THE MIND BENDERS

Like Graham Greene, Greene, James Kennaway, a serious, skillful novelist (Tunes of Glory, etc.), has written this as an ""entertainment"". Also like Greene he has reversed the book-film chronology but the parallel ends there. Kennaway has not skimped on the by-product (A Man From Havana and The Fallen Idol certainly were better on celluloid than paper) and this is a developed, literate projection with a definite elan- of the flesh as well as the intellect. The death of a professor, a space physiologist of suspect attachments and activities, brings on an inquiry by Major Ramrod Hall of M.I. 5, no more flexible intellectually than his given name. The Professor had been experimenting with an isolation tank which would, after hours of submersion in it, reduce physical sensation. In an attempt to clear the Professor, Longman, his young associate, repeats the experiment which has not only some shattering effects upon him but also on his relations with his lovely, loving wife.... One step beyond and several shades subtler than The Manchurian Candidate, this is an exciting exposure to some of the new phenomenology of the mind and the ""physics"" of the soul. As such it provides more than a few frissons and a story of considerable sophistication and fascination.