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Post by dem bones on Dec 22, 2008 21:21:44 GMT
Michael Fisher - The Captives (NEL, 1971)  Photo: James Tormey
Dr Jacob Berg kidnapped Nathan to serve in a laboratory experiment. He justified his action with scientific arguments. But when he adds the rich, beautiful Judith to his cage of specimens, the experiment becomes disgustingly different. Judith is a woman who has obsessed the doctor until he can no longer bear to see her free. Now the tables are turned .....
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Post by dem bones on Dec 24, 2008 16:57:00 GMT
I've managed 60 (of 173) pages so far and really, there isn't much to add to the blurb. Dr. Jacob Berg, thirty-something mad vivisectionist, has a state of the art laboratory at his disposal but very few large specimens of the type he wishes to experiment upon - for example, he doesn't have a single primate. Also, the Foundation pay very poor salaries, so its not as if he can splash out on a gorilla or two. Fortunately, young Nathan King, struggling freelance reporter, blags his way into the compound and demands an interview with Dr. Berg. The scientist gives him a guided tour of his lab, introduces him to his pets ... and sticks him in a cage.
The daughter of the Foundation's chief sponsor is the glamorous, twice divorced and aptly-named Judith Gold. Bored and disillusioned with all that boundless wealth has to offer, she takes up with men for as long as they keep her interested, and now Dr. Berg has fallen under her radar. Unfortunately, with the surly, degenerating Nathan to attend to, he can't very well up sticks and travel to Kashmir with her on a whim, and she warns him this could be the last time he sees her. But before she leaves, she'd like to see the laboratory she pays for. Dr. Berg obliges - and Nathan gets a cell-mate ....
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Post by dem bones on Dec 29, 2008 8:28:42 GMT
Finished it now and .... it is a horror novel, just far more of a subtle one than we'd expect from New English Library in that you're not going to get too many intense meditations on the human psyche, the weirdness of love and so on and so on in a Donald Glut 'New Adventure of Frankenstein'.
Judith quickly adapts to captivity, throws herself fully behind the experiment and soon it's very difficult to tell who is actually in control of the situation - it certainly isn't Dr. Berg who fast unravels as he's manipulated into becoming the pair's glorified errand boy. Nathan has perked up plenty now that he's a mate and gets into face-painting in a big way until now it's he and Judith telling Berg where they want him to apply the animal skin grafts to their bodies. You start to feel a little sorry for the Doctor, who is actually quite the philanthropist once you get to know him. Finally, he takes to joining in with the whole body painting thing and reasserts himself temporarily by becoming their God, devising complicated pseudo-religious rituals which the pair must stick to follow meticulously or risk punishment. When this grows tiresome, and the feisty Judith and Nathan constantly argue and fight to the point where they look as if they'll do each other a terrible harm, Berg decides he's no alternative but to set them loose. But how can he guarantee their silence?
The answer, as arrived at by Judith and Nathan is fiendishly simple. Judith has a remote property in Maine, thousands of acres of woodland bought by her reclusive father. What say they hold Dr. Berg captive there for two-three weeks to restore the natural order of things ....?
Dr. Berg reluctantly complies, setting us up neatly for the final madness ....
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