Vector

by David R. Slavitt

Sutton, Henry (Pseudonym of David R. Slavitt) Author's third novel. Thought provoking, absorbing, vastly good entertainment. An accidental spillage of virus at a chemical and biological warfare installation in Utah and a lethal spray is scattered on an isolated mountain town. What sets the novel apart, what makes it impossible to put down, is the story of what the government does to treat the inhabitants, seal off the town, and make sure no one will know what happened.

Genres: Science Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

David Rytman Slavitt was an American writer, poet, and translator, the author of more than 100 books.
Slavitt has written a number of novels and numerous translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. Slavitt wrote a number of popular novels under the pseudonym Henry Sutton, starting in the late 1960s. The Exhibitionist (1967) was a bestseller and sold over four million copies. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus. His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961. He worked as a writer and film critic for Newsweek from 1958 to 1965.
According to Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less." Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is interesting on two counts. First, it is a realistic portrayal of what our government would do to its own citizens to contain an accident of its own making. Second, it is apparently written anonymously by an author, David R. Slavitt, primarily known as a poet and classicist.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in the mid-1970s as a teenager, and it probably helped to shape my worldview to a certain extent about trust in government. I bought an old used copy recently to reread, refresh my memory, and discover why the book appealed to me, and what it was about the book that kept it lodged in my mind.