Cockpit [Paperback]

Jerzy N. Kosinski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1981

An agent known only as Tarden is a former operative of the mysterious security agency "the Service." He has erased himself from all dossiers and transcripts. Now a fugitive, he moves across the landscape free of identity, in search of adventure and intrigue. But Tarden is a man of many disguises, and he is alternately avenger and savior, judge and trickster, as he enters the lives of others, forcing them into the arena of his judgement. In Cockpit, Kosinski is at his most startling and powerful, stripping away pretension and illusions of security to reveal the source of real strength within.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Books; 1St Edition edition (April 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553240269
• ISBN-13: 978-0553240269
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,822,907 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good representation, April 10, 2004

By 

Henry Platte (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cockpit (Kosinski, Jerzy) (Paperback)

It's hard to decide which of Kosinski's vignette-based novels is the best, since they're all fairly similiar, and passages are interchangeable. There are slight varitations in theme - the protagonist of The Painted Bird is a child, and in Blind Date you have an investor, while in The Devil Tree you have a wealthy young man, but on the whole each one is as good as another. Considering it, though, I think that Cockpit is the best overall, with some of the most interesting vignettes and the most consistently good writing, and one of the stronger protagonists. It's also the only Kosinski book which I can really say shocked me - usually, I'm prepared for the horrible things which his characters do to each other, remembering that it is Kosinski even when things seem to be going well, but there's an episode in Cockpit involving the elderly which took me by surprise. I reccomend this as an introduction to Kosinski's work, or, if you only read one, make it this.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kosinski continues his mastery of the vignette novel., October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cockpit (Kosinski, Jerzy) (Paperback)

Kosinski's portrait of an ex CIA agent with a knack for controlling others is disturbing, diabolical, and ultimately entertaining. Tarden is both socially and sexually disfunctional, yet somehow we can all identify with him. Kosinski creates an obsessive depressive character with Gatsby-esque personal drive. Well worth the read.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter the cockpit if you dare!, October 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Piscataway, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cockpit (Kosinski, Jerzy) (Paperback)

When you are in the cockpit you have total and absolute control over hundreds of lives. You can do with them what you wish. If you choose, you could end every life or just give them a good scare. In Jerzy Kosinski's novel "Cockpit" the hero - Tarden - is always in the cockpit, always in control. This book makes you realize how easy it is for a total stranger to, through a few mundane manipulations, have your entire life in his hands. A chilling thought indeed.