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The Manchurian Candidate

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About this listen

 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.©1959 by Richard Condon (P)1995 by Blackstone Audiobooks Espionage Genre Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Fiction Witty Romance

Critic reviews

"A psychoanalytic horror tale...and an irate sociopolitical satire." ( The New York Times)
"Filled with that 'un-put-downable' element which makes this sort of [listening] a great deal of fun indeed." ( San Francisco Chronicle)
All stars
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An excellent recording of a fascinating novel. You can tell it's a few decades old, but it doesn't detract from the enjoyment and the narrator does a great job.

Great audiobook

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Simply, there should be a 6th star rating for writing quality of this nature. (and performance)

One of the best ever!

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Absolutely outstanding narration, giving a far better feel of the funny, subversive nature of the original book than the movie managed. One of those titles which encourage the listener to keep finding excuses to return to. Give yourself a treat and download it; you won't be disappointed.

Absolutely outstanding

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The overall concept of this book is sound; with such an expensive idea, much could have been made of it. Deeply fascinating places could have been explored; both psychologically and physically. instead, the book is in my opinion poorly written - regukarly resorting to banal descriptiona of what is happening, which proves especially tedious when read aloud. Richness, texture, the exquisite agonies of emotion the characters felt were not inhabited by the narrative, instead merely stated as if giving eye witness testimony. perhaps that was the aim, but it feels dry.

Perhaps to moisten the verbal pallet, you could try to attempt to drink or drug along with this book. if you did, you would be dead before you finished. I don't mind talk of characters having a drink now and then, but the book seems populated largely by alcoholic drug addicts. Perhaps that's why they are so miserable, depressing and ultimately hard to care about. The book does creshendo marvellously, but it takes its sweet time about it, and at that point is proves surprising how little you care about the characters despite listening about them for several hours.

The performance of the reader was good, but I personally didn't like the feel of a man leading female roles in a higher register. It may only be me, but I also found the narrators voice too high pitched and nasal to really enjoy and instead regularly grated.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe the movie is better...

Great concept, poor execution

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Loved it. The writing and performance great. Suspense through the whole book. Definitely recommend it

Gripping

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