Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Condon, Richard (Vol. 100) - Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 September 1992)

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Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 September 1992)

SOURCE: A review of The Venerable Bead, in Kirkus Reviews. Vol. LX, No. 18, September 15, 1992, p. 1144.

[Below, the critic briefly summarizes the major themes of The Venerable Bead.]

Galloping satire whose hairpin turns can be followed only by God (the Bible) and Condon (The Manchurian Candidate, etc. etc.), and one of those may still be in the dark.

Condon veterans will brace themselves for the same gaudy density of higgledy-piggledly jokery that filled 1991's The Final Addiction—but this time Condon outdoes himself. Set in the early 70's, [The Venerable Bead] finds the Commie menace in full bloom. Any theme laid bare by the book's readers, however, may well suddenly be swallowed like oyster meat by another theme. One leading theme is about polymorphous human appearances, a subject that at last gets so complicated that one loses track of...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. John F. Baker (interview date 24 June 1983)
   2. John Skow (review date 22 September 1986)
   3. Michael Neill (essay date 8 December 1986)
   4. Roderick Mann (essay date 16 August 1987)
   5. Charles Champlin (review date 18 September 1988)
   6. Vincent Patrick (review date 9 October 1988)
   7. Jonathan Yardley (review date 7 February 1990)
   8. Ray Blount Jr. (review date 11 February 1990)
   9. Herbert Mitgang (review date 14 February 1990)
   10. Carolyn See (review date 26 February 1990)
   11. Sarah Booth Conroy (review date 10 May 1990)
   12. Alex Heard (review date 10 September 1991)
   13. Herbert Mitgang (review date 18 September 1991)
   14. Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 September 1992)
   15. Jay Cantor (review date 29 November 1992)
   16. Herbert Mitgang (review date 2 December 1992)
   17. Donald E. Westlake (review date 13 December 1992)
   18. Joe Queenan (review date 6 February 1994)
   19. Chris Petrakos (review date 20 February 1994)
   20. Lorrie K. Inagaki (review date Summer 1994)
   21. Mel Gussow (obituary date 10 April 1996)
   22. Charles McCarry (obituary date 10 April 1996)
   23. Myrna Oliver (obituary date 10 April 1996)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright