The Assassins

by Elia Kazan

Book Overview

Master Sergeant Cesario Flores is a troubled man. A career non-com, he feels safe in his well-ordered life. So when his precious daughter Juana joins the tuned-in, dropped-out generation, Flores... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812814274
• ISBN13: 9780812814279
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Stein and Day
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Terrific character development and interplay

While I was around during the "hippie" era I was not a part of the genre. I do remember the constant friction between the war protestors and the military or establishment folks. The characters are very believable and generally react as you would expect. I guess the disturbing part of the story is how everyone expected the eventual trial decision. Even more how Sergeant Morales wanted the reward for the almost staged attack on himself. The story got me thinking a lot about the early 70s. I suppose being a young adult at the time gave me more appreciation for the twists and turns developed by Mr. Kazan.

great account of hippies and old-fashioned army-people

Exellent book on the generational conflict of the hippie-era. It's a story about the coldblooded killing of a hippie, a murder that confronts both sides of the community in an army-base-city in New Mexico: The so-called free-minded, well-drugged hippies opposing everything the old system has to offer, and the cynical conservative army-people. It's a hillarious, yet serious, story that perfectly describes the absurdities of an american period, the generational conflict - and, most of all, the very loss of true human feeling in a time full of systems and ideologies. If you like Heller and Vonnegut, read this book, if you don't, read it anyway....