PAPER CHASE

by Mark Saxton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1964

For all of its concern with social and political issues, this is essentially a story-minded entertainment and as mild on its characters as a bar of Camay. The novel's three main backgrounds are Tail-End Jazz Age 1927-1928; European politics circa 1937; and a modern research foundation in combat with a John Birch-type society. The novel opens when Dr. James Ballard, a neurologist, takes his former mistress Sheila to a psychiatrist in Vienna where he leaves her. En route home, he meets Lucy, has an affair with her which does not end in marriage. Although pregnant, she goes home to England to retain her independence and like Rebecca West, she raises her natural child who becomes a famous writer. Ballard has professional problems as well; his teachings on birth control and genetics make him suspect in new York and they are used by the Nazis in the '30's to embarrass him. The Nazis also murder Sheila, and Ballard returns to Europe to spirit away her natural child. And the climax, in 1947, finds Ballard, as the head of a futuristic research organization, smeared by an old enemy... Not memorable, but politics and genetics making strange bedfellows and providing lots of plot.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: FICTION