THE REVOLUTION SCRIPT

by Brian Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1971

The revolution script was based on readings of Fanon and Mao and Malcolm X, but ""We invented this story. Now we must act it out."" Enacted then by five members of the Free Liberation of Quebec was the kidnapping of James Richard Cross, British Trade Commissioner and the next best thing to a Consul General, who was kept for days stretching into weeks handcuffed and blinkered while a flurry of communiques was exchanged following the initial seven-point ransom demand. After that came another cell's kidnapping-execution of the Minister of Labor, Laporte -- the manhunt accelerates with dragnet arrests in every quartier -- and ends with the zoom-lensed getaway and liftoff of the original group as they achieve (only?) their safe-conduct exit to Cuba. . . . Moore has told this in the form of a ""documentary novel"" but based as it is on all the official records, certainly the documentary aspects take precedence and his attempt to make the characters less than ""faceless"" falls short; one knows best if not fully Louise, the wife of one, sister of another, and Marc Carbonneau, the taxi driver. What is most successful is the catalytic tension and instantaneity which activates the foolhardy, insurgent enterprise so that it is just as it was.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION