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Birds Of Prey Paperback – Sept. 8 1997

by John Ralston Saul (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
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Product details

  • Publisher : Vintage Canada (Sept. 8 1997)
  • Language: : English
  • Paperback : 248 pages
  • ISBN-10 : 0679308903
  • ISBN-13 : 978-0679308904
  • Item Weight : 299 g
  • Dimensions : 13.97 x 1.27 x 21.59 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings

Product description

From Amazon

The dedication that John Ralston Saul chose to attach to The Birds of Prey is an early indication that this is not going to be a typically Canadian novel: "to Charles de Gaulle, from a disciple, Sans peur et Sans regret." What follows has more in common with the novels of Graham Greene--particularly the brainy thrillers Greene always called "entertainments"--than it does with anything else written in Canada. The Birds of Prey is a hypothetical dissection of the intrigues and machinations that maintained the delicate balance of military and state in de Gaulle's France. Saul's hero, Charles Stone, is a mysterious sometime journalist, independently wealthy, travelling on an Irish passport and speaking with an unplaceable transatlantic accent. Stone becomes interested in the circumstances surrounding the death of General Ailleret, de Gaulle's chief of staff, in a suspicious airplane crash. As he begins to uncover evidence of foul play, Stone finds that the French government is full of powerful figures who want to silence him.

Saul is most famous as a writer of iconoclastic and accessible political philosophy, especially the trilogy that includes Voltaire's Bastards, The Doubter's Companion, and the Governor General's Award-winning The Unconscious Civilization. His fiction occupies the same intellectual territory as his works of social theory: The Birds of Prey is, among other things, a treatise on modern European power politics cleverly disguised as a page-turner. Saul maintains that The Birds of Prey is a work of fiction, but it proved realistic enough to alarm the French government. It was published in France with Ailleret's name removed and caused a sensation, selling more than 2 million copies. With the plot of a political thriller, overseen by Saul's remarkable intelligence, The Birds of Prey is a rare treat. --Jack Illingworth

Review

"Saul's masterly narration rises to the level of art--Fiction that makes paranoia a delight." -The Chicago Tribune
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Top review from Canada

Daryl Locklear
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read but I rewrote the ending
Reviewed in Canada on March 20, 2019
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