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Reviews/Books
The Pied Piper’s Poison
Christopher Wallace
reviewed by Gundula
This is two stories in one, starting off as separate entities, getting closer, becoming entwined, inseparable at the end.
In the winter of 1946 young medical doctor Robert Watt is sent to Germany to screen refugees heading for the west for physical fitness. He is totally overtaxed by this task. It doesn’t help that his
roommate, Dr Arthur Lee, a highly skilled surgeon, is totally absorbed by the paper he is writing and doesn’t have time for his troubled colleague. This publication, examining the myth of the pied piper
of Hamelin represents the second story line.
As Robert gets transferred to a refugee camp in Poland to examine the outbreak of a mysterious disease amongst it’s inhabitants, both tales become closer, show parallels. When the situation in Poland
leads to a climax, so does Lee’s interpretation of the Hamelin mystery. In the end, both are inseparable. The solution offered is conclusive, threateningly thought provoking and very disturbing...
The Pied Piper’s Poison is a highly thrilling book, for both the tales and the insight into the human psyche it offers. Terribly conclusive, his suggestions make you shudder and probe deep down into your
own heart and soul. It has an inescapably depressive air about it, not only because of the story lines, based in World War II and the Thirty Year War, but mainly because of the way Wallace portrays his
characters, shows their struggle and inner torment. The protagonist doesn’t grow from his experiences but is broken by them. And so are all the other figures, inextricably caught in the abyss of their
souls.
This book comes highly recommended by me. From the first page I was hooked, lost in the depressing existence in a refugee camp or the cruel, threatening world of the Thirty Year War. I admire Wallace’s
skill in connecting these two scenarios and turn them into one as well as his insight into the darker regions of the human existence.
Food for thought.
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