The Manchurian Candidate

Condon, Richard

ISBN 10: 0786185252 ISBN 13: 9780786185252

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 1998

Synopsis

This classic of Cold War paranoia is one of the most dazzling and enduring products of an unforgettable time. Buried deep within the consciousness of Sergeant Raymond Shaw is the mechanism of an assassin, a time bomb ticking toward explosion, controlled by the delicate skill of its Communist masters. Shaw returns from the Korean War to an idolizing and unsuspecting country. In a farcical, uproarious scene, he is greeted amid flashbulbs and frock coats by his power-hungry, domineering mother and her politician husband, who have decided to use Shaw's fame to further their own unscrupulous ambitions. What follows is at once a spy story, a love story, and a sobering yet outrageously funny satire on demagoguery in American politics. Two tender love stories provide an undercurrent theme: the powers of light against the powers of dark. Shaw, the pawn, the brainwashed, is caught between the forces struggling for his soul. With humor, anger, and compassion, Richard Condon brings this mortal combat to a spectacular surprise ending, an ending that the New York Times says, "will knock your reading glasses off!"

About this title

Review:

Richard Condon's 1959 Cold War thriller remains just as chilling today. It's the story of Sgt. Raymond Shaw, an ex-prisoner of war (and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor) who, brainwashed with the rest of his unit by a Chinese psychological expert during his captivity in North Korea, has come home programmed to kill. His primary target is a U.S. presidential nominee. Made into a controversial 1962 movie with Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, and Angela Lansbury.

From the Publisher:

7 1.5-hour cassettes

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0786185252
• ISBN 13: 9780786185252
• Binding: Audio CD