The Procedure [Paperback]

The creation of life by mortal man has been routinely held as the ultimate taboo against nature and deeply held religious beliefs. Harry Mulisch writes in his book, "The Procedure", of two instances of creation and demonstrates the idea and perhaps the practice is not only far from new, it is centuries old. In the late 16th Century a Rabbi creates a Golem for a King, the procedure for which is outlined in a 3rd Century Text. Then in the 20th Century a Scientist creates a very primitive organic organism from non-organic materials, which gains the name eobliant. A Golem and the primitive organism that is created 400 years later have little in common as final products. The latter is a test tube creation while the former is, well the book will explain.

The commonality between these two events is obvious, and if I read the work correctly, the obvious is not what the author intended. The writing is deceptively straightforward to read. The Rabbi has an arguably valid and selfless reason for what he does, our contemporary scientist does not. The author diverges along the way with the tale of Frankenstein, the author and her contemporaries, but writing about an act and practicing it are widely separated issues.

Our scientist is also portrayed as being at the very least eccentric. He relates much of his story through letters he writes to his daughter who never lived. While the letters are to her, they are sent to the woman who would have been the child's mother. She left him for he failed her at the critical moment in their relationship, a moment that should not have been an issue for a father much less a man of science, and a man who was manipulating artificial life himself. For all the notoriety his creation has brought him, he gains no piece of mind, and constantly erodes as a person until he is having fictional conversations with a woman that would have been his wife about the cloning of their stillborn child. Cloning is a physical reproduction only, the mind, or the soul, if you prefer, is not replicated.

As I mentioned the book can read as deceptively straightforward, and my reading may be completely off the mark. Either way the book is a great piece of work, and a tremendous read. More than one reading would probably be appropriate.

Harry Mulish is at his best in this metaphysical story about the most powerful subject of all time: life. At the start of the story you easily loose track of what it is all about, but this is clearly done on purpose. As some kind of inauguration the reader is offered a speed course in the biblical study of letters and numbers. Once you have struggled through this first episode the impact of what follows is even more surreal.

Slowly but steadily the scope of the book widens and flirts with topics like the human genome, twin studies and Egyptology. Although the book nears epic proportions, Mulish never looses track of the essence. Constantly he surprises the reader with new viewpoints and digs deeper in the soul of the protagonist. Victor Werker is not different from anyone else, although his impact on science has been enormous. On the run for the past, he does nothing but chase his own shadow. When finally he notices that the future has much in common with what has been, he can do nothing but start to embrace his past. Like atoms that collide, this act of defeatism leads to total catastrophe, but also to the sweetest redemption.

Only a limited amount of books can force the reader to start rereading them the moment you turn that last page. The Procedure is certainly one of the few. Without seemingly any effort Harry Mulish has again created a Masterpiece.