FERTILE for fantasy? To what extent do medicine and science provide an
environment for fiction? And just what problems does the imagination encounter
as it attempts to move in this milieu?
Two recent novels go to intriguing lengths to unite thriller elements and
heady scientific speculation.
Ruth Brandon鈥檚 The Uncertainty Principle (Jonathan Cape,
拢15.99, ISBN 0 224 04454 0) has a fascinating story line in which the
heroine, having seen her dead daughter in a Los Angeles shopping mall,
undertakes a search that involves time travel and parallel universes. Brandon
makes some cogent scientific observations, and renders her characters, Helen and
her New Age physics-oriented husband, totally plausible.
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Sanjida O鈥機onnell makes a chilling debut in Theory of Mind (Black
Swan, 拢6.99, ISBN 0 552 99709 9). While researching the behaviour of
chimps, O鈥機onnell鈥檚 heroine becomes preoccupied with the increasingly aggressive
moods of a colleague working on predatory robots. The novel is one of real
distinction which does full justice to her skills in behavioural science.
But what happens when subjects such as AIDS and abortion enter the arena of
the page-turning thriller?
InDiagnosis: Terminal鈥攁n Anthology of Medical Terror (Forge,
$23.95, ISBN 0 312 85972 4) F. Paul Wilson is usually canny enough to
know when he鈥檚 in danger of treading on our sensibilities and careful enough to
ensure that a knowledgeable readership will find the medical and scientific
details in the tales well-researched. Bill Pronzini鈥檚 鈥淎ngel of mercy鈥� has a
period setting, a psychotic healer and a parade of hilariously inept medical
remedies from an earlier age. Abortion is the story鈥檚 central theme but
fascinating medical detail provides a climax which is gripping enough to prevent
the reader dwelling on ethics. Ridley Pearson鈥檚 鈥淎ll over but the dying鈥� has
AIDS as its subject. His plot, however, may be too slender for the weightiness
of its subject matter. The result is uncomfortable. The same feeling is
engendered, for different reasons, by the late Karl Edward Wagner鈥檚 鈥淔inal
cut鈥濃�攕eemingly a version of his own impending death.
The late Paul Monette has delivered, as he always did, a stylishly written
tale in Afterlife (Abacus, 拢6.99, ISBN 0 349 10772 6). Humanity
and risk come together with AIDS as the central theme and familiar fingerprints
such as the deliciously cruel attack on homophobic TV evangelists. A strong
book, even if not Monette鈥檚 best.
Margaret Atwood in Alias Grace (Bloomsbury, 拢15.99, ISBN 0
7475 2787 3) actively embraces exploration of a moral dilemma in the field of
mind and medicine. Her tale of convicted murderess Grace Marks, set in 1840s
Toronto, deals with the investigation into her case by a young expert in mental
health and amnesia. As Grace鈥檚 early life, including her liaisons with her
executed lover and a murdered couple, is unravelled, sexuality and the
constraints placed on women in this era are handled with both steadiness and
panache. Atwood uses perceptions of the period to describe the scientific
delving into Grace鈥檚 personality. The mosaic structure of the novel mirrors the
fragmentation of the unconscious mind. Repression of sexual and violent energy
leads to a denouement more powerful than many a more eventful novel.
There is no shortage of sophistication and moral complexity in any of these
books, qualities which are fundamental to suspense in all fiction. Ultimately,
of course, readers will decide for themselves whether any of them go too far in
their quest for a narrative thrill.