Revelations of Dr. Modesto (Paladin Books) - Softcover

Harrington, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0586086390 ISBN 13: 9780586086391

Publisher: Paladin, 1988

Synopsis

"Modest, safe, and sure," lies the way to power, Dr. Modesto writes in the book-within-a-book that anchors this novel. Modesto advocates a new philosophy, an aggressive conformism, and proposes to raise a "massive nothing in the heart of the United States of America. Some might say that his creed is unprincipled. But what, he asks, have principles gotten the misfits? Science, in fact, is disproving all of those principles. Reconditioned as a Centralist, protagonist Hal Hingham becomes a star salesman and reconnects with his Rose. But he is a victim of his own success: like Icarus, he flies too high and meets disaster. Hingham makes such a dramatic turnaround that his boss decides to showcase him at an upcoming life insurance convention, and Rose learns that having a fiancee who does everything you've ever dreamed of is a little creepy, particularly when he follows the same script again and again. From there, the novel takes a few turns, as Hingham runs into Merko, the Human Fly, who reads Schopenhauer and confronts any obstacles (including gravity) with sheer will, and Johnny Swan, a conniving publicist. At the end, the reader may share Hingham's desire to grasp at straws of meaning in a confusing, mercenary world. The book's real significance is as an artifact of the 1950s. Hingham represents the underside of the Organization Man. He's an insignificant misfit, and can't even be a cog in the bigger corporate machine. Sexual and particularly romantic love are debilitating-every character is, as Harrington paints them, corrupted or weakened by their attachments to others. One woman looks forward to an awful marriage as self-punishment for her own hubris, and the publicist Swann is undone by his lust for Rose's voluptuous blonde room-mate.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paladin
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0586086390
• ISBN 13: 9780586086391
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208