Book summary

Based on the work of psychoanalyst R. D. Laing, this novel explores issues of psychic wholeness. Charles Watkins, a Cambridge University classics professor, is navigating the Atlantic Ocean on a raft after a UFO has abducted his companions. He arrives at an island where he finds the ruins of an ancient city. There, he is transported to a sort of Mount Olympus, where Greek gods are about to send down representatives to Earth to be born-- they are being briefed before their descent into what they call "poisonous Hell." Then Watkins is found on London streets and admitted to a mental hospital. He is plagued by a lack of his own memory, yet he has memories of things he never did. He is given drugs, analysis, none of which works. Upon shock treatment, however, his personality becomes integrated.

Media reviews

"The idea behind [the novel] is easy, too easy; suffice it to say it resembles the flashy insistence of R.D. Laing that the insane are the only true sane. But there is a difference between an idea and a vision which embodies that idea and even in this novel, where Doris Lessing is too close to carping for comfort, there is much that is convincing...Throughout [the] long vision the writing is firm and absorbed, controlled in a way that makes us know here what home is, know that the voyager is at the end of his vision but also before...But the author's understanding of [Watkins] is never clinical, he escapes her more mindless satirical moments, he experiences almost nothing offered by ordinary human life, yet his instance is touching and beautiful."