The Secret Agent
by Joesph Conrad
Book Read on 18 / 1 / 2008
This book is an interesting exploration on a number of levels. Terrorism / terrorists and their motivations/actions and and also the aftermath of terrorist acts including on the family of a terrorist as opposed the usual terrorized. Conrad also spends a great deal of time trying to profile who becomes a terrorist.
Some notable profiles, aside from Mr. Verloc and his comrades are: Chief Inspector Heat (Is this where "the Heat" comes from, or vice-versa) and his Mrs. Verloc, his wife, who, through her inaction, becomes a type of Ophelia character.
I feel like my reading of this book was from a different level than some of the other books in the 100 best list. (Oh, this book ranks number 46.) This one I was looking at it more with an eye towards current events, the fact that as Americans it is unpatriotic to try and understand terrorism. Karl Rove did a great job of that. The truth is, we don't understand them, and I'm curious what the deal is.
I'm listening to "The Looming Tower", by Lawrence Wright, on audiobook (Can't find the actually book-book here in Brazil) and it has provided a lot of insights into what a modern terrorist is and how they are created. And something interesting that has run through the entirety of terrorist history, is the apparent lack of planning as to what happens when they succeed. They are much more interested in destruction and it's method, for whatever their reason might be (i.e. torture in Egyptian prisons, like Al-Zarqawi than what happens if they win.
They don't plan on winning. They don't have an idea for a post-jihad Universal Healthcare plan. That, I think, is why we will have difficulty if we are ever allowed to attempt to understand them. They don't have a future, don't want a future and are in love with death.
A couple of random notes from a couple of random pages.
p. 243 "Exterminate! exterminate!"
p. 244 "Let us drink and be merry, for we are strong and tomorrow we die."
p. 245 "What's the good of thinking about what will be?" he raised his glass. "To the destruction of what is," he said calmly.
Reviewer: William Koplitz
4 out of 5