Customer Reviews

The Manchurian Candidate

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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Had to read this book for a college class. ... This is an awesome book. It's a military psychological thriller in which some POW US soldiers are brainwashed and sent home; all programmed to do damage to the government when they get there. Given that the men are war heroes, it isn't hard for them to get a foot in the door where they can really wreak havoc. The plot twists around in ways too creepy to be believed, yet too familiar to be completely discounted...heh heh heh. It's definitely readable as a thriller, but does good double duty as a quasi sci-fi conspiracy novel, not to mention the informed and responsible portrayal of US military intelligence. I wanted to call it Kurt Vonnegut meets Tom Clancy, but that's not doing it justice. Maybe it's out-of-print because it couldn't find a niche. Or maybe THEY don't want you to read it.

Louis Menard points out his excellent introduction to The Manchurian Candidate that Richard Condon's novel is about control, conditioning, and manipulation. Raymond Shaw and his fellow G.I.s are captured in Korea, undergo "brainwashing", and are released believing that they, through the heroism of Sergeant Shaw, have been saved from a company of enemy infantry. The encounter never took place, of course, but that's the story that will win Raymond the Medal of Honor. However, Raymond has been conditioned to be the ulimate assassin. Meanwhile Major Marco, Raymond's commanding officer in Korea, has been having terrible nightmares in which he sees Raymond killing two members of their patrol in cold blood. He also sees himself and his patrol on a stage facing some high ranking Soviet and Chinese officals. The staggering nightmares cause Marco to start wondering if he, Raymond, and the others have been brainwashed. This leads him on a frantic investigation to discover the truth before something disastrous happens. Raymond can't recall any of what Marco has been dreaming about. He has been completely conditioned twice over -- once by the Pavlovian doctors and also by his mother, Mrs. Iselin, probably the most evil villainess in all of literature. She is the embodiment of Control and she savages anyone who gets in the way of her plans for domination. The Manchurian Candidate is very fine writing. Condon's style is eccentric but it is perfect for the bizarre, paranoid tale he is telling. His portrayal of Raymond as a damned soul is moving. Raymond, who is cursed with "crushing contemptuousness", is "impossible to like", but we can't help but be sympathetic to this young man who was never allowed to be himself, who was never allowed to feel. Mrs. Iselin is over-the-top, but who cares? She sends chills down your spine while providing some wicked humor. The Manchurian Candidate is a Freudian cocktail that will give you lots to chew on.

For a person who does not like your Cold War spy novels I must admit that The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon is one of those rare books I consider to be simply brilliant. It is concise, very well-written, and has a story which is absolutely incredible (well okay, by today's standards it might be considered a bit over-the-top).

In The Manchurian Candidate we have a US platoon in Korea (during the war) captured by Chinese/Russian scientists who brainwash them. One sargeant in particular is targetted to be their assassin on demand after the war. This fellow happens to have a power-hungry mother (..to be kind; she is truly vile) and her bozo husband who is modelled after the commie-hating Senator McCarthy. From here the story gets more complex and interwoven, with a truly shocking and brilliant ending.

Bottom line: upon finishing this book you'll say "boy, that was GOOD". Compulsory reading.

(compared with the film adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate, the novel is superior ... as is often the case. However the film does capture the essence of the book albeit in a somewhat diluted fashion.)

I first saw the equally good movie due to the AFI's 100 Greatest Movies rating. It looked like it might be interesting and I was amazed. The movie (made in 1961) directly assaulted McCarthyism and the red scare in a rather apocalyptic satire. This prompted me to seek out the book that the movie was based upon thinking that it could only be better, as books commonly are. Little did I know that the book could have been a companion to the movie and vice-versa. This was undoubtedly due to the fact that Richard Condon, the author, collaborated with the makers of the movie. The book provides insight that the movie couldn't possibly have put in including a heroine-addicted incest-loving rapist.

All around the political and social commentary in the story (I'm using story since I suggest that in order to get a good all around view of the author's vision one should both read the book and watch the movie, in either order.) carry the book beyond the author's masterful narrative. If you have any interest in suspense, intrigue, literature, or history this story is a winner.

Richard Condon's extraordinary novel about political upheavals, assassinations, and Communist meddling is probably one of the best politically based fiction books ever.

The story is about a man named Raymond and how, for political gain, he is mind washed into becoming a top political assassin.

That is mere formality, for this story is already well known. Now, this story is more known for the movie versions, original and re-make; however, as is often the case the book is even grander then the films.

I was enchanted by this story, as it still has at least some cultural relevance, (especially for those who lived during the assassinations of JFK and his brother RFK.)

In short, Condon directs us to look at more then just the crazy political system, but the whole wacky world. Thus, this is why the book is such a classic, and deserves and should be read by all.

As Louis Menand points out in his astute introduction, most people today are familiar with THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE through the John Frankenheimer film--which was a critical and box office failure when first released in 1962 and which only came into its own with a 1980s reevaluation. The Condon novel, however, was both a critical and commercial success from the first instant of its 1959 publication, and although it has been in and out of print over the years it has never been less than critically well-regarded and tremendously influential.

Readers who come to the novel in the wake of the 1962 film or the later remake are in for a mighty shock. The story is essentially the same--a study in cold war paranoia concerning a Korean War hero who has been secretly programmed by Communists to precipitate an American political coup. But both the characters and the tone of the novel are utterly unlike anything either the original or the more recent film version suggests.

The characters are sick, twisted, perverted beyond imagination, often sadistic, occasionally drug addicted, and in one very notable instance given to fits of incest; the tone is that of a 1950s pulp thriller filtered through the blackest sense of humor to hit the page since Nathaniel West penned the utterly poisonous MISS LONELYHEARTS and DAY OF THE LOCUST in the 1930s. Whatever virtue exists is comparative at best, and innocence does not exist at all.

Condon is not a great writer--his style is too derivative for that--but he is a remarkably clever one, juggling idioms and shifting tones as he moves from the faintly improbable to the ludicrously impossible, sweeping away whatever objections you may have to create a portrait of a society where the strong consume the weak as a matter of course and indeed, without significant personal malice. It one very big, very bitter pill, and when all is said and done you'll roll your eyes, shake your head... and then, with an unwilling laugh... admit that if the full truth was ever made known about American politics, this would probably be pretty close to it.

Strong stuff for readers with imagination, but even the most hardened should brace themselves for the ride. Recommended!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Why this book is out of print is a mystery. Track down a used copy or join a nearby library that has one. You won't be disappointed. Richard Condon delivers a masterpiece of political and psychological horror, inspired by the ridiculous heights of the Cold War and the scourge of McCarthyism. The book's tragic protagonist, Raymond Shaw, was a soldier in the Korean War. He was captured by the Chinese and hypnotized and made into a programmable assassin. But the most shocking aspects of the novel are not the brainwashing, but who truly sponsored it and whom Raymond is ultimately destined to assassinate. The intrigue and curve-ball plot of this book send the mind reeling, as poor Raymond is relentlessly manipulated by those who use him, while those who want to save him deal with insurmountable obstacles. For a book written in 1959 it is surprisingly harsh, with nasty political diatribes from Condon along with prostitution, hard drug use, incest, and also a level of sexism that seems over the top today. The most obvious example of that last issue is Raymond's incredibly loathsome mother, whose evil amply propels the story; but she is sometimes a little difficult to believe in her sheer evil megalomania. But other than that, for a political thriller that is impossible to put down, you can't do much better than this classic, and the finale is truly shocking and heartbreaking. This one is well worth tracking down.

Although I have read several other Condon books, this is by far his best work. I had the rare pleasure of reading this book aloud with a friend. It is so beautifully written that I would stop and re-read a paragraph just because of the way the words rolled off my tongue. The story is engrossing, and the characters are very well developed. It is very easy to visualize every word. This is one of the few books I have read that actually translated well for the movie, (I still recommend reading the book first).

If you like devious political thrillers with a sly comic edge, this is the book for you!

Richard Condon is a master of suspense, psychosexuality and paranoia. I read this book after Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum which also deals with plots and paranoia. If you have just read Eco's book, read Condon's - you will be amazed at, and scared by, the similarities...

Rik Schraag

The late Richard Condon achieved the impossible with this masterpiece: He actually managed to create a satire of a period in American history that was actually a satire itself. The America of the 1950s was at best a parody of democracy, with both politicians and the press striving to trivialize the major issues of the day for their own cynical gains. With an unfailing eye and a wicked ear Mr. Condon has succeeded in capturing the almost Lewis Carroll-like absurdity of the time and mananged to combine it with the compelling plot of a thriller. It is a feat no one else have ever equalled. This novel is one of the best satires ever written and a classic by any measure.