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by: Richard Condon
Amazon.com's Price: $6.99 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780965931540
ISBN: 0743482972
Label: Pocket Star
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: July 20, 2004
Publisher: Pocket Star
Sales Rank: 78599
Studio: Pocket Star
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
As compelling and disturbing as when it was first published in the midst of the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate continues to enthrall readers with its electrifying action and shocking climax....
Sgt. Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a P.O.W., he is a 'sleeper' -- a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. He will act without question, no matter what order he is made to carry out. To stop Shaw and those who now control him, his former commanding officer, Bennett Marco, must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture, betrayal, and power that will lead him to the highest levels of the government -- and into the darkest recesses of his own mind....
Amazon.com 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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Cold war hysteria makes for a great movie
Lurid melodrama of brainwashing is a dated but interesting artifact of the 1950s Cold War hysteria. It includes a strong account of a fictional Joe McCarthy and his manipulative and driving wife, and the havoc she wreaks in her family life and her country.
Reads like a Cold War version of a Mike Hammer novel, scripted for television or movies, and not surprisingly, has been filmed twice (the 1962 The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition) starring Frank Sinatra is a classic).
Rating:  - politics as usual
The most memorable character in >Manchurian Candidate< has to be the Chinese psychiatrist Yen Lo who supervises the brainwashing of the American GIs. He is intelligent and cultured, with an Oriental reserve that conceals his killer's instinct. The brainwashed GIs function so well before the joint Soviet-Chinese delegation, it's as though "their brains had not merely been washed," wrote Condon, "they had been dry-cleaned."
Yen Lo singles out Sergeant Raymond Shaw and begins to speak about the ... Read More
Rating:  - pulpy politics
Having picked up the recommendation from a list of political "must reads", and not having seen any movie version, I was expecting something a bit more believable and intelligently written. Nevertheless, the book is entertaining and compelling once you get about half way through.
The biggest complaint is not the story line but the wild swings in Condon's style as he shifts between attempts at high brow literature paperback novel drivel. Several times I got to the point of questioning ... Read More
Rating: - "Their brains had not merely been washed....
....they had been dry cleaned."
It is the height of the Korean War when Raymond Shaw and 10 other men on an Intelligence and Reconaissance patrol are captured by Communist Chinese forces. The men are systematically brainwashed, with the survivors released, believing Shaw saved the unit in heroic fashion.
Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor for his perceived bravery, but he carries a secret deep in his subconscious; he is a sleeper-assassin for Soviet-Chinese handlers and is ... Read More
Rating: - "Their brains had not merely been washed....
....they had been dry cleaned."
It is the height of the Korean War when Raymond Shaw and 10 other men on an Intelligence and Reconaissance patrol are captured by Communist Chinese forces. The men are systematically brainwashed, with the survivors released, believing Shaw saved the unit in heroic fashion.
Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor for his perceived bravery, but he carries a secret deep in his subconscious; he is a sleeper-assassin for Soviet-Chinese handlers and is manipulated ... Read More
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