GOLDHAMMER

A patient at a mental facility who believes he is a British spy stumbles upon a villain’s far-reaching conspiracy.

James Flynn has been a patient at City of Roses Psychiatric Institute in California for 18 years, the entire time believing he is a special agent in Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The Don Quixote–esque Flynn grow up watching 1960s espionage films with such obsessive zeal they overtook his identity. He meets fellow patient Chloe Jablonski, an actor involuntarily committed for a suicidal drug overdose. She maintains she was roofied and raped by powerful movie producer Gary Goldhammer. Since he believes she has proof of the crime, Goldhammer pursues her, providing Flynn with yet another reason to spring into action. As it turns out, Goldhammer is an evil, egomaniacal man who has plans, employing a new technology, “to take over the mind of every person in America.” The author deftly presents the comically implausible—and uproariously funny—as credible; Flynn is insane, disconnected from reality, and undeniably brave and resourceful. “He was built for war.” He also has a peculiar penchant for finding genuine conspiracies and thwarting them, raising questions about the very strange nature of Flynn’s psychosis. Even though the plot is riddled with the darkest themes—violence, rape, mental illness—the novel remains more comic than tragic, even downright silly, and never truly disturbing. And Flynn is a compelling protagonist, as charming as he is unhinged, a handsome man who “was built like Jean-Claude Van Damme and moved like Bruce Lee.” For those readers in search of a farcical book that is intelligently rendered, this is a delightful novel, hilarious and inventive.

A wonderfully humorous blend of James Bondand Don Quixote.