Headhunter
Feb. 26th, 2004 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaneramosThis morning I finished reading Headhunter (1993) by the late, great, gay Canadian novelist Timothy Findley. It is the darkest of his writings I have read to date, rivalled only by Pilgrim, and it explores most deeply the subject of mental illness which cropped up in all his late novels except the ultimate, Spadework.
The story begins when a schizophrenic woman unintentionally releases the character Kurtz from page 92 of Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness. It is set in Toronto, but with slight and disturbing differences. Mysterious gangs, Leatherheads and Moonmen, roam the streets. A plague, sturnusemia, rivals the virulence of AIDS. D-Squads spray clouds of toxic chemicals through the city to wipe out birds and prevent the spread of the disease. These strange events serve only as a backdrop to the main storyline, which is a portrait of human evil.
The story grows increasingly disturbing and horrific, but the ghosts and crazy people are the least to be feared. The true monsters are the living and the sane. It is a morality tale, entertaining in its irony, but not a light read.
The story begins when a schizophrenic woman unintentionally releases the character Kurtz from page 92 of Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness. It is set in Toronto, but with slight and disturbing differences. Mysterious gangs, Leatherheads and Moonmen, roam the streets. A plague, sturnusemia, rivals the virulence of AIDS. D-Squads spray clouds of toxic chemicals through the city to wipe out birds and prevent the spread of the disease. These strange events serve only as a backdrop to the main storyline, which is a portrait of human evil.
The story grows increasingly disturbing and horrific, but the ghosts and crazy people are the least to be feared. The true monsters are the living and the sane. It is a morality tale, entertaining in its irony, but not a light read.
