Is the Prone Gunmen a political work?
Well, the main character is a working class guy who signs on
as a CIA-sponsored assassin in order to win back his
childhood sweetheart: the drunken daughter of a wealthy
industrialist.
I don't see how a plot with these elements can fail to have
political connotations...
The way in which the narrative is put together, though, is
extremely clever, in how it disallows introspection--and thus
eliminates the overt discussion of political ideas.
And so Manchette's political landscape becomes a place devoid
of intellect--an arena for the pursuit of brute passions that
are never satisfied.
The main character's name is Terrier--like the dog--and given
what happens to him at the end, it's hard to see him as
anything other than a pawn of the larger forces around
him.
In many ways, the allegory is rather blunt. But because
Manchette's narrative is so stark, it is easy to miss--and he
also complicates things by refusing to put a good guy on the
scene, thus suggesting, I suppose that there aren't any good
guys.
On the right... Or the left...
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