The Keener's Manual
The Keener's Manual is an imaginary book created by the 20th-century American political novelist Richard Condon. From it Condon used quotations, generally in verse, to either illustrate the theme of his novels, or, in a large number of cases, as the source of the title of several novels, particularly five of his first six books: The Oldest Confession, Some Angry Angel, A Talent for Loving, An Infinity of Mirrors, and Any God Will Do. Only his second, and most famous novel, The Manchurian Candidate, derived its title elsewhere.
A "keen" is a "lamentation for the dead uttered in a loud wailing voice or sometimes in a wordless cry" [1] and a "keener" is a professional mourner, usually a woman in Ireland, who "utters the keen... at a wake or funeral." [2]
The Oldest Confession
"I am you and you are me and what can we do for the salvation of each other?"
The Manchurian Candidate
yyy
Some Angry Angel
In Condon's third novel, published in 1960, the following verse is found in two places: on a blank page five pages after the title page and two pages before the beginning of the text; and, on page 275, as the closing words of the book.
Some angry angel,
Bleared by Bach and too inbred,
Climbed out of bed,
Pulled on a sock,
And, glancing downward,
Threw a rock
Which struck an earthbound peacock's head.
The peacock fell.
The peacock's yell,
Outraged by such treason,
Cried out to know why it,
Out of billions,
Should be hit,
And instantly invented a reason.[3]
References
- ↑ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts, 2004, ISBN 0-87779-807-9
- ↑ Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, G. & C. Merriam Co., Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1943
- ↑ In italics in the book. Some Angry Angel: A Mid-Century Faerie Tale, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1960, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60-8826