Cannibals and Missionaries (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Mary McCarthy
- First Published: 1979
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Art or artists, Painting or painters, Terrorism or terrorists, Netherlands or Dutch people, Houses
Cannibals and Missionaries, McCarthy's least autobiographical novel, is more a character study of human response to fear, deprivation, and imprisonment than a classic espionage tale. The title is derived from a classic riddle asking how, using a two-passenger boat, three cannibals and three missionaries can cross a river without ever having the missionaries outnumbered. Even though the solution is supplied by the “friendliest” captor, Ahmed, the answer to the question of which group (terrorists, millionaires, or liberals) is the cannibals and which is the missionaries is...
[The entire page is 898 words long]
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