''Cannibals and Missionaries'' is a 1979 thriller novel by Mary McCarthy which examines the "psychology of terrorism." The novel focuses on the action created when a Dutch/Arab terrorists hijack an Air France plane full of Americans on a flight towards Iran.

Reception

Diane Cole in '' The Georgia Review'' had mixed opinions about the novel. She described the novel as a "thriller in which the thrills arise not from the threat of violence or the promise of tawdry sex, but with the pleasure taken in the author's intellect and sense of language." Cole describes the depictions of the captives as more extensive than the terrorists, which leads to a depiction of the terrorists and their tactics as "not convincing".

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

described the novel in largely negative light, writing that "an odd, slow, rather stiff exercise that nonetheless keeps delivering little rewards (repartee, details, ideas), perhaps enough of them to divert readers with a McCarthy-ish leaning toward ironic meditation, socio-political skepticism, and elegant misanthropy."

References

1979 American novels American thriller novels Novels by Mary McCarthy Terrorism in fiction {{1970s-thriller-novel-stub