The Chancellor Manuscript (1984) - Plot & Excerpts
Having just read this book, I feel as if I've just been let off a maddening, yet thrilling merry-go-round. Ludlum has written a thriller with the premise that J. Edgar Hoover, the infamous Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), did not die a natural death in 1972, but had been murdered. One of the principal characters is Peter Chancellor, a man in his 30s, who had failed in his defense of a Ph.D thesis into which he had devoted 2 years of his life. (It was a highly controversial thesis, which called into question various historical events which had been played out on the world stage between 1926 and 1939.) Frustrated, Chancellor makes his case to an old authority figure (Munro St. Claire) who wielded considerable influence within Chancellor's school. St. Claire advises Chancellor to take up a new career, suggesting fiction. With nothing left to lose, Chancellor embarks upon a literary career, writing over the next 4 years 2 best-selling novels whose conspiratorial themes would lead to Chancellor's life being turned inside out. Ludlum creates here a novel that has all the hallmarks of a classic action thriller: car chases across highways, horrific deaths in plain sight of passersby, secret codes, clashing of rival groups, and secret quasi-governmental/private organizations. Chancellor cheats death many times. One of the lessons hard learned from him was the following:"When making a contact, position was everything. Protect yourself by being able to observe all approaching vehicles; keep rapid, undetectable escape available."Friends were enemies, and enemies taught one strategies with which to fight them. It was part of the insanity that was all too real." Any reader in search of a high-octane action novel mixing fact and fiction will find much in "The Chancellor Manuscript" to keep him/her engaged and breathless.
In this book Robert Ludlum appears somewhat confused on how to end the book. I would never have settled for the Black Judge to be the totally racist but would have preferred it to be his son who is championing the cause of the blacks. In trying to confuse the reader the author himself got confused, I would say. The book somehow laks the trade mark insight that all Ludlum novels bear. I am not saying that the book is not readable. It is. The narrative is racy and the characters are well interwoven. It is the racist part of the story that I didn't like.
What do You think about The Chancellor Manuscript (1984)?
STORY/PLOT - 1/5The brief outline of the story and the author contains certain words like 'conspiracy' and 'sophisticated plotting' that made me read this book. But if some one calls assassination of a person who blackmails people by possessing a collection of files containing classified information for example a famous journalist being a lesbian as one, you've got to be kidding me.NARRATION - 2/5The first few pages involves description of a covert group with code names and personal names which I could not comprehend easily. Aided with this, the garbled narration of parallel events each no way in connection with other made it like SOUND SLEEP INDUCER.CHARACTERIZATION - 2/5Couldn't feel the depth of the characters.VOCABULARY - 4 or 5 /5
—Shashank Pedamallu
One of my favourites. The real attraction isn't the question if J.Edgar died a natural death or he was murdered, although that is the premise of the book. No, for me that real attraction was the revelation in the last page. Who's to say that similar kinds of events didn't happen with Ludlum himself? A writer used as a 'blind' by a shadowy organisation to fulfil its own purposes, not caring whether the writer lives or dies at the end. Ludlum definitely models Peter Chancellor on himself. The question is, did Ludlum write something based on his life or is it a complete fiction? This novel clearly shows the lengths to which these intelligence agencies are willing to go for what is called 'the greater good'. Highly recommended!
—Sailen Dutta
Wonderful book, sat up till 4.30am to finish it, cause I simply could not sleep without knowing how it ended, I'd have dreamed up a thousand endings along with all the prequels and sequels.(view spoiler)[Bit confused about the last page of Epilogue. Don't know how they got out of the mess, since everybody concerned, including Varak, Ramirez, MacAndrews, Hoover and the Inver Brass are dead!! Maybe I should read that part again....are they in China??But then maybe that was the beauty of the novel.
—Huma
