Black Sunday in Espionage Aficionados

Feb 21, 2018 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, thriller

Welcome to Thomas Harris first and stand alone novel about a terrorist attack on US ground. For those interested this books has been filmed as well starring Robert Shaw (jaws, The Deep & From Russia with Love) and Marthe Keller (famous European movie star that never had a stellar career but a fascinating face nonetheless). The movie is worth your while due to actors more than the story.

This book actually tells you more about the motives and feelings of the "baddies" than the hero's. It is a very Welcome to Thomas Harris first and stand alone novel about a terrorist attack on US ground. For those interested this books has been filmed as well starring Robert Shaw (jaws, The Deep & From Russia with Love) and Marthe Keller (famous European movie star that never had a stellar career but a fascinating face nonetheless). The movie is worth your while due to actors more than the story.

This book actually tells you more about the motives and feelings of the "baddies" than the hero's. It is a very classic terrorism plot in perhaps an old school thriller that keeps you interested until the last page. The hero being an Israeli Intelligence officer on the hunt of the survivors of Black September (who were involved with the Munich massacre) who are this time aiming at the US because of their weapon deliveries to the state of Israel. In the opening of the book we find Israeli commandos attacking the lord of Black September (It felt like a flashback to the Spielberg "Munich" movie even if that one was filmed much later) and we find out about the okay given to an attack on the Superbowl by the terrorists who were approached by an American combat pilot who became an POW and felt his live was destroyed by his government. The baddies are more dimensional in their descriptions than the hero side of the story which feels like the average conflict between intelligence services.

Why 4 stars because like the early Lecter books Harris does show very much skill of telling a story which is difficult the put away. It is a well written book and its subject is not that old style but perhaps very much more actual than we would like.

I was glad to re-read this book as my paperback has long ago disappeared and I was glad to recover it Hardback version. Some books leave a memory behind and you want to recover them to see if they were really that good. I felt not short changed at any moment, perhaps since I prefer the old style thrillers the seventies and eighties when live seemed somehow easier. ...more

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Feb 06, 2016 Sandi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016, crime-mystery-thriller-suspense, ebooks

Lots of tension and suspense in this debut by the author which was published back in 1975. The terrorism plot was realistic, though sometimes it did becomes mired down in the technical details of the plan, and the characters and their motivations were well drawn. A good first effort though his later works were much more polished.

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Jun 21, 2012 Feliks rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-thrillers

Frankly I can't give a **** about the recent and far-fetched, 'Hannibal Lecter' saga. I think that though it is the more popular, it is clearly the less thoughtful or compelling work from Harris' career; it smacks of "pandering" (as do the works of Brett Easton Ellis) to the usual morbid American fascination with blood-and-gore. That's what the high sales of that franchise say to me.

Instead, I say the peak moment of Harris' writing career came with this novel, 'Black Sunday'. Why? Because i Frankly I can't give a **** about the recent and far-fetched, 'Hannibal Lecter' saga. I think that though it is the more popular, it is clearly the less thoughtful or compelling work from Harris' career; it smacks of "pandering" (as do the works of Brett Easton Ellis) to the usual morbid American fascination with blood-and-gore. That's what the high sales of that franchise say to me.

Instead, I say the peak moment of Harris' writing career came with this novel, 'Black Sunday'. Why? Because its written with realism, the much more difficult task for the novelist. It was the most realistic novel of terrorism in its day; and in many ways still is.

At the time of publication, it was certainly head-and-shoulders above anything else anyone had ever done. Comparable technical detail was found only in one other work, Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal'. And that was it. Just these two titles. They held kingly court at the top of the hierarchy of 1970s thriller fiction...and that situation lasted for years. You used to see them in paperback carrels--distinctive from all other books--their tattered covers and well-thumbed pages indicating just how effective they were. 'Black Sunday' in particular, has one of the all-time best paperback artwork. Just look at it! Its as memorable as the cover for 'Jaws'.

Happily, both Harris' and Forsyth's tales were both turned into incredible, taut, tight, well-formed movie adaptations --both blessed with quality productions by two top directors--thankfully, reflecting the caliber of the books.

'Black Sunday' is disturbing then and disturbing now. It was prescient to the state-of-affairs we tolerate today (when every morning we awake, could find us confronted with yet another bloodbath in the headlines). The book is archetypical; containing a plot so singular and vivid, that no one else can ever copy it; and yet universal. We know that sooner or later something like this --stemming from the same raw elements--could always occur on our shores.

Its not simply a 'product of its time' --as so many thrillers are. The topicality in this thriller never goes away. It still makes people nervous and insecure. It raises questions and doubts in reader's minds: is the United States really *at fault* in our relations with other cultures? (Yes, we are). The motives of the books' villains can't be brushed aside; Harris' vision faithfully reflects what's out there in the real world. This novel is just one scenario of something which could conceivably occur at any time.

So: 'Black Sunday' is simply unique. Fiction which constantly straddles the junction between entertaining yarn and fearsome actuality. Its an important work; affording provincial Americans just the tiniest, briefest, glimpse of the international perspective. The contrast between our placid homefront-- and that of the political struggle of distant peoples--is vivid and sharp.

Sure, the action-rich plot is a nail-biter but there's this extraordinary extra dimension which underpins everything the entertainment. Its hard-hitting/visceral entertainment and thought-provoking political science, both. As I asserted at the start of this review: this cogency makes it far more formidable than Harris' other thriller about a lone, wacko, cannibal. It puts it in a class shoulder-to-shoulder with ...well, perhaps only Forsyth's Jackal.

Best moment in the book? When the Israeli agent asks the FBI chief, "What exactly is this..' Super-bowl'?"
...more

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Oct 09, 2014 Philip rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-standalone, re-reads, 4-stars, filmed, 1970s, thriller

Great book, and a shame that Harris got totally sucked into the Hannibal Lector thing after this, because he's a great writer who really should have done a lot more stand-alone books like this one. Plus, the movie version starred Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern -- Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern!! ...more

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