The Parallax View by Loren Singer is a dynamite 1970 paranoia conspiracy thriller, the inspiration for the 1974 Warren Beatty film of the same name. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, it's an excellent film about the brainwashing of the American people and the process of government manipulation.
It still holds up today. You should see it.
Malcolm Graham and a few other newspaper men, photographers and reporters meet to watch a film reel of an event they covered. What they have in common is each person in the film is being killed off in accidental ways, one by one. Some scoff, and some become frightened, as they begin to investigate. Malcolm follows the death of his friend and uncovers system of secret agencies who work within or outside of the government to disrupt dissent. Malcolm signs up for the program - a series of visual and mental protocals, which aims to systematically brainwash and set up 'lone gunmen' to accomplish whatever is deemed necessary by the unknown bureau, and he waits to find out if he is a suitable employee.
If you are a cynical nihilist, this is for you. At first a series of odd accidents, soon becomes a trap that is impossible to escape from. The Parallax Corporation is just one of many outside contractors with an unknown head, merely a testing organization for societal alienation, and stability reaction working for the Bureau of Social Structure. Unlike the film, this remains in the New York area, and has a few similarities to the movie which were nice to revisit, but the book takes a more personal approach, less action. Malcolm falls into a pit of paranoid delusion that is all that more frightening because his fears are completely real. The Parallax Corp. may be an experiment or a continuing program, but it offers persuasive arguments for those acting against the government, or the government placating it's people with lone gunman theories.
The brilliantly edited 'brainwashing scene' from the film can be seen on YouTube here...
1970 / Paperback / 235 pages
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