Bibliograph

The N'Gustro affair, Jean-Patrick Manchette ; translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith ; introduction by Gary Indiana

Type

Label

The N'Gustro affair, Jean-Patrick Manchette ; translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith ; introduction by Gary Indiana

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

fiction

Main title

The N'Gustro affair

Responsibility statement

Jean-Patrick Manchette ; translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith ; introduction by Gary Indiana

Series statement

New York Review Books classics

Summary

"Mean, arrogant, naïve, sadistic on occasion, the young Henri Butron records his life story on tape just before death catches up with him. A death passed off as a suicide by his killers, French secret service agents who need to hush up their role-and Butron's-in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a leading opposition leader from a third-world African nation in the throes of postcolonial civil war. The N'Gustro Affair is a thinly veiled retelling of the 1965 abduction and killing of Mehdi Ben Barka, a radical opponent of King Hassan II of Morocco. But this is merely the backdrop to Jean-Patrick Manchette's first-person portrait (with shades of Jim Thompson's The Killer inside Me) of a man who lacks the insight to see himself for what he is: a wannabe nihilist too weak to be even a full-bore fascist"--, Provided by publisher

Classification