Mindspell

by Kay Nolte Smith

Cayla Hayward, the brilliant, beautiful founder of a biogenetics laboratory and bearer of a spider-shaped birthmark on her temple, battles fanaticism, hysteria, and her own fears, as she confronts claims about a suspect ancestor and her mother's unnatural beliefs

Genres: Fiction

311 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1983

About the author

Kay Nolte Smith (July 4, 1932 – September 25, 1993) was an American writer. She was for a time friendly with the philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand, who was her leading literary and philosophical influence.

Smith was born in Eveleth, Minnesota and grew up in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Smith launched her literary career after her separation from the Ayn Rand circle. Her first novel was the mystery story The Watcher. Smith's Catching Fire is set in the world of the New York theater, with an anti-trade union political stance. Mindspell centres on the conflict between science versus religion, with Nolte Smith stating this fiction was written "to challenge strongly the belief in the occult".[4] Her novel Elegy for a Soprano is a roman a clef inspired by Rand, Nathaniel Branden, and the circle around them. Elegy for a Soprano also portrays the life of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia and Norway. Two of her novels — Elegy for a Soprano and A Tale of the Wind — were nominated for Prometheus Awards in 1986 and 1992, respectively.

She published seven novels before her death from cancer at age 61.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Nol..., accessed May 25, 2012)

Reviews

[Patrick Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

May 2015 - Fantastic!

This has been on my shelves for many years, but finally made some time to check it out and I'm so glad I did.

Blown away by how well done, gripping and relevant it is, 32 years after original publication. The tale of a young, female head of a bio-tech company who has to overcome prejudice, tradition and deceit in her family and in the news, in order to succeed and bring her new technology to market and save her own sanity. The book is as timely and compelling today as it was when published, probably even more so!

LOVED it.

Her first novel - The Watcher did not do much for me, when I read it about 30 years ago. It was OK, but just not compelling.

Her second novel - Catching Fire - I remember liking very much about 10-15 years ago, though I thought it was a little too strong on the ideology - even though I loved that part - but for others...

Her second to last novel (I skipped quite a few in between) was quite good - A Tale of the Wind - but a bit long and did not have the "relevant" issues or ideas for me. I liked it, her writing style and execution had improved a great deal - it was beautifully written, but I realized, I read so slowly, that I thought it was not always the best use of my time. So I did not happen to pick up any of her other books till just last week. Mistake. This one is GREAT and I can't wait to read the others I missed.

Mindspell has just about the perfect balance of thriller novel qualities, great writing and great messages, perfect for today's world. It's focus on human happiness and the interplay between spiritualism and reason, faith and facts, fraud and integrity, politics and business, fundamentalism and technology, witchcraft and science, traditional gender stereotypes and individualist women, is just fantastic.

If you have any interest in any of those subjects and you want a great read, with excellent characterizations, intricate plot twist, and a passionate love story, check it out.

Warning: The first 40-60 pages are kind of strange. They are later important to the story, so don't skip them. But don't be put off by them either. Just get through them and continue. You will NOT be disappointed, if what any of what I said above is of interest to you.

Note: I rarely give 5 stars to any book. I had originally given this book 4 stars, which is the best I usually do for non-"classics." But I just changed it (9 July 2016) to 5 stars, after reflecting on how good the book is, and how many times I have recommended it in the year since reading it. I hope that tells you something useful.

2021-03-24 - edited some grammar and a few other minor changes.

[Mrs. Watermelon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and criminally underrated novel. It's a mystery book discussing the theme of science vs religion. The basic premise is that there's a woman who claims to be the reincarnation of another woman executed for witchcraft, and this premise is done very well.

[Michael Brown]

A book from Kay Nolte Smith's middle (and, in my opinion, middling) period. After the excellent 1981 debut novel "The Watcher" she produced a number of popular novels strongly derivative of Ayn Rand, with whom the writer had once been associated until a falling-out in the mid-1970s. This book, despite the stylistic color Smith could marshal in places in every book, falls into that genre. Nothing wrong with falling into a literary school - Rand could use more literary descendants of talent - but it lacks Rand's sharply incised purpose(s), architectonic plots, and cold but almost limitless passion. Smith would not hit her full stride and find her voice until the flawed but epic novel "A Tale of the Wind" (1991), published two years before her 1993 death from cancer, in which she tries to reconcile Romanticism and Naturalism but nearly founders on overly dilatory dining-table conversations and recondite points of strategic positioning of characters to each other. "Mindspell" is worth a read as a piece of development toward "A Tale of the Wind" (which deserves to be better-known, and begs for an opulent miniseries treatment), and has some worthwhile bits to be sure.

[Ann Bridges · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smith sets up the traditional debate of nature vs. nurture and reason vs. religion in a context of biotech science. Some of the issues are dated, some timeless. Her characters are vividly portrayed, though her grandmother is a bit over the top, especially in her interaction with Freud. Given when this book was written, in the midst of heated debates about women's rights, abortion, and the rise of the political influence of the religious right in the late-'70's/early-'80's, the emphasis and climax did not happen the way I anticipated, and I think she missed an opportunity to delve into the ethics of business and scientists with a profit motive. Her Rand-influenced emphasis on the wonder of the scientific mind has its idealistic flaws, but as someone who has grappled with the same issue in my own writing, I nod to her ability to deliver a good story.

[Joe Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the finest, most intelligent books I've read. The protagonist is behind the eight-ball from the very beginning. She's suspected of being a witch's granddaughter. No. Wait. She is a witch just like her ailing mother and the grandmother and so granddaughter's doomed to suffer. She doesn't think so. And somehow the author managed to squeeze into the story a .... No. Just read it.

[Rob Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining but not really the horror novel the cover suggests. It's more of a suspense/mystery/ thriller with themes of science versus religion and the occult. This thrift store find was quite well done and better than expected. The story is intertwined with ideas. Concerning strange occurrences:
"The issue is what you make of such things. Do you accept the fact that they happen, or do you look to the supernatural and the occult for explanations? ... You can choose to believe either way. But if you choose the occult, you're a prisoner, because you've surrendered your mind's power to deal with the world." pg 269. Worth a read if you can find it!

[Marco den Ouden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant novel, maybe Smith's best. It tells the story of an ancient curse uttered by a witch as she was burned at the stake many years ago and about her descendant, the executive of a modern biotech company. It highlights the battle between the forces of reason and mysticism. It exposes the hucksterism behind mediums and seances and all that mystic mumbo jumbo in a most convincing way, all within the confines of a gripping plot and fascinating characters.

[Pierre A Renaud]

http://ffrf.org/day/view/07/04/#smith (Red flag: previously had been a long time libertarian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Nol...)

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty darn tootin good

[Slma Hisham · Rating 4 out of 5]

so different,entertaining,you learn bunch of bizarre facts,really enjoyed it