Editor James D. Le Sueur, a historian of modern France, resurrects
this so-so thriller as grist for his scholarly mill. He makes an
elaborate (and tediously long) case for the importance of the work,
first published in 1963 by two English students studying in Paris,
Robert Silman and Ian Young. Their alias (Ben Abro) partly came
about because they knew just how libelous their novel was: they
mixed enough fact and fiction to accuse a prominent former prime
minister of participating in a plot to assassinate de Gaulle.
Though few readers at the time understood how much was real and how
much wasn't, a former Resistance hero, Jacques Soustelle, was named
in the book as a key player, a liberal who became a rabid defender
of French colonialism in Algiers, and a mortal enemy of his former
ally-de Gaulle. Soustelle sued in English court (LeSueur quotes
endlessly from these transcripts in his essay), but eventually
abandoned the action. The significance of "Assassination! July 14"
is inflated both as history and fiction. True, it does predate the
more famous version of a similar plot, "Day of the Jackal", by
eight years, but so what? Forsyth's potboiler is hardly a benchmark
in literary history; nor do Silman and Young seriously revise the
espionage genre in any meaningful way, despite the editor's silly
claims. At best, a historical curiosity, and even then, LeSueur
still doesn't sort out fact from fiction. (Kirkus Reviews)
July 14. One of Europe's most sinister terrorist organizations
hatches a brilliant plan to assassinate the feared and powerful
leader of France, President Charles de Gaulle. Max Palk, an
extraordinarily talented British secret agent, is summoned to Paris
to hunt down the assassins before it is too late. Ensnared in a
terrifying web of doublecross and death, Palk races against the
clock to outmaneuver, outshoot, and outthink his increasingly
desperate foes.
A decade before "The Day of the Jackal" appeared, Ben Abro's
"Assassination July 14" became an international sensation, thanks
to its sizzling plot, an ingenious, intellectual hero, and a
realistic depiction of France's volatile political scene in the
1960s. In fact, the novel proved too real, provoking outrage and a
lawsuit that shut down its publication. For the first time in
decades, this gripping, underground thriller is again widely
available. The equally riveting story behind the novel and the
controversy it spawned are carefully explained in an informative
essay by James D. Le Sueur. Drawing upon interviews with the
authors, court transcripts, and recent evidence and scholarship, Le
Sueur examines how an item of popular culture could have had such
national and international repercussions.
General
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