The former French president, Charles de
Gaulle, is one of the most influential figures in the modern history
of France. During Charles de Gaulle's presidential reign, he
introduced the Algerian initiatives. In turn, Charles de Gaulle
angered, and made bitter enemies of OAS, an extreme right-wing
military organization. OAS attempted to assassinate Charles de Gaulle
6 times but all attempts ended in failures. Their most famous
assassination attempt took place on 22 August 1962. This incidence
became the basis for Frederick Forsyth's thriller novel, The Day
of the Jackal.
The Day of the Jackal received
admiring praises from readers and critics alike when it was published
in1971. More than four decades later, modern-day authors and critics
are still hailing The Day of the Jackal as a groundbreaking
novel that redefined the thriller genre.
Synopsis:
On 22 August 1962, OAS failed to
assassinate Charles de Gaulle. The incidence spelled a disastrous
aftermath for OAS, where the French government agency tightened its
security protocol both abroad and onshore. The French police arrested several key OAS personnel, and the organization appeared to be reaching its
twilight years.
Desperation drove the top directives of
OAS to change their tactics and hatching a new plan. In this new
plan, OAS would hire a professional assassin, unknown to the French
authority, to take out Charles de Gaulle. In many ways, this new plan
is ingenious because while the French secret agency was on high alert
against OAS agents, but they would have never paid attentions to a
hired assassin.
The director of OAS spent 3 months to
research the dossiers of assassins. He finally found a perfect
candidate for the job; a tall, blond Englishman who starred into the
world with a pair of soulless, grey eyes. This man, codenamed “The
Jackal”, was the best assassin in the business. OAS negotiated with
The Jackal and agreed to pay him a hansom sum in exchange for taking
out Charles de Gaulle.
When The Jackal walked out of the
negotiation room in Rome, he set out on a secret mission that could
change history. From there, The Jackal would disappear into the
crowds and no one, not even his OAS employers, knew the day when The
Jackal should squeeze the trigger and take Charles de Gaulle's life.
The Day of the Jackal was approaching,
could French police and government agency stop this faceless
assassin? Or was Charles de Gaulle counting his last days on earth?
My thoughts on this book:
The Day of the Jackal occupies a
spot on BBC's survey “The Big Read”. I can see why this book has
attracted a mass following. This novel is very well written, its
story is both believable and clever. This tale of suspense is set in
a turbulent time in France, and the book tells a suspenseful story
surfing atop a current of political intrigues.
In this book, Frerderick Forsyth
employed an interesting method of storytelling. He blended the
narratives from historical, non-fiction books with the narratives
from a fiction novel. This type of narratives gave readers both a
bird's-eye view, as well as a third-person omniscient point of view
of the story. The first chapter in this book is based on real
history, it began a bit slowly but this chapter established the
background for the story. The second chapter and onward are
fictitious, and that's when the story of the Jackal began. And once
the Jackal's story began, the book turned into a fast-paced novel,
building suspense and momentum all the way, until the story reached a
crescendo at a grand finale. Let me just say, the last 50 pages of
this book was truly heart-pounding stuff.
If you read a lot of fictions, then it
may take you some time adjusting to Forsyth's method of storytelling.
However, I'd argue Forsyth made a clever choice by telling his story
this way. Why? This is because The Day of the Jackal has an
intricate and complex plot. This is a political-spy thriller where
many things happened and many characters are involved in the story.
Forsyth's unique method of storytelling gave his readers an easy way
to tracking a story, especially when the story is as complex as the
one in this book.
Speaking of characterizations, the
Jackal was both the protagonist as well as the antagonist in this
book. This is an unusual, yet fascinating choice of
characterizations. When I was reading this book, I couldn't help but
admire the Jackal's elaborate and clever plan. As a result, I
partially rooted for the Jackal and secretly wished for his success.
However, a part of my mind also held me back from totally rooting for
the Jackal, because he was a cold-blooded assassin who killed people
for money, and his mission, should he succeeded, was not going to
benefit the world at all. Suffice to say, my reading of The Day of
the Jackal proved to be a most unique and interesting experience.
On the other hand, the Jackal's
counterpart(s), such as the French police and government agents, also
contributed to making an excellent story when they took on the almost
impossible task of tracking down the Jackal. In this part of the
story, the French police and government agents, under the leadership
of Inspector Claude Lebel, showcased some mind-blowing powers of
deduction. Their story of tracking down the Jackal was just as fun
and entertaining to read as the Jackal's plan to assassinate Charles
de Gaulle. In this book, the French police and the Jackal engaged in
a most spectacular battle of wits, and their story will surely glue
you to the seat for a few hours.
I think The Day of the Jackal is
a marvelous novel. This books packs more than a handful of suspense
into its story, a story that is built on real history and cleverly
conceived. So cleverly conceived that this book even inspired a few real life assassination attempts! (I am not kidding,
take a look at Wikipedia) This book is among the best thrillers out
there on the market, and it certainly deserves its spot in BBC's list
of top 200 books. I highly recommend The Day of the Jackal to
fans of the thriller genre, especially for people who enjoy Jack
Ryan novels.
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