THE SUICIDE ACADEMY

The Suicide Academy's one of those vanguard infernos like Stephen Walton's No Transfer and while the intention here is not quite as clear, this is also a cool, catchy, subterranean parable. The academy is one of many institutions where people who live in the ""jungle of yes and no"" come to exercise the final option. Engaged in the attempt to save bodies and souls is its director, Wolf Walker, a Jew. Most of the superficial action here is set off by the arrival of Jewel (once Walker's wife) and Max, ostensibly to make a film, although before long Walker has every reason to believe they are signing in as guests and he has every hope of salvaging Jewel. However the main content of the book is in presenting various death-directed aspects of modern civilization via paradoxes and antitheses(the Jew--the ""ultimate masochist"" questioning his Jewishness; a Negro strafing his blackness; etc., etc.) The book, a little like life, is what you make of it-cosmic hieroglyphics? startling conjectures? relevant referrals?