Some books are made to be movies (Bourne Identity, The) and some books are just a narration of truth, under the guise of fiction. The Day of the Jackal is a hallmark of the latter. Its not fair to categorise The Day of The Jackal as a spy-thriller or any such classification. It can be a thriller, an assasin’s handbook, a political journal, a diary of a hitman and many more. In my schooldays, I was hooked to the Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton stuff. Right after I completed school, I found this book on sale at a street-side stall (cost me Rs.10/-). The day I started reading it (my 1st experience of reading hardcore fiction), I Grew Up ! Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton flew out of the window ! I have never had such an experience, in my life, before. I was glued to the pages for a day and half, without food and just a few breaks for water and the toilet. When I finished reading the last page, I woke up to a new world around me. Life was no longer as happy-go-lucky as teenage-fiction shows it to be and nor was it as climatic. Intrigue, politics, ruthlessness and such truths of life, stared at me in the face ! It was a born-again experience for me. No book had had such an effect on me. I seldom discuss about this book with people, especially when it is compared with other authors and fiction. I know its futile to compare it with predictable plots of conspiracy and espionage with descriptions of the common good-guy-kills-bad-guy-and-his-ladylove-turns-out-to-be-a-spy content. Anyone who has read The Day of The Jackal, will know that there has Never been a better-researched and better-explained description of a simple plot of a blood-contract.
Now, time for the facts (a few significant ones):
1) The description of how the Jackal obtains a false-passport on British soil, was actually demonstrated in real, by Frederick Forsythe, much to the dismay of the stiff-lipped(spelt as a-$-$-e-d) British authorities.
2) The OAS actually recruited not 1 but 3 consecutive hits to dispose Gen. DeGaulle, all of which failed and were exposed, causing the dissilusionment of its supporters and consequent downfall of the organisation itself.
See what happens when I start talking about this book ? :-P .........I just keep going on and on, not knowing where to stop. In a nutshell, I always refer to this book as ’’The Book’’.