Readers' Review: "The Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-01-18/readers-review-day-jackal-frederick-forsyth
In 1971, Frederick Forsyth published a novel that revolutionized the spy-thriller genre. He was a journalist in Paris when French President Charles de Gaulle granted independence to Algeria in 1962. Angry French militants vowed to assassinate the president. Their attempts failed, but Forsyth got the idea for a story about a professional hitman able to penetrate the security around de Gaulle. Forsyth interviewed bodyguards, forgers, gun makers and an assassin to provide realistic details for his fictional thriller. Diane invites listeners to join her in a Readers' Review of "The Day of the Jackal."
Guests
Peter Starr
dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at American University and a professor of literature specializing in French literature and conspiracy theories in contemporary American culture. He is the author of a web-based multimedia book “We the Paranoid.”
John Weisman
an author of military thrillers, most recently, " Kill Bin Laden."
Nancy Youssef
Pentagon correspondent, McClatchy newspapers.
Program Highlights
"The Day of the Jackal" is a fictional account of a plot to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle. The book became an international best seller and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award when it was published 40 years ago. Diane and guests talk about the book's enduring appeal and its unique place in the world of thrillers.
A Book With An Interesting Backstory
Frederick Forsyth wrote the book in 35 days, Nancy Youssef said, but he researched it over the span of his career as a journalist. "For me as a writer and as a journalist, what I found most captivating was the way he wove details together to bring you in so that the outcome was almost an afterthought as a reader, but it was really how you got there that drew you in," Youssef said.
Forsyth's Influence On Other Writers
Writer John Weisman said Forsyth has always been a "template" for him. "He broke through the same way, for example, that Joseph Wambaugh broke through the police procedural with "The New Centurions." This book, this novel, very, very different than John le Carre's 1964, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," another mold breaker, by the way, another seminal novel. But this novel for me has always been the template because it is a seamless fusion of journalism and fiction writing," Weisman said.
Was "The Jackal" Based On A Real Person?
Diane pointed out that when Forsyth was asked whether the jackal was based on a real person, he replied that he didn't have the kind of imagination to spin a character out of the air. Forsyth said he had met the jackal, but he did not have the smoothness and style of "his" jackal in the book. He was simply a professional killer. "Whether or not Forsyth actually met him or someone like him, obviously he
met someone close enough so that you can use that putty to start to mold it," Weisman said.
Who Is This Book For?
Diane asked the guests to recommend the book to certain groups or age groups. "I'd recommend it to young readers, to people who love writing, to people who are curious about the relationship between police and government and politicians," Youssef said. Weisman said the same, and added that he'd add it to the U.S. Marine reading program in addition.
You can read the full transcript here.
Comments
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Kowalski's struggle for survival in extremity as an adolescent, his illiteracy, dog-like loyalty, love for his daughter, and suffering under torture made him an oddly sympathetic, almost Dickensian character. What happened to Sylvie? Were Corsicans ever employed by the French government to do their Rendition-like dirty work or was that simply artifice by the author?
Thank you for discussing this book! I read it many times years ago, and have read most of Forsyth, but had forgotten how much I loved it.
It occurs to me, listening to the discussion, that the enduring appeal of this book is the same thing that brings people back to Peter Falk's Columbo character--the same underestimated detective, the same cunning and powerful villain, the same cat and mouse game. One is based on a mercenary act, the other on crimes of passion, but there is a lot of similarity. Both of them spend more time on the criminals than on the police procedure--and part of the fun is figuring out what it is the detective will see that no one else does.
Layne (lain) from Muskogee, OK (musk-oh'-gee)
Bonjour Diane, I just heard a caller cite Ch. de Gaulle who said "France has lost a Battle but not the war" Général de Gaulle said that on the 18 June 1940 and that statement relates to the 2nd WW not to Algeria.
Thank you for your show which is always interesting.
Patricia
I would like to comment about the Jackal subject on Wed talk show
I am dissapointed with the lack of knowledge about the volitile political situation of the late fifties and early sixties in France which is the period of the Jackal.
As a member of the 501st Military Police company in Germany 1957.I along with Military Police Battilons in Grmany were on a high state of alert to go into France and assist the French police to oppose rebel French army elements supposedly comeing from Algeria to take Paris.
The French Army seemed to be split from my pont of view with elements that fought aginst the U.S in WW2 and elements that fought on our side in Europe. Comments. In Viet Nam the French and Japanese fought aginst the U.S in WW2. After WW2 we gave wapons to Japanese,French and Foreign legion troops to fight the Viet Nam troops that were our allies during the war. My information sources were Germans with relatives who were former SS who in 1957 were in the French Army.
The French troops in Algiers were some of the same troops we fought aginst in Viet Nam. Theses units in Algeria had German SS troops forced to fight in the Legion after being captured in Europe.
My introduction to the detais of this twisted mess came later in 1962 as an Infantry Officer Candidate at Fort Benning Georgia where i was learned of the official position paper of the U.S Army.
Degaulle seemed to not support the Viet Nam and Algeria element in the Army.
I would like to comment about the Jackal subject on Wed talk show
I am dissapointed with the lack of knowledge about the volitile political situation of the late fifties and early sixties in France which is the period of the Jackal.
As a member of the 501st Military Police company in Germany 1957.I along with Military Police Battilons in Grmany were on a high state of alert to go into France and assist the French police to oppose rebel French army elements supposedly comeing from Algeria to take Paris.
The French Army seemed to be split from my pont of view with elements that fought aginst the U.S in WW2 and elements that fought on our side in Europe. Comments. In Viet Nam the French and Japanese fought aginst the U.S in WW2. After WW2 we gave wapons to Japanese,French and Foreign legion troops to fight the Viet Nam troops that were our allies during the war. My information sources were Germans with relatives who were former SS who in 1957 were in the French Army.
The French troops in Algiers were some of the same troops we fought aginst in Viet Nam. Theses units in Algeria had German SS troops forced to fight in the Legion after being captured in Europe.
My introduction to the detais of this twisted mess came later in 1962 as an Infantry Officer Candidate at Fort Benning Georgia where i was learned of the official position paper of the U.S Army.
Degaulle seemed to not support the Viet Nam and Algeria element in the Army.
Dear Diane
One of the listeners asked what means Général De Gaulle's sentence "we lost a battle but we didn't lose the war".
This sentence comes form the bilboard which summarized the Appeal of June 18th 1940 by Général De Gaulle, broadcasted on BBC.
France had been defeated by the German army few weeks after the begining of the offensive which started May 10th 1940. The French new governement under the lead of Marechal Petain called for an armistice with the German. De Gaulle doesn't agree with this position because "we lost a battle but we didn't lose the war" and France was still ruling its colonial Empire. He wants to keep fighting with the British and also because he is convinced that the war is a world war and USA and other countries will join in and the nazi regime will be defeated on the long term.
This sentence is very famous, at least in France, because it is the symbole of resistance's spirit against the odds.
I take the opportunity to tell you that I love your show.
Best
Jean-Francois
The Day of the Jackal was a book I read several times. In the context of the conversation, I would to mention an idea.
When Oliver Stone's JFK, came out, I read several books on the subject. On the footnotes of one, it mentioned that of the three shell casings found at the window, two were shiny and one was tarnished. The speculation was that only two shots had been fired and the third was an old casing left accidently.
Having reloaded ammunition before, it occurred to me that this was a reloaded round. In Forsythe's novel, one of the plot devices was the exploding ammunition. It occurred to me that such a device would explain many details of the assassination. The sound on the recording, theorized to be a fourth shot, would be explained. This was a heavy military round which caused clear entry/exit wounds to Kennedy's neck and wrist, as well as to Connelly's torso, striking a rib in the process. The bullet that fell from Connelly's leg was largely intact. On the other hand, the wound to Kennedy's head suggests the bullet had to fragment on contact, given the size of the exit wound and the fragments seen in x-rays. The main reason for speculation about a shooter from the grassy knoll was the sense among those there, that the third shot was nearby. I saw an interview with Connelly, by Dan Rather and he mentioned that the last shot seemed much louder than the first two.
Some years ago, History's Mysteries did a show interviewing people who took pictures of the event. One man commented he didn't realize what was happening, until he felt the pressure of the third shot on his face. I can't say I've ever felt the pressure of a gunshot on my face.
This is a great feature on an amazing book.
Missed this show. Loved the interviews - loved the book which I have read more than once.
Thanks for allowing followers the opporunity to listen to past shows.
"The Day of the Jackal" holds great interest for me because I was stationed in Morocco at the time the book's fictional story line unfolds.
Not mentioned in the discussion of Mr. Forsyth's book was that Algeria had been considered to be an integral part of metropolitan France and not a colony or a "protectorate" as was Morocco, which itself gained its independence from France in 1955.
As such the European French in Algeria had full rights and privileges as French citizens, including French passports, which the native peoples of the country were, in large measure, denied.
The "peid noir," or "black feet" French referred to during the show were in many cases farming folk with extensive holdings who had to abandon their land and possessions and immigrate to France in the almost certain knowledge that at the very least their land holdings would be expropriated and at worst, they would lose their lives in violent acts of retribution.
It should also be remembered that Algeria had been the location of the home garrison of the French Foreign Legion. The Foreign Legion is commanded by French Army officers, while the enlisted ranks are filled with men from all corners of the world.
The character Kowalski was supposedly an ex-Legionnaire. His allegiance would not have been to France, or probably any other country, but to his comrades-in-arms and to the regular French army officers under whose discipline he had served.
Those same officers, as in the novel and real life, were leaders of the OAS, an organization which violently opposed the separation of Algeria from France. In fact, one Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment was disgraced and essentially disbanded because of its participation in one of the plots to assassinate De Gaulle.
William Powers
Senior Chief Petty Officer
U.S. Navy ((Retired)
Member: The Society of Professional Journalists