The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate , first published by McGraw-Hill in 1959, is the second and most famous novel by the American political novelist Richard Condon. The story of a American soldier brainwashed by Chinese Communists during the Korean War to be an unwitting political assassin, it was the basis for two films of the same name, in 1962 (by John Frankenheimer) and 2004 (by Jonathan Demme). The term "Manchurian candidate" has been in general use for some time now to describe a person who, impelled by some sort of exterior mind control, is programmed to carry out another person's agenda.[1] Along with some of Condon's other early works, such as The Oldest Confession and Some Angry Angel, it was the inspiration for a relatively short-lived Condon cult.[2]
Stylistic characteristics and Condonian quirks
The novel offers many fine examples of the traits and stylistic tricks that were typical of all of Condon's works, among them, as the playwright George Axelrod once put it, "the madness of his similies, the lunacy of his metaphors".[3] A selection from The Manchurian Candidate:
- "The sergeant's rage-daubed face would shine like a ripped-out heart flung onto stones in the moonlight," [4]
- "The sergeant's account of his past was ancient in its form and confusingly dramatic, as perhaps would have been a game of three-level chess between Richard Burbage and Sacha Guidy."[5]
- "The effects of the narcotics, techniques, and suggestions... achieved a result that approximated the impact an entire twenty-five-cent jar of F. W. Woolworth vanishing cream might have on vanishing an aircraft carrier of the Forrestal class when rubbed into the armor plate."[6]
References
- ↑ Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist, for instance, has used it at least four times in ten years, including July 2, 2008, when she wrote, referring to John McCain and Barack Obama, "In the warped imagination of some on the left and right, this is a race between two Manchurian candidates, the Vietnam Manchurian candidate and the Muslim Manchurian candidate." at [1]
- ↑ See two New York Times mentions at [2] and [3] and one from the Detroit Free Press at [4]
- ↑ Reviewing one of Condon's works in the International Herald Tribune; Axelrod was the author of (The Seven-Year Itch and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter), and had collaborated with Condon on the screenplay for the first film adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate,
- ↑ The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon, paperback edition, Signet, New York, November, 1962, fifth printing, page 30
- ↑ The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon, paperback edition, Signet, New York, November, 1962, fifth printing, page 31
- ↑ The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon, paperback edition, Signet, New York, November, 1962, fifth printing, page 261