Goodbye, Mickey Mouse

1982 novel by Len Deighton

LanguageEnglish

PublisherKnopf^[1]

Goodbye, Mickey Mouse
First Edition
Author	Len Deighton
Language	English
Genre	Historical fiction
Publisher	Knopf^[1]
Publication date	12 October 1982
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	337^[2]

Goodbye, Mickey Mouse is a historical novel by Len Deighton published on 12 October 1982. Set in Britain in early 1944, it tells the story of the 220th Fighter Group of the US Eighth Air Force in the lead up to the Allied invasion of Europe. The Group is based at a fictional airfield in Norfolk named Steeple Thaxted.

Critical reception

Each chapter is titled by the name of the main character it deals with. The central storyline revolves around a love affair between a new pilot, Captain James Farebrother, and an English girl, Victoria Cooper. Another major plot line follows Lieutenant Mickey Morse, nicknamed Mickey Mouse, who is racing to be the first American pilot to break Eddie Rickenbacker's record of 26 kills from World War I.

The New York Times review suggested that the novel successfully evoked wartime Britain, and featured Deighton's trademark technical and operational details of the P-51 Mustang fighter which the Group flies. It described the aerial scenes as few and brief but powerfully capturing the terror and excitement of bomber escort missions over Germany.^[3]

Simon Mcleish gave the book a mixed review. He stated that Goodbye Mickey Mouse is obviously "well researched," but the research "is presented less obtrusively". Mcleish also stating that "for the general reader, Goodbye Mickey Mouse" is not Deighton's most appealing novel, "though it would repay the effort required to read it."^[4]

References

↑ "Knopf". Knopf Doubleday. 10 October 1998. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
↑ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (7 December 1982). "Books of the Times". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
↑ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (7 December 1982). "Books Of The Times". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
↑ McLeish, Simon (16 July 2004). "Simon's Book Blog: Len Deighton: Goodbye Mickey Mouse (1982)". Simonsbookblog.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2016.

Works by Len Deighton

"Unnamed hero" novels

The IPCRESS File (1962)
Horse Under Water (1963)
Funeral in Berlin (1964)
Billion-Dollar Brain (1966)
An Expensive Place to Die (1967)
Spy Story (1974)
Yesterday's Spy (1975)
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (1976)

Bernard Samson novels

Berlin Game (1983)
Mexico Set (1984)
London Match (1985)
Winter (1987)
Spy Hook (1988)
Spy Line (1989)
Spy Sinker (1990)
Faith (1994)
Hope (1995)
Charity (1996)

Other novels

Only When I Larf (1968)
Bomber (1970)
Close-Up (1972)
SS-GB (1978)
XPD (1981)
Goodbye, Mickey Mouse (1982)
MAMista (1991)
City of Gold (1991)
Violent Ward (1993)

Non-fiction

Len Deighton's Action Cook Book (1965)
Len Deighton's London Dossier (1967)
Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain (1977)
Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk (1979)
Blood, Tears and Folly (1993)

Screenplay

Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)

Adaptations

Harry Palmer	The Ipcress File (1965) Funeral in Berlin (1966) Billion Dollar Brain (1967) Bullet to Beijing (1995) Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996) The Ipcress File (2022)
Other	Only When I Larf (1968) Spy Story (1976) Game, Set and Match (1988) SS-GB (2017)

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