It doesn't take long to discover the literary classic at the heart of Timothy Findley's dystopian novel Headhunter. Lilah Kemp, schizophrenic and one of a triumvirate of main characters, announces in the opening scene that she may have released the character of Kurtz from the pages of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. Add to this fantastic formula a couple of psychiatrists named Charles Marlow and Rupert Kurtz and a huge cast of secondary players set in a futuristic pollution- and plague-ravaged Toronto, and you are left with a bizarre reinterpretation of not just one of the classics of literature, but the age-old tale of power and corruption itself. Conrad did not invent this story, Findley shrewdly points out; he just gave it a name: Kurtz.
This is vintage Findley, who similarly re-imagined the Old Testament story of Noah and the Flood in Not Wanted on the Voyage. Headhunter is another example of Findley's ability to blend morality and entertainment. Findley's willingness to blend literature and pulp is Headhunter's greatest asset. You can get lost in the rollicking good fun of the sci-fi dystopia or you can dredge its depths for literary clues. Or you can do both. Either way, Headhunter lives up to both its best-seller and literary status. --Jonathan Dewar