The Seventeen Days in October Affair

Fanfiction
Title:	The Seventeen Days in October Affair
Author(s):	J.M. D'Agostino-Toney & Terry L. Neill
Date(s):	May 1991
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Man from U.N.C.L.E.
External Links:
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The Seventeen Days in October Affair is a gen Man from U.N.C.L.E. story by J.M. D'Agostino-Toney & Terry L. Neill.

It was published in the zine 11 & 2 #6.

This story was one of three discussed in an essay by Paula Smith called Satisfied?.

Reactions and Reviews

Ahhh.... That's a sigh of pure satisfaction, for the next story we come to is "The Seventeen Days in October Affair," impeccably crafted by J.M. D'Agostino-Toney and Terry L. Well. Ah, that's more like it. In fact, that's exactly like it. Some of us remember those days in October of '62 when we held our collective breath the world over, hoping desperately that it wouldn't be the last one.... The writers take the fact of the Cuban missile crisis, skillfully weave in the fiction of U.N.C.L.E. (which if it existed, certainly would've been a component of those events), and present us with a multi-layered story that works beautifully on every level. They also have a writing style I envy and admire in equal measure,aclean,crisp,almost brisk way with words which nevertheless moves you, makes you feel. It made me hold my breath alongside the U.N.C.L.E. agents waiting for the out-comeof the first confrontation of the blockade, sent chills down my spine when Illya looked up at the skies and realized he was expecting to see incoming missiles—and to me, it's history I know how it turned out. That's Good Writing. From the political to the personal, from historical proportions to daily details, from conflicting loyalties to fledgling friendships, all the way to the quotes scattered throughout the story, there's nothing in this work that strikes an off chord. (Why, though, may I ask, were capitalizations used in this text for stressed words, instead of the underlining utilized in others? It's jarring to the eye, and confusing alongside the many acronyms.) Paulie's illos complement it smoothly.

Three recent MUNCLE stories, all outstanding in various ways, to me typify this tension between romance and realism. They are "The Seventeen Days in October Affair," by J. M. D'Agostino-Toney and Terry O'Neill, Perestroika, by Elizabeth Urich, and "The Long St. Crispin's Day," by C.W. Walker. Of the three, the most realistic is "Seventeen Days in October." The story is the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, told from U.N.C.L.E.'s point of view. Sheer history sets very rigid limits on both the organization's characterization, and on that of the agents, but D'Agostino-Toney and O'Neill create acredible and interesting personal crisis for Solo and especially Kuryakin within those bounds. A friend objected to me that the story erred in depicting the Command as so blatantly an arm of the West, but it seems to me to be only too grimly realistic, when the guns are drawn in an East-West battle, for U.N.C L. E. to settle on the side that more obviously funds and cooperates with it. The story scores low in the romance department, but it is not exactly devoid of "the good stuff." There's a little personal jeopardy for Illya—will he be sent back to Russia because of missteps on the path of loyalty'. Lots of jeopardy for everyone else-will the world perish in one radioactive blast? --and a subtle, fine friendship established between the two protagonists, as well as a link between Illya and the ideals of the UNCLE. It's a satisfying story.

Reactions and Reviews

Suzan's review of 11 & 2 had me giggling all the way through it, until she got to the bit about "The Seventeen Days in October Affair," and then I stopped chortling and took nonce. Suzan Lovett is much more politically aware than your average fan, and her views are less regional; her opinion on the worth of any story such as this (to my mind) has infinite merit I am not an UNCLE fan—but I'm going to have to read this story!