 Marathon Man, by William Goldman.
This is a thriller that screams "1970s," starting with an archaic racial slur on the first page. Each time one is used, it's to show that the speaker is a jerk, but it still grates. There's also a painfully stereotypical portrayal of Puerto Rican "gang kids." A more entertaining sign of the era: international spies having to find a pay phone to call in. It has a common thriller setup: an ordinary guy becomes entangled in intrigues because secret agents wrongly believe that he has crucial information. There are some good twists that I didn't see coming, but they make sense in retrospect. The movie with Dustin Hoffman is fairly faithful to the book, with some crucial details changed for the ending. I had to wonder about the hiring practices of spy organizations when a group of hired killers can be bested by a guy whose only unusual skill is marathon running. And a spy misplacing his car keys - James Bond would never! One other sign that it's the 1970s: everyone is clear on the fact that the Nazis are the bad guys. Trigger warnings for torture and racism. Popsugar Reading Challenge: Character runs a marathon. 52 Book Club Challenge: Kangaroo word in the title. (A kangaroo word is a word that contains the letters for it own synonym, like marathon and ran.) Booklist Queen Challenge: Set in the 1970s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |