Louis Sacchetti is imprisoned for refusing to enlist in the war against Third World guerillas. In the underground Camp Archimedes, a military prison, he and other inmates are used in a perverse scientific experiment, and infected with a syphilis-like spirochete that raises intelligence to incredible heights while causing decay and death. Sacchetti himself tells his tale: “A difficult feat to bring off,” as David Pringle has written, “but the degree to which Disch succeeds is nevertheless astonishing.”

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