Talk:Marathon Man (novel)

Mengele is speculation?

It seems pretty clear to me that Christian Szell is based on the real-life Josef Mengele. Szell was a doctor who ran experiments at Auschwitz. The real-life Mengele was a doctor who ran experiments at Auschwitz. Szell moved to Paraguay after the war. The real-life Mengele moved to Paraguay after the war, and Simon Wiesenthal had been claiming it since 1967 (Wiesenthal, Simon. The Murderers Among Us. Saturday Evening Post. 3/11/1967. Vol. 240 Issue 5. p38-53, 13p).

Mengele and Szell are mentioned together in the book as the "twin angels" of Auschwitz. The real-life Mengele was indeed known as the Angel of Death, most likely as a play on his name. "Angel" in German is "Engel." Szell is called "der weisser Engel."

Several commentators make such a connection. e.g.:

• Christopher P. Toumey in The Moral Character of Mad Scientists: A Cultural Critique of Science (Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 17, No. 4. (Autumn, 1992), pp. 411-437)
• Victoria Allison in White Evil: Peronist Argentina in the US Popular Imagination Since 1955 (American Studies International 42 no1 4-48 F 2004)
• Pico Iyer in Searches the Mengele Mystery (Time, Monday, Jun. 24, 1985)
• Wiesenthal's Last Hunt (Time, Monday, Sep. 26, 1977)
• (Google News has several possible hits, as well, but they're all subscription-only)

All of this together leads to the conclusion that the Szell character was inspired, at least in part, by Josef Mengele. So unless you can give me a good reason to ignore Time Magazine and peer-reviewed journals, it's going back in. superluser_tc 2007 August 17, 06:54 (UTC)

Oop! It was actually Paraguay in the book superluser_tc 2007 August 17, 07:06 (UTC)

Marathon running

I think the synopsis should include a reference to his marathon-running skills, and how they unexpectedly come to fit into the story. 86.145.156.23 (talk) 15:05, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Mother's name

Babe's mother's name is Rebekkah.

From page 182 of the Random House Digital, Inc., Jul 3, 2001 edition - ISBN 0345439724, 9780345439727 WhisperToMe (talk) 04:34, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Plot synopsis?

The "plot synopsis" section makes no sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.218.23.114 (talk) 01:29, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

I agree. At one point it says: "Tom's PhD dissertation aims to clear his father's name of alleged Nazi collaboration." It wasn't Nazi collaboration his father was accused of, but Communism.

Szell's relative

From the 1st Ballentine Books Edition (January 8, 2013), published by Open Road Media, ASIN # B00AQAD1Z0 (eBook)

• Page 14/312 says that "Kaspar Szell" is the real name of "Kurt Hesse" (the guy who dies in the beginning)
• Page 214/312 states ""Szell's father died accidentally within the last couple weeks."" - So the guy who died is Szell's father in the books.

WhisperToMe (talk) 17:03, 4 December 2022 (UTC)