"Youth is what you might call the spearhead of it all. But that's not really what's so worrying. They - whoever they are - work through youth. Youth in every country. Youth urged on. Youth chanting slogans - slogans that sound exciting, though they don't always know what they mean. So easy to start a revolution. That's natural to youth. All youth has always rebelled. You rebel, you pull down, you want the world to be different from what it is. But you're blind, too. There are bandages over the eyes of youth. They can't see where things are taking them. What's going to come next? What's in front of them? And who is behind them, urging them on? That's what's frightening about it. You know, someone holding out the carrot to get the donkey to come along and at the same time there is someone behind the donkey urging it on with a stick."
~ Lady Matilda Cleckheaton, "Passenger To Frankfurt" by Agatha Christie, 1970
Unfortunately, this was my first Christie. A frightful dud. Given my amusement with Poirot and Miss Marple on Masterpiece, I was a bit shocked. I had been collecting Christies as I found them at garage sales and thrift shops. As it turns out, serendipity brought my hand to this book. For it seems to consistently receive the worst ratings of her many works. Certainly each author is entitled their dud.
Still, there is great-aunt Matilda. Most assuredly a refreshing and redeeming character in a dreadfully stale "thriller." I have recollections of following the proverbial carrot as a youth. Until I realized it was something unwise and/or unhealthy dangling it before me.
"Leadership, besides being a great creative force, can be diabolical ... " ~ Jan Smuts
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