WORM HEAD

"The idea that the insane and the mad may well have the true insights that the sane do not has a long pedigree (especially when the sane represent the ranks of officialdom). Bart Wolffes novel features an everyman by the name of John Citizen incarcerated in a Harare lunatic asylum sometime in the 1990s. An alien worm by the name of Varg has invaded Johns brain. Varg is the repository of secrets far ahead of our time. As he yields them to John, the latter fears for his sanity. The dim-witted and time-serving beaurocratic representatives of officialdom take him to be insane and commit him to an asylum. As time progresses, Johns emotional and psychological delirium clears as he comes to understand his condition. The relationship between parasite and host is transformed into a partnership. In an act of pure altruism, the worm literally turns against its own alien masters and facilitates Johns relationship with a psychiatric nurse who provides his redemption. Franco Henwood, for THE ZIMBABWEAN