Novelists sometimes go to great lengths in personally expe－riencing realistic details to enhance the immediacy in their art.Frederick Forsyth（American novelist）may have topped them all.When his novel The Dogs of War appeared in ，few readersknew that this tale of a group of mercenaries who had overthrownan African government was based on Forsyth's own attempt to dojust that—to overthrow，with the help of thirteen men，thegovernment of Equatorial Guinea by kidnapping its president，Francisco Macias Nguema，in ，an attempt on which Forsythhad spent ＄00，000.But unlike his fictional mercenary，CatShannon，in the mythical country of Zangaro—Forsyth failed inEquatorial Guinea when a Spanish co-conspirator did not comethrough with the ammunition. All of Forsyth's books—whichinclude The Day of the Jackal（about an attempt to kill DeGaulle）and The ODESSA File（on S.S .leaders still at large）—are so meticulously researched that they often read like how-to- manuals rather than novels.His U.S.publishers，the Viking Press and Bantam Books，could not have been too surprised tolearn of Forsyth's Equatorial Guinea caper when the London Timesand the New York Times broke the news，in .
小说家们有时候不遗余力地去亲身体验现实细节以加强其艺术作品中的感染力。弗雷德里克·福赛思（美国小说家）大概是他们中达到登峰造极的一个。他的小说《雇佣兵》于年出版时，很少有读者知道，这个讲述一群雇佣兵推翻非洲某政府的故事，其实是根据福赛思自己打算要做的事而写的。年，福赛思准备在个人的帮助下，绑架赤道几内亚总统弗郎西斯科·马西亚斯·恩圭马。为此，他花费了0万美元。但是，不同于小说里的雇佣兵卡特·香农在赞加罗那个神秘国家里的经历的是，福赛思在赤道几内亚失败了，因为他的西班牙同谋未能将武器运到。他对所有的书——包括《豺狼的日子》（关于行刺戴高乐的企图）和《奥德莎档案》（关于依然逍遥法外的纳粹党卫军头目的故事）——中的情节都进行过极其细致的研究，因此读起来不象小说，而是象操作手册之类的书。所以，伦敦《泰晤士报》和《纽约时报》在年披露了福赛思在赤道几内亚的愚蠢而荒诞的行为时，他的美国出版人海盗出版社和矮脚鸡书社对此并不感到过分意外。