 The Good Terrorist has been labelled a " political novel " by the publishers and some reviewers , including Alison <unk> in The New York Review of Books . <unk> stated that as political fiction , it is " one of the best novels ... about the terrorist mentality " since Joseph Conrad 's The Secret Agent ( 1907 ) , although this was questioned by William H. <unk> in The Hudson Review , who wrote that compared to Conrad , The Good Terrorist is " <unk> " . Several commentators have pointed out that it is more a novel about politics than political fiction . In From the <unk> of Empire : Christina Stead , Doris Lessing , Nadine <unk> , Louise Yelin called the work a novel about politics , rather than a political novel per <unk> . 
