The Manchurian Candidate

Everybody knows the controversial 1962 film of The Manchurian Candidate starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury, even though it was taken out of circulation for twenty-five years after JFK’s assassination. Equally controversial on publication, and just as timely today, is Richard Condon’s original novel. First published in 1959, at the height of cold war paranoia, The Manchurian Candidate is a terrifying and suspenseful political thriller featuring Sergeant Raymond Shaw, ex-prisoner of war, Medal of Honor winner, American hero . . . and brainwashed assassin. Condon’s expert manipulation of the book’s multiple themes—from anticommunist hysteria to megalomaniacal motherhood—makes this one of the most entertaining, and enduring, books of the era.