THE WEEK IN BOOKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200740020-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: January 6, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

LOST
Approved For Release 20~?j,A~ala2~~A-RDP88-013$08000200740020-1
$-~'?9 r 92$
JAN 6 1968
~~ 8.Y MARTHA
MacGREGOR
~~Fletcher Knebcl'tt new novel (Wanished") is placed vaguely
in the future. Pekirug is notiv a UW' member, and the President at
"
the
U. S. is a popular, good-tem-
pered fellow named Paul Roude-
- bush. ?'Like all the novels I've
done;' he says, "it's a novel o.i
suspense with a major political
theme; and I don't think any
reactor of this one will mistake
the tact that I don't like the
CIA." In fact, he dislikes the
~,/' CIA sa much that he disbands
that 'organization in his book,
part.of the happy ending.
When he began working on
"Vanished" he realized he wou]d
have to get into the CIA to check
his seti:ings. "So I called their
Z?R man and somewhat to my
doors, yellow, red, orange, blue, Ir LETGIITR KNEBLx
pink, greenr It looks like a nursery, kind of gay and trolicsame,
You tend to forget they are involved in all those black arts."
Knebel says he has a horror o1 using a specific place in his
novels and not describing it accurately. He lives'in Princeton, but
has a part time researcher in Washington: "I'll write her a note:
'My recollection is that the Ring ~uilding is at 18th and M Sts.,
and right in front of it is a little triangular park and the statue is ,
who?' It's L~ngfeliowl In a story where you're going to put
tremendous pressure on the reader's credibility, it's app to the
wrtter to go to really extraordinary lengbhs to have the people,
places and things as simple and authentic as possible. That's the
dividing line between this type of book and science fletion. The
~' author of science fiction asks, you to take tremendous leaps,
which.most people'won't do:',
Knebel placed his hovel in the future "because if
ou use the'
y
President of the United States and put it in the past, every reader
il
w
l try to turn it into a keyhole novel, whieh_bhis isn't:'
_.-.. _ _
Approved For Release 2005/08/22 :CIA-RDP88-013508000200740020-1