Headhunter

Liliah Kemp, librarian, spiritualist, and schizophrenic, inadvertently lets Kurtz out of page 92 of "Heart of Darkness" and onto the streets of a slightly future-set Toronto streets. This is the set up of 'Headhunter,' Findley's amazing novel that bends literary culture, psychology, and a touch of potential magic together into one.

The book is a counterpoint between the reader's uncertainty of Lilah's sanity and the potential reality of a Kurtz in Toronto. The story comes into sharp focus when the city suddenly starts falling apart, with flocks of disease-carrying birds falling upon the streets, and the rich are becoming even more depraved.

Lilah tries to find herself a Marlow, to deal with the errant Kurtz, who might just be the new head of the psychiatric hospital.

An awesome reading experience, from a Canadian great.

Not a Review but a warning: If you plan on reading this book, and it is a wonderful book, you must first have read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness! Nearly all the charcters in Findley's novel come from other well known novels - Wuthering Heights, Moby Dick, and Frankenstein to name a few. Of all the books referenced in this novel, the one you really must "know" to have a full understanding of the novel is Heart of Darkness. Also, if you want to read more Findley, I highly recomend The Wars and Piano Man's Daughter!!!

This novel is surely one of the most intriguingly original Canadian novels of the past dozen years. Following in the wake of his more successful previous novel Not Wanted on the Voyage, Findley again draws together a vast number of literary and pop cultural references. Here he tells the story of Lila, an aging librarian with the peculiar ability to draw characters out of books into the world around her. Chock-full of literary allusions and humor, the novel also presents a well-researched account of the true nature of Lila's condition.