believe that conditioning and brainwashing could have the far-reaching effects betrayed in the novel, and from a great distance as well. Worse, however, was the style of writing which I found often hard
Show More
to follow, with dialogue that frequently seemed to bear little relation to the situation. Raymond Shaw was a difficult character to feel much sympathy with, despite his being manipulated by various parties, and his mother is one of the most unpleasant fictional characters I have come across. I have never seen either film version, but I imagine the plot can come across more convincingly as a thriller on screen. Interestingly, at the time of the novel's publication in 1959, Time magazine named it one of the Ten Best Bad Books. Show Less
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
One of those books that I felt I ought to read just because I've always heard of it, and knew nothing about it. I haven't ever even seen the movie, so I came into the book expecting nothing.
I have to say, the first half of the book, to me, was kinda boring, slow, and painfully dated. I didn't
But - the second half picked up, as the plot, and its unravelling, came to fruition. So it gets an extra star that I didn't really expect to give.
I think I'd recommend it to John le Carre fans - it had a similar feel, and well, it's a spy novel (kinda sorta).
I still can't be wholly enthusiastic about the book though... the main premise (the brainwashing) strained my suspension of disbelief, and the way things play out is really just a little xenophobic and misogynistic. On top of this, the main character is so odd and disturbed that a reader really can't relate to him as a person at all, let alone empathize with his plight.
I have to say, the first half of the book, to me, was kinda boring, slow, and painfully dated. I didn't
Show More
expect to start liking it.But - the second half picked up, as the plot, and its unravelling, came to fruition. So it gets an extra star that I didn't really expect to give.
I think I'd recommend it to John le Carre fans - it had a similar feel, and well, it's a spy novel (kinda sorta).
I still can't be wholly enthusiastic about the book though... the main premise (the brainwashing) strained my suspension of disbelief, and the way things play out is really just a little xenophobic and misogynistic. On top of this, the main character is so odd and disturbed that a reader really can't relate to him as a person at all, let alone empathize with his plight.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ejakub
Classic read!
LibraryThing member ericlee
The Manchurian Candidate tells a completely implausible story - or does it?
Following his capture by Soviet troops during the Korean War, a U.S. soldier named Raymond Shaw is brainwashed and turned into the perfect killing machine. Ultimately, his mission -- eight years in the future -- is to
Within four years of its publication, the book was seen as prescient following the assassination -- by sniper -- of President John F. Kennedy. That assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, had lived for some time in Soviet Russia, though no one alleged that he had been brainwashed into carrying out the attack.
More than a half century later, some saw parallels to The Manchurian Candidate in the allegations of post-Soviet Russian interference in another U.S. presidential election.
But even without those examples, the book's completely bonkers idea that a person could be programmed to become an assassin is less crazy than it might appear. Early in the book, one of the leading characters, a Chinese scientist who is demonstrating to his Soviet and Chinese superiors the success of his method, cites a number of articles and books that back up his theory. And the truly strange thing is this: all the books and articles he cites are real, and we can read them today.
Interestingly, during the Second World War there were some suggestions that this could be done, and that at least one high-profile Nazi held in Britain might be "hypnotised" into returning to Germany and assassinating Himmler. But it was never tried.
The author, Richard Condon, was probably not suggesting that one could (or should) turn people like Raymond Shaw into robotic killing machines. His book is more of a satire of the Cold War and American politics of the McCarthy era (with Shaw's step-father cast as the McCarthy figure).
But it does make one think.
Following his capture by Soviet troops during the Korean War, a U.S. soldier named Raymond Shaw is brainwashed and turned into the perfect killing machine. Ultimately, his mission -- eight years in the future -- is to
Show More
assassinate a leading American political figure (using a Soviet sniper rifle). This would put the candidate favoured by the Soviets and Communist Chinese into the White House.Within four years of its publication, the book was seen as prescient following the assassination -- by sniper -- of President John F. Kennedy. That assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, had lived for some time in Soviet Russia, though no one alleged that he had been brainwashed into carrying out the attack.
More than a half century later, some saw parallels to The Manchurian Candidate in the allegations of post-Soviet Russian interference in another U.S. presidential election.
But even without those examples, the book's completely bonkers idea that a person could be programmed to become an assassin is less crazy than it might appear. Early in the book, one of the leading characters, a Chinese scientist who is demonstrating to his Soviet and Chinese superiors the success of his method, cites a number of articles and books that back up his theory. And the truly strange thing is this: all the books and articles he cites are real, and we can read them today.
Interestingly, during the Second World War there were some suggestions that this could be done, and that at least one high-profile Nazi held in Britain might be "hypnotised" into returning to Germany and assassinating Himmler. But it was never tried.
The author, Richard Condon, was probably not suggesting that one could (or should) turn people like Raymond Shaw into robotic killing machines. His book is more of a satire of the Cold War and American politics of the McCarthy era (with Shaw's step-father cast as the McCarthy figure).
But it does make one think.
Show Less
LibraryThing member whitetara
Still so relevant today if you exchange the term "Communists" for "evil-doers". It is a chilling tale and thriller. The writing can be a bit campy and pulp-ish, but the story is gripping and I finished it quickly. I have seen the most recent movie and it was definitely updated and changed from the
Show More
book. The book is much, much better and the time lapsed since 1959 hasn't changed any of the significance of the story. It is not one that gets dated by it's references either. I have not read anything else by Richard Condon. I liked it. Show Less
LibraryThing member RonWelton
Condon's The Manchurian Candidate is sometimes apt: "Iselin is a man who shall forever stand guard at the door of the mind to protect the people of this great nation from facts.” It is often weighty, filled with handfuls of mot recherché and esoteric allusions: "He felt the sadness of Lucifer."
Raymond Shaw has been taken to Manchuria, along with all the other members of his captive platoon, by Chinese and Russian agents who succeed using Pavlovian response theory to so deeply hypnotize him that they can control him for years to come as an assassin spreading chaos through the West. The other members of his unit are hypnotized into believing that Shaw performed actions so heroic that they were deserving of the Medal of Honor which will give Shaw tremendous influence. Yen Lo, the genius who has developed the brain washing technique has Shaw murder coldly two of his mates, Mavole and Lembeck by way of demonstration. Lieutenant Ben Marco who has been brainwashed sufficiently to submit the imaginary heroic action for consideration a few months after the captives are returned to the battleground has absorbed the hypnosis consciously but is haunted by his subconscious through constant nightmares of the brutal murders of Mavole and Lembeck.
The moving force of this novel is Raymond Shaw's mother, a malevolent, incestuous, drug addicted, megalomaniacal, manipulative force behind Raymond, and her husband Johnny Iselin whom she scheming to advance to the U.S. Presidency.
Show More
It is sometimes flippant: "Their brains had not merely been washed, they had been dry-cleaned." But, it is always compelling.Raymond Shaw has been taken to Manchuria, along with all the other members of his captive platoon, by Chinese and Russian agents who succeed using Pavlovian response theory to so deeply hypnotize him that they can control him for years to come as an assassin spreading chaos through the West. The other members of his unit are hypnotized into believing that Shaw performed actions so heroic that they were deserving of the Medal of Honor which will give Shaw tremendous influence. Yen Lo, the genius who has developed the brain washing technique has Shaw murder coldly two of his mates, Mavole and Lembeck by way of demonstration. Lieutenant Ben Marco who has been brainwashed sufficiently to submit the imaginary heroic action for consideration a few months after the captives are returned to the battleground has absorbed the hypnosis consciously but is haunted by his subconscious through constant nightmares of the brutal murders of Mavole and Lembeck.
The moving force of this novel is Raymond Shaw's mother, a malevolent, incestuous, drug addicted, megalomaniacal, manipulative force behind Raymond, and her husband Johnny Iselin whom she scheming to advance to the U.S. Presidency.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1959
Physical description
320 p.; 8.46 inches
ISBN
1568582706 / 9781568582702