Bloodland: A Novel (45 page)

I like all of them:
Klute, The Parallax View, All the President’s Men, The Conversation, Three Days of the Condor, Marathon Man
. These are the great conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s that I grew up watching, and there is no question but that they have influenced me a great deal. I also love the later stuff you mention and would add
Syriana
and
Michael Clayton
to the list, as well as what I have seen so far of
Rubicon
. But there is, I think, a key difference between the two periods. In the 1970s—post-Kennedy, post-Vietnam, post-Watergate—America lost its innocence. Back then it was genuinely shocking for people to realize that their government was lying to them. But you can’t lose your innocence twice, and now we’re not surprised if our governments and corporations lie to us; we expect it even, and often expect them to do much worse, so the key feature we remember from back then—that creepy frisson, that dawning realization of the truth—is no longer what animates the conspiracy thriller. That can’t be replicated anymore. But these days, perhaps, it’s a question of scale—corporate power, for example, has grown exponentially in the last thirty years. Perhaps it’s a question of the inescapable and controlling nature of power in the modern world. These stories, consequently, are as relevant now, if not more so, than ever before.

Will we be seeing any more from any of the characters in
Bloodland
?

Yes, definitely James Vaughan, who has appeared in both
Winterland
and
Bloodland
. I think he has some explaining to do. Or someone has to do it for him. And I suppose that’ll be me.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

BLOODLAND.
Copyright © 2011 by Alan Glynn. All rights reserved. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Glynn, Alan, 1960–

Bloodland : a novel / Alan Glynn. — 1st U.S. ed.

        p. cm.

“Originally published in Great Britain by Faber and Faber, Ltd.”—T.p. verso.

ISBN 978-0-312-62128-5 (pbk.)

I.  Title.

PR6107.L93B58 2012

823'.92—dc23                        2011035710

e-ISBN 9781429927321

Originally published in Great Britain by Faber and Faber Ltd.

First U.S. Edition: February 2012